Unsuccessful Farming?

UPDATE 10-6-10: Several readers have emailed us with a new response, this time from BHG's editor in chief:

Dear [NAME],

Thank you so much for contacting me regarding our charity pumpkin stencil program.  Your opinion is important to me, and I sincerely appreciate hearing your views and receiving the information that you’ve provided.

The goal of our Carving for a Cause program is to give readers a chance to support the various causes that they are passionate about, and we selected these charities with that goal in mind.

With respect to the Humane Society of the United States, our contribution of $5,000 is a one-time restricted donation to the Animal Rescue Team’s efforts to aid animals after natural disasters.  We know that our readers truly love their pets and domestic animals.  In retrospect, I should have made that focus clearer in my editor's letter.  As an editor I strive for clarity, but fell short in this instance.

Thank you again for reaching out. I so appreciate that you wrote to share your views and this information.

Gayle

Original post:

We’ve heard from many of you who have contacted Better Home and Gardens following its editor in chief’s promotion of HSUS in the October issue. (Read this for background.) An astute reader emailed us today and pointed out something ironic—the Meredith Corporation, which publishes Better Homes and Gardens, was actually founded in 1902 with the Successful Farming magazine.

Here’s the problem: Promoting HSUS and promoting successful farming are mutually exclusive endeavors.

Why? HSUS wants to end animal agriculture. That couldn’t have been clearer when HSUS Vice President for Farm Animal Issues told an animal rights conference:

We don't want any of these animals to be raised and killed. But when we're talking about numbers like “one million slaughtered in the U.S. in a single hour,” or “48 billion killed every year around the world,” unfortunately we don't have the luxury of waiting until we have the opportunity to get rid of the entire industry.

And so because of that, a number of organizations including the Humane Society of the United States, we work on promoting veganism.

It couldn’t be any more transparent than that. HSUS’s version of “successful farming” means putting every dairy, livestock, and feed-crop farmer out of business. More and more folks are getting the picture, with Nebraska’s governor and U.S. Rep. Steve King becoming very vocal about the threat to farmers’ livelihood.

One HumaneWatch reader sent us the response she received from Better Homes and Gardens after she emailed them to share her disappointment with the magazine’s promotion of HSUS. BHG told her:

Thank you for taking the time to comment on the charity stencil program.

We respect your right to disagree with our choices, and hope you will consider another charity stencil option from the assortment offered through the program, or one of the many stencils we offer on our website:
 
BHG.com/charitystencils

http://www.bhg.com/halloween/pumpkin-carving/printable-pumpkin-stencils/
 
Again, thank you for writing. You are a valued reader.

Does it sound like they “get it”? If you want to share your thoughts with BHG, you can email BHGEditor@meredith.com.

Future Trends in Animal Agriculture, 2011

If you’re around our nation's capital next week, we suggest you stop by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not for a tour, but for a symposium.

Every year the USDA hosts the “Future Trends in Animal Agriculture” symposium featuring top speakers from the field of animal welfare, and often an animal rights activist or two. We’re not speaking this year, but the lineup is appealing. Among other presentations, we’re looking forward to hearing about what’s been going on with Ohio’s livestock care standards board in the year following the “Buckeye Compromise.”

Two speakers come from the animal rights movement: HSUS’s Paul Shapiro (who runs campaigns designed to put livestock farmers out of business) and former HSUS vice president Miyun Park, who is now with Whole Foods-backed Global Animal Partnership. You might remember Park as the one who said, while she was with HSUS, that HSUS’s goal is “to get rid of the entire [animal agriculture] industry.”

Will she be so forthcoming next Wednesday? We’ll be sure to report on anything noteworthy that she (or Shapiro) says.

Click on the image below to see the full speaking schedule and location details. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, September 21. Preregistration is requested (but not required) and can be completed by emailing your name, address, preferred email, and affiliation (if any) to PennsylvaniaB@aol.com.

The Cornhuckster

Humane Society of the United States CEO Wayne Pacelle may not moonlight as a comedian, but we were left chuckling last week when we saw that he told the Omaha World-Herald that HSUS is “not trying to destroy American agriculture.” And we probably weren’t alone, as most livestock farmers get the joke.

Then Pacelle doubled down, telling Nebraska Radio Network yesterday that “We don’t talk about animal rights…. I’ve said it a thousand times, we do not want to end livestock production. We’ve not said it.”

For the unfamiliar, HSUS IS an animal-rights group like PETA that tries to look mainstream. Occasionally that façade collapses, such as when one HSUS vice president told an animal-rights crowd in 2006 that HSUS wants to “get rid of” the entire animal agriculture industry and promotes veganism. Pacelle and other leaders at HSUS have long histories in the radical animal-rights movement.

But given the softening of rhetoric and the push by HSUS to reach out in Nebraska, it’s worth examining whether Pacelle stands a chance of “selling” his re-brand. In short, it’s doubtful.