| name: | Alan Long |
| qualifications: | BSc, PhD, AIC, FRSH. |
| occupation: | Research adviser to VEGA on matters of farms, food, health and the land |
| relevance: | Farming Research Advisor |
previous experience:
1/ Wrote the Green Planet.
2/ Acted as adviser to the Vegetarian Society from 1976 to 1991, initiating many projects.
3/ Current Research adviser to VEGA who continue investigations, research and submissions of evidence to government and other official bodies and consumer organisations. His background as a biochemist and nutritionist suits him to this task.
4/ He has spent many hours inspecting farms, markets, slaughterhouses and animals in transit.
quotes:
I have witnessed at livestock markets culled dairy cows being
auctioned and bought to be slaughtered for McDonald's burgers. Such
cows (also called cast or barren cows or barreners) are prematurely
worn out by the abuses arising from "production diseases"
(to use the description in the trade), these being reproductive
disorders, mastitis, lameness, "damaged" or dropped udder,
and fatty liver). Most of these cows haven't even entered their 4th
lactation and are therefore "burgered" at about 6 years old.
Cows kept without such stress have a life span of 25 to 35 years.
Human wit and resource have failed to oust the ugliness and cruelty inflicted on the animals in these conditions (and the degradation of workers toiling in the premises that need so many euphemistic disguises. RSI - repetitive strain injury - connotes more than a strain in the wrist).
DOAs (dead on arrivals) are grim reminders of this cruelty: about 1 million birds die each year on British roads, just in transit from "units" to "packing stations"
Intensive production and slaughter of poultry (even so-called "free range" and in laying systems) are attended by all the signs of cruelty: broken bones, osteoporosis, leg disorders, congestive heart failure and ascites, smothering, cannibalism, and the constant need for medication against viral and bacterial threats. Pig-rearing in the EC and N America has, likewise, become farming-by-needle, dependent on "farmerceuticals".
The dairy/ beef job entails similar offences: Translated to a woman, it would entail lactation at the rate of 2 gallons a day while she is still pregnant.
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