Empathy or Hypocrisy ?

It is the best of times.  It is the worst of times.  The point of view for CAFO Chicken Farmers depends on whether you are North, or South, of the Canadian-USA border.  Does Canada's Chicken Mafia have any empathy for their US counterparts, or just callous indifference, or perhaps hypocrisy?

When Charles Dickens wrote "It is the best of times.  It is the worst of times." in A Tale of Two Cities, he was speaking about Paris France and London England during the French Revolution.  Today, we are at a similar crisis in chickens on both sides of the US-Canadian border.

Both Canada and the USA started with virtually the same systems for chicken, small independent farms run by a family.  CAFO chicken farms for meat only began in the 1940's.  Both of those systems have spiraled out of control to form two different systems of oppression and tyranny.  The main difference in these two dysfunctional systems is the identity of the victim.  In the US, the victim is the chicken farmer.  In Canada, the victims are the consumers and the small flock farmers.

These two dysfunctional systems of chicken meat production use similar technologies (eg. hatcheries, breeds, feed, barns, medicines, etc.).  These two national and proximate systems for chicken also share similar types of tyranny, oppression, and abuse inflicted on the weak by the hands of rich, omnipotent corporations and individuals.

In the USA around the 1950, 95% of U.S. broiler production was by independent farmers. Just 10 years later, 90 percent of the US industry was under contracts for national or state-wide "integrators". Today in the USA, the Integrators run the show (eg. Pilgrim's, Tyson, Sanderson Farms, Perdue, etc.).  In the US, 97% of US chickens raised in 2001 are done under contract farming.  Any remaining chickens are raised on farms owned and operated by the processors, or by smaller independents providing chicken to local markets.

In Canada, the rich and powerful Local Boards of the Chicken Supply Management System (ie. the Chicken Mafia) who run the show (eg. Chicken Farmers of Ontario, and their counterpart in each of the 10 Provinces).

Do the Canadian Chicken Mafia realize how good they have it with the government's gift of monopoly?  Are the multi-millionaire Canadian Chicken Farmers aware of the plight of the poor, indebted, and abused US chicken farmers?  Do the Canadian CAFO chicken farmers have any empathy for the plight suffered by their US counterparts?

The situation for US chicken farmers has gotten so bad, John Oliver, a comedian who does a weekly comedy show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on news and current affairs has taken up their cause by his satirical look at the  bad situation, titled Chickens.

John Oliver shows clips from a number of documentaries:

• The Sharecroppers (2010)
• Under Contract (2015)
• Farmageddon   The truth about the food & dairy industry
• Farmaggedon   The True Cost of Cheap Meat, Compassion in World Farming 
• The True Cost of Cheap Food   Food Inc.
   
• Cock Fight (2015),   Cock Fight Act 1:   One Man's Battle Against The Chicken Industry
  Act 2,  Act 3,  Act 4,  Act 5,  Act 6. 

and to which we add:

• Under Contract:   Farmers in Fine Print
• The Serfs of Arkansas
• Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA ("RAFI") Contract Agriculture Reform
• The Meat Racket and The Chain, introduced by an excellent video

I sympathize with the plight with the plight of the US chicken farmer.  Being an oppressed and victimized small flock farmer in Canada helps you to see and feel for the plight of the US chicken farmer.  It appears to me that Big Ag. uses their powers and market might to take advantage of these US  farmers, to oppress them for more Big. Ag. corporate profits.

The Big Question

So where do Canadian chicken farmers stand on the plight of their American brothers?

Does CFO, CFC, or any of the other provincial bodies take a stand, and speak out on behalf of their US peers?  I haven't heard a peep out of them on this important issue.  I wonder why?

If any of you are aware of any Canadian chicken farmer or organization who has directly supported or aided US chicken farmer(s) in either word or deed, please post the details below so we can correct the record.  If there are no comments to the contrary, it seems reasonable to assume that none exist until proven otherwise.

Mark Twain write about the "silent lie" or lie of omission, and how it ensured the continuation of slavery in the US for almost 100 years.  Is that similar silent lie at work by Canadian chicken farmers, against the US chicken farmers?

Is it because the Canadian chicken farmers are callously indifferent to the terrible conditions their US counterparts suffer through each day?  Perhaps the Canadian farmers are too busy counting their money.

Perhaps the Canadian chicken farmers, their trade associations (CFO, CFC and the others) are too busy plotting their next scheme to make even more money off the backs of Canadians.

Perhaps some are narcissistic psychopaths who only care about themselves, and enjoy watching the suffering of others.

The Plight of Canadian Consumers & Small Flockers

If the Chicken Mafia cannot bother speaking out or supporting their American peers, is their any hope in appealing to their sense of fair play, or empathy for the plight of Canadian consumers or Small Flockers?

I think not.

Any empathy that the Chicken Mafia show towards the US chicken farmers would expose their hypocrisy to the suffering they directly inflict on Canadian consumers and Small Flockers.

The Chicken Supply Management System will therefore require changes imposed upon the Chicken Mafia, likely requiring riding rough shod over the dead, cold, rotting corpse of the Canadian Supply Management System.

Guilty as Charged: CFO is a Dangerous Hypocrite

In our previous Blog Posting (see CFO Hypocrisy ), we tried to adequately define hypocrisy, and why it is such a threat and disease from which we must be protected.

Today, we will examine a small part of the growing, prima facia evidence that Chicken Farmers of Ontario ("CFO") are guilty of hypocrisy as charged.

The following is taken from CFO's Annual Report 2014.

#	Location	What CFO says	The Fruits of CFO
1	p. 5, Message from Henry Zantingh, Chair and Rob Dougans, President & CEO	“…it is critically important that CFO remains very focused, disciplined, effective and  highly relevant to its farmer­-members, to industry stakeholders, to consumers, and to public policy.”	Whether or not CFO adequately works on behalf of their farmer-members, I will leave to those farmer-members to decide. A Small Flock chicken farmer should be considered an “industry stakeholder”.  As a Small Flocker, I for one see and feel nothing but the exact opposite of what CFO says. For the others, especially the consumers, I suggest they feel used and abused by CFO as well.  Witness that: ·      30% to 80% of Ontario’s chickens are contaminated by deadly bacteria.  Prima facie evidence of “poor quality chicken”.  See Contaminated Chicken ·      By denying chicken a more natural lifestyle and feed source, CFO causes or contributes to poor nutritional aspect of the chicken meet produced (eg. excess fat, excess processing water sold as chicken, high Omega-6 (bad fat) and low Omega-3 (good fat).  See Animal Fats In Our Diets ·      By CFO allowing the use of questionable drugs, feed supplements, and antibiotics, chickens grow Superbugs that further threaten the health and safety of consumers.  See Choose: Frankenstein Chicken, or Naturally Raised Chicken ·      By CFO allowing their member-farmers to gouge and obtain unjust enrichment from falsified and inflated FCR charges that vacuumed $10 Billion from consumer’s wallets from 2003 to 2013.  See: The Chicken Mafia Exposed ·      Affordability of chicken in retail grocery stores has dropped by as much as 31.7% from 1995-2005. See Unaffordable Chicken In Ontario ·      More and more, consumers want organic, free range, and/or pastured poultry, but CFO refuses to allow a system to fully supply that need.  Consumers are forced to buy CAFO factory farm chicken so that CFO farmer-members receive the profitable monopolistic benefits, at the arrogant detriment of consumers.  See Supply Management Is a Failure

There is a lot more evidence of CFO's hypocrisy, but I think my point is made sufficiently for the conviction of CFO as charged.

CFO is welcome to provide their response to these charges and the evidence.  I will publish CFO's response here in an unedited form.  Somehow, I believe CFO will continue to ignore and stonewall.  If so, then let CFO be convicted by the the Court of Public Opinion in absentia.

CFO Hypocrisy

Chicken Farmers of Ontario ("CFO") talk a great game.  Sadly, CFO's actions and their results achieved leave much to be desired.  If CFO was incompetent, we could easily forgive them.  Unfortunately, many feel, as do I, that CFO is a hypocrite, and therefore CFO's sins are unforgivable.

What is a hypocrite?

"a person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs."

A thesaurus gives 39 synonyms for hypocrite, most of which you are likely familiar with.

Why are hypocrites unforgivable?

"The only vice which cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy."

 William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830), English writer & painter, one of the greatest English literary critics.

The 10 Commandments tells us it is a sin to bear false witness.  Consider the hypocrite, who bears false witness against themselves:

"The hypocrite's crime is that he bears false witness against himself. What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core."

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975),
political theorist and author of On Revolution, 1963

Others offer similar warnings:

"The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity."

André Gide (1869-1951), French author, Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature

The Bible cautions us against hypocrites and hypocrisy in 18 different verses, spread through 6 Books:

• Psalms 26:4;
• Matthew 6:2, 6:5, 6:16, 7:5, 15:7, 22:18, 23:1, 23:13, 23:15, 23:23, 23:25, 23:27, 23:28, 23:29, 24:51;
• Mark 7:6, 12:15;
• Luke 6:42, 12:1, 12:56, 13:15;
• Galatians 2:13;
• 1 Peter 2:1

  A hypocrite is like a wolf in sheep's clothing.  The best and most clear reproachment comes to us from the Bible with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, as re-told in the NIV Bible by Matthew 7:15

“¹⁵ Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."

Therefore we can most easily recognize a hypocrite by their fruits, what they have done, the end results of their actions.

I hope that I have adequately proven the dangers of hypocrisy.

Tomorrow, let's follow Jesus' recommendations, and review CFO's results by using CFO's own words, according to CFO's Annual Report 2014.

We will see if we can make the accusation of CFO's hypocracy stick, and find them guilty as charged.

Credibility Trap

Jesse wrote the following about the 2008 financial collapse and its causes.

When I re-read it, I found it interesting that it may apply quite well to Canada's Supply Management systems.

See what you think:

"A credibility trap is a condition wherein the financial, political and informational functions of a society have been compromised by corruption and fraud, so that the leadership cannot effectively reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without impairing and implicating, at least incidentally, a broad swath of the power structure, including themselves.

The status quo tolerates the corruption and the fraud because they have profited at least indirectly from it, and would like to continue to do so. Even the impulse to reform within the power structure is susceptible to various forms of soft blackmail and coercion by the system that maintains and rewards.

And so a failed policy and its support system become self-sustaining, long after it is seen by objective observers to have failed. In its failure it is counterproductive, and an impediment to recovery in the real economy. Admitting failure is not an option for the thought leaders who receive their power from that system.

The continuity of the structural hierarchy must therefore be maintained at all costs, even to the point of becoming a painfully obvious, organized hypocrisy.

Jesse, Jesse's Cafe Americain