Given the amount of chicken we consume here in the US, chances are much greater that it spent its short life in an enormous henhouse such as the one Craig Watts runs on contract for Perdue, one of the biggest “integrators” of poultry products in the country. The video below is pretty shocking.

Most commercial chicken operations in the United States are off-limits to anyone not in the industry – and the unusual filmed visit to the Watts farm by a representative of Compassion USA makes it all too clear why. Watts and Leah Garces part a dimly lit sea of sickly white birds panting for air, too oversized for their legs to keep them upright for long, as the camera zooms in on scenes too grisly to detail.

But hey, chicken’s chicken, right? As long as it tastes good, do we really need to worry about its previous address?

Take a look at both videos. Joel Salatin’s a wild and crazy guy, fired up, on a mission – and for sure his chicken doesn’t come cheap. Craig Watts is sober, a little sad, caught up in a system he now wants to change, and feeling bad about the product he’s providing to thousands of dinner tables at the low prices we’ve come to expect. Bad enough to threaten his livelihood with Perdue by exposing their practices.

And we get to think about, well, where would I want to live out my days if I were a chicken? And which chicken seems more appealing now that I’ve looked beyond the Styrofoam tray with the plastic wrap in the supermarket?

Of course there’s a vast middle ground between the two extremes of chicken production shown in these videos – including free-range birds grown by local producers, for instance. And little by little, as we learn more about factory farming and its various effects, US chicken eaters are growing dissatisfied with the chicken business as usual.

The post You Are What You Eat: The Good and Bad of Chicken Farming appeared first on Citizens Report.

In the past, any proof of animal or environmental abuse was expelled from criminal cases because they were captured on private property therefore deemed illegally recorded and documented. With aerial drones equipped with high-definition cameras the images can be captured while still hovering over public property.

Shedding light on the truth should never be considered biased or deemed an act of terrorism by extremists. For consumer protection it is vital to make informed choices about your food purchases regardless of your politics or lifestyle choices. Big agricultural businesses do not want the public to know their dirty details, therefore gag orders are implemented. To date, seven states have protective laws for Big-Ag: Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and Utah – and many others have filed bills to protect big business.

What is Ag-Gag?

It is an anti-whistleblowing law that criminalizes the exposure of animal cruelty in the agribusiness industry in the name of protecting the food supplier and keeping atrocities out of the media and out of the public view. What does this mean? In Kansas, it criminalizes entry into an “animal facility to take pictures by photograph, video camera or by any other means” which may cause harm to the enterprise. In essence, protecting the “good name” of an agribusiness is more important than exposing inhumane, extreme animal abuse. Feedlots are waste lagoons that contaminate local water tables. They have been deemed harmful to local ecology and the environment, but you become a criminal if you want to expose their atrocities.

In his Kickstarter campaign, Potter expressed serious concerns about the policing of aerial photography citing Texas having passed one of the strictest of state laws with regard to aerial photography. This was prompted by a drone photographer capturing images of blood and manure percolating from a Big Ag operation with contamination of a local river.

Though Potter is passionate about his causes, sharing unbiased news with fact-based proof through drone investigations should never be criminalized. Through his Kickstarter campaign, Potter has raised significant funds for drone technology, however a major concern will be using those funds to fight the legal battles that are sure to surface.

The post Drones Investigating Factory Farms appeared first on Citizens Report.