Are you mad?

It is obvious you have not realy looked at the issue.

Intensive farming is the only way we as a planet can expect to succeed through the next 50 years with the expected population increase.

Forget the inhumane treatment of them, they are getting farmed for a purpose and when compared to other animals in other parts of the world, such as Arabia or Asia, your argument of inhumane treatment by us is an absolute joke.

Have you no grasp of supply and demand, of the impact of hard hooved animals on the land, of the lessening and marginalisation of productive land in Australia due to non intensive farming practices and the like.

Your bleeding heart for stock if you had it your way would impact on the rest of us as less land would be available for crops and other stock, pigs are a pest and make a huge mess of the land and it would be a far more stupid decision to decrease the quality of life for native animals and put smaller lot farmers out of business just to increase the quality of life for an animal doomed for meat anyway.

No one likes to see an animal in pain. There are no barbaric actions involved and if they are little tightly sdqueezed at times, a pig pen is alot better than having their hooves cut or being frightened when killed. And, the more they run around, the more energy they use therefore the more you have to feed them to get the target weight. You absolutely cost the planet and the farmer more by doing this.

Find something better to do with your time than preach for realy stupid reasons, there are alot of things out there that need your help so dont pick these silly things.

Australia has no obligation to feed the world’s growing population: and, as the growth seems to be mainly among Muslims, certainly not with pork!

I eat meat, including pork, and I am no animal rightist. But I do cringe when I see animals jammed cruelly into trucks on their way to slaughter, and I refuse to keep animals as prisoners (pets).

Mirko Bagaric is right. We have a shocking history in animal treatment. His suggestions for humane pig farming are the right ones.

Realist, however, is correct about the effects of hoofed animals on Australia’s ancient, shallow and worn out soil. We have done many things to this land, which should not have been done because of greed, ignorance, increased world population and demand. If we knew at the time of settlement what we know now, it is doubtful that Australia would have been permanently settled by anyone other than its original inhabitants whose demands were not as great as ours.

We have seen what the European style of farming has done to large tracts of Australia. If we cannot let pigs onto the land where they can at least live in comfort with the companionship of their fellows until their time is up, we should think seriously about whether or not we have the right to keep them. The same applies to poultry; cattle in feed lots and live sheep exports.

I couldn't agree with Professor Bagaric more and while the article was in the business pages, I long for the day that his article reaches the front page of the Melbourne Age. We should be ashamed the way in which we treat intensively farmed pigs and other animals. The day will come when we give animals equal consideration and consider their needs. I hope I live long enough to see that day.
Susanne

"Realist" is anything but. The growing population of the world will not and cannot be fed on animal protein. Apart from the appalling and unacceptable treatment of all species of animals farmed under factory conditions, this practice is an environmental disaster and completely unsustainable. The Amazon rain forest is being cleared ... to feed cattle! Bird flu is emerging from the overcrowded and unhygienic chicken "factories" of Asia. The real "reality" is that the amount of land required to grow the crops to feed animals and the amount of water needed just does not exist in developing countries. Eating large quantities animal protein is just too costly to the environment and not required for healthy nutrition. The result of factory farming of the last 50 years has been to completely brutalise farming, make meat so cheap that most of the population of Western countries has become overweight and increase the possibility of novel disease vectors emerging. For the benefit of animals, human health and the environment meat should become a luxury item- consumed in strict moderation.

Free Range Eggs anyone? What about barn laid as opposed to caged. Maybe Mirko could take the same arguments and replace "hen" with "pig".

Hmmm, Bacon.

Realist
"Forget the inhumane treatment of them, they are getting farmed for a purpose and when compared to other animals in other parts of the world, such as Arabia or Asia, your argument of inhumane treatment by us is an absolute joke."
Nice bit of trolling. Your arguments boil down to:
- 'farmed for a purpose' so making farm animals commodities like uranium and widgets makes it OK to treat them like widgets etc.
- 'when compared to other animals in other parts of the world, such as Arabia or Asia...' two wrongs make a right...
- 'your argument of inhumane treatment by us is an absolute joke' belittling others only diminishes your argument.

Your attitude is nauseating, I hope your post was trolling for trolling's sake and not your genuine opinion on this extremely important issue. And as for "Find something better to do with your time than preach for realy stupid reasons" I think you have got it as wrong as anyone ever could. Without dragging religion into it (I'm certainly not religious but can appreciate the wisdom found in certain religious teachings) I will leave you with a quote:
“Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.”
Mistreatment of any living creature for economic reasons is appalling and diminishes all of us, not only those who carry it out, but also those who argue in favour of it.
L