Sanders, Warren, Booker sponsor bill to ban factory farming by 2040

[Santander]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people?  

No and no. Plenty of cheap food out there.

what's your evidence for this?  How are non-factory farms going to make up for the losses in efficiency?

Evidence that cheap food is out there? I, uh, go to the grocery store regularly.

right, thanks in large part to "factory farming".  Due to their efficiencies over non-factory farming...which brings us back to my question.

This bill only deals with meat and dairy, which are not essential foods.

I'll let the mob deal with this.  Good luck.

I was told us Libertarians are the cruel and heartless ones? No Meat or driving for the plebs!

People in New Zealand eat just fine.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Sounds like there are some major problems with this bill and it should get more input from farmers who could be affected by it before going forward.  But if farmers have to have such insanely large numbers of animals just to make a decent living, that sounds like a problem that needs to be addressed one way or another.  Maybe tariffs on imported meat is part of the solution.  All this may lead to making meat more expensive, but Americans could probably stand to eat a lot less meat anyway.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What a bad bill.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

What a bad bill.

[Bismarck]

A terrible ignorant attack on the hardworking family farmers of America by urban northeastern leftists. The alternative to having large farms is importing meat. So you can ban “factory” farms aka big barns but all that does is move the big farms to foreign countries or make meat more expensive for the poor. I know families from the town where I grew up who would lose their livelihoods if this is enacted

So you're saying you know a lot of rich people. Most farms are folding, hard and fast. Squeeze the rich to save the actual family farms.

This is a misconception. The families I know, three extended families which all raise hogs in addition to grain, are middle to upper middle class at best. These are actual family farms. Nobody raises animals in the way you imagine from a children’s story book. The people that raise pigs in some other way are generally hobbyists. Nobody is gonna make a living raising 40 pigs in their backyard regardless of what laws you make. All this does is make us buy meat from Asia or Mexico where conditions for animals are much worse. He families I know that run “factory” farms (which again, just means large barns) treat their animals well and are upstanding members of the community. Having livestock in addition to grain means that multiple siblings can provide middle class, happy lives for their families.

[RINO Tom]

^ Great couple of posts, but the poster you’re quoting doesn’t care.

[GoTfan]

Climate deniers, climate deniers everywhere.

[dead0man]

Climate deniers, climate deniers everywhere.

where?

[RINO Tom]

Climate deniers, climate deniers everywhere.

where?

Yeah, seriously ... lol, what a lazy, dumb post.

[Hollywood]

You guys are so cute.  You actually believe the U.S. ban on factory farming is going to save the environment.  Do you guys not remember who won the Democrat Primary?  

Joe Biden has been pressuring Brazil to open up public resources for private investment, including agriculture, mining, oil, etc., throughout his tenure as vice president, and all five of those consolidated factory farming companies have moved operations to Brazil.  Thanks to the NSA under the Obama Administration, and assistance from US-Brazilian, telecommunications agencies, the government protecting Brazil's natural resources, most importantly the rainforest, were ousted.  The deforestation of the rainforest that began in 2009 has been accelerated to make room for cattle, dairy, soybean, cotton, and corn.  How will American farmers make money?  Joe Biden has proposed a scheme devised by oil, agro, and tech companies called soil sequestration, which seeks to trap carbons in farm soil.  These agriculture companies are looking to receive government funding for their U.S. properties while they continue to burn the rain forest.  
https://apnews.com/50274fedc744482db0030eb57275d069

Control over Brazilian resources has been a bipartisan goal for many decades. 
https://nacla.org/news/2015/03/06/united-states-and-brazil-reaping-what-you-sow

[It’s so Joever]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people?  I 100% agree that what we do to (most) farm animals is tragic not to mention the horrible environmental impacts farming has ("factory" or otherwise), but making food more expensive seems like a bad idea to me.

We should be pushing hard for factory (as in an actual factory) meat and processed food made with bugs or kelp (or whatever) that can produce crazy amounts of calories in a tiny footprint.  And in the meantime, GMO crops that reduce bad things, increase good things and also has a smaller footprint.  Of course that's more complicated, more permanent and most of all, doesn't hurt anyone directly so it's much less likely to be supported by people who support the ham fisted measure proposed by the OP.

Agreed 100%.
Many insects are already consumed anyways worldwide, and they are extremely dense in protein and calories per mg. We should have large scale cricket/mealworm farms. This won’t solve the problem entirely, but it will go a long way in helping reduce food insecurity while protecting the environment (and potentially health because maybe insect farming won’t be as bad from a health perspective as regular farming)
Also agree with GMOs, they get a bad rep but are usually beneficial.
Although kelp is new. I have not heard of that as a meat substitute, would be great if it works.

[It’s so Joever]

Also why are people so upset over the animal treatment itself?
It’s not like they are human.

We should worry more about antibiotic resistance and environmental impacts than how some pigs feel.

[Sumner 1868]

Also why are people so upset over the animal treatment itself?
It’s not like they are human.

We should worry more about antibiotic resistance and environmental impacts than how some pigs feel.

[S019]

The alternative to having large farms is importing meat.

The easy solution to that is ban that too

This, meat agriculture contributes far more to climate change than people are willing to acknowledge

Also why are people so upset over the animal treatment itself?
It’s not like they are human.

We should worry more about antibiotic resistance and environmental impacts than how some pigs feel.

Sorry, if I sound rude, but this sounds extremely sadistic. (note bolded parts)

[Hollywood]

The alternative to having large farms is importing meat.

The easy solution to that is ban that too

This, meat agriculture contributes far more to climate change than people are willing to acknowledge

Also why are people so upset over the animal treatment itself?
It’s not like they are human.

We should worry more about antibiotic resistance and environmental impacts than how some pigs feel.

Sorry, if I sound rude, but this sounds extremely sadistic. (note bolded parts)

It doesn't matter if you ban production and importation.  US companies have already established themselves in Brazil, and now Brazil is the number 1 exporter by a margin that no country will ever overcome.  Brazil will just cut down more rainforest to export beef to the nations that had formerly trading with the US. 

[MT Treasurer]

Also why are people so upset over the animal treatment itself?
It’s not like they are human.

A modicum of empathy with sentient beings and (in most cases) their unimaginable suffering, perhaps?

Believe it or not, there’s a variety of good reasons not to consume meat or at least seriously reduce your consumption of it (moral reasons, religious aspects, its devastating environmental impact, health-related concerns, etc.).

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Sounds like there are some major problems with this bill and it should get more input from farmers who could be affected by it before going forward.  But if farmers have to have such insanely large numbers of animals just to make a decent living, that sounds like a problem that needs to be addressed one way or another.  Maybe tariffs on imported meat is part of the solution.  All this may lead to making meat more expensive, but Americans could probably stand to eat a lot less meat anyway.

Some good points here.  Factory farming as we know it now will probably (hopefully?) be on its way out by 2040 when synthetic meat goes mainstream.  Breaking up those farms would obviously be a complex process, but boosting small family farms while simultaneously improving the conditions of the animals is a worthwhile goal as we transition to "real" factory farms that are efficient but also more humane and safer for workers.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people? 

No and no. Plenty of cheap food out there.

what's your evidence for this?  How are non-factory farms going to make up for the losses in efficiency?

Evidence that cheap food is out there? I, uh, go to the grocery store regularly.

This bill only deals with meat and dairy, which are not essential foods.

Lol.

[RINO Tom]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people? 

No and no. Plenty of cheap food out there.

what's your evidence for this?  How are non-factory farms going to make up for the losses in efficiency?

Evidence that cheap food is out there? I, uh, go to the grocery store regularly.

This bill only deals with meat and dairy, which are not essential foods.

Lol.

This was a truly ... tone deaf thing to say from the Party of the People, haha.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Sounds like there are some major problems with this bill and it should get more input from farmers who could be affected by it before going forward.  But if farmers have to have such insanely large numbers of animals just to make a decent living, that sounds like a problem that needs to be addressed one way or another.  Maybe tariffs on imported meat is part of the solution.  All this may lead to making meat more expensive, but Americans could probably stand to eat a lot less meat anyway.

Some good points here.  Factory farming as we know it now will probably (hopefully?) be on its way out by 2040 when synthetic meat goes mainstream.  Breaking up those farms would obviously be a complex process, but boosting small family farms while simultaneously improving the conditions of the animals is a worthwhile goal as we transition to "real" factory farms that are efficient but also more humane and safer for workers.

I actually find the prospect of mass produced lab grown meat pretty disturbing. Seems to me it is devaluing animal life by treating it as merely raw material without its own identity.  I would prefer we go to eating only as many animals as we can raise or hunt while allowing them good lives of their own.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I actually find the prospect of mass produced lab grown meat pretty disturbing. Seems to me it is devaluing animal life by treating it as merely raw material without its own identity.  I would prefer we go to eating only as many animals as we can raise or hunt while allowing them good lives of their own.

I'm not sure I understand.  How are we devaluing animal life by not killing animals for our food?

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people? 

No and no. Plenty of cheap food out there.

what's your evidence for this?  How are non-factory farms going to make up for the losses in efficiency?

Evidence that cheap food is out there? I, uh, go to the grocery store regularly.

This bill only deals with meat and dairy, which are not essential foods.

Lol.

This was a truly ... tone deaf thing to say from the Party of the People, haha.

Sometimes I wonder if political veganism will become a thing.

[Santander]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people? 

No and no. Plenty of cheap food out there.

what's your evidence for this?  How are non-factory farms going to make up for the losses in efficiency?

Evidence that cheap food is out there? I, uh, go to the grocery store regularly.

This bill only deals with meat and dairy, which are not essential foods.

Lol.

This was a truly ... tone deaf thing to say from the Party of the People, haha.

I love coastal liberal elitism.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people? 

No and no. Plenty of cheap food out there.

what's your evidence for this?  How are non-factory farms going to make up for the losses in efficiency?

Evidence that cheap food is out there? I, uh, go to the grocery store regularly.

This bill only deals with meat and dairy, which are not essential foods.

Lol.

This was a truly ... tone deaf thing to say from the Party of the People, haha.

Sometimes I wonder if political veganism will become a thing.

I mean, that's what this is. Cory Booker is a supporter of PETA, which wants to make getting meat harder if not completely illegal. This is the first step on that, and Sanders and Warren signed on because it fits some of their other profiles.

Booker's affiliation with a radical vegan group is probably the main reason I didn't consider him in the primary.

[lfromnj]

won't this make food much more expensive?  Doesn't that hurt poor people? 

No and no. Plenty of cheap food out there.

what's your evidence for this?  How are non-factory farms going to make up for the losses in efficiency?

Evidence that cheap food is out there? I, uh, go to the grocery store regularly.

This bill only deals with meat and dairy, which are not essential foods.

Lol.

This was a truly ... tone deaf thing to say from the Party of the People, haha.

I love coastal liberal elitism.

LET THEM EAT SOY.