The ugly reality behind Tim Walz’s farm-friendly image

Moments after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate last month, a photo with the Minnesota governor adorable pig Viral nests in his arms at 2019 Minnesota State Fair, delighting Democrats voter, workerAnd Pandit Likewise

Earlier this month, Walz made a campaign stop at a dairy farm where he bottle-fed a baby cow. to tweet“Made a new friend.”

Many politicians come a little too far strict Obligatory farm visits and state fairs, where they swap their suits for a flannel and a turkey leg. But Walz fits right in, blending in seamlessly true love For animals farmed with a sincere enthusiasm for eating them.

He is at this year’s Minnesota State Fair announced Pork on a stick to be the “breakfast of champions”. Another viral video Since last year’s fair, Walz’s daughter tells him she won’t eat the turkey because she’s a vegetarian. Walz replies that in Minnesota — the nation’s top turkey-producing state — turkey is not meat. “Turkey’s special,” he quipped.

These images helped shore up Walz’s healthy vibe and “Big daddy Shakti,” Democrats hope oozes “Minnesota is cool” charm to help them lock down votes in key Midwest and Rust Belt states.

I, too, am obsessed with the Harris-Walz madness, so I feel like a killjoy poking a hole in Walz’s innocent sheen. But there’s a dark side to the story: Walz has one long history to pay Free advertising and public funding the meat And milk sector, industry that trashes Minnesota’s precious waterways, abuses animals and endangers public health and vulnerable workers.

To be fair to Walz, he is doing what every other politician, Republican or Democrat, does to survive in farm country. Minnesota is a top producer the turkey, porkAnd milkas well as corn And SoybeanThe main crop is fed to the animals. Just around the corner though With 1 percent of Minnesota households making a living from farming, agribusiness has gained enormous influence over federal and state agricultural policy. Bathing of candidates — including farm-state Democrats Walz — including campaign contributions. It then uses them to sell a narrative that the Big Egg is beyond criticism because it “feeding the world“

As Democrats watch their share of the vote slip away in farm country, characters like Walz — counterbalancing Harris’ image as a San Francisco liberal — bring a clear appeal to the party. But what can happen in the end? quixotic quest To appeal to rural voters in Central America, Democratic leaders are compromising them Commitment elsewhere They are light on environmental protection, labor rights and public health while promoting the meat industry and controlling its harms.

That the Democratic base seems to be celebrating Walz’s farm-friendly image with little scrutiny shows just how far opponents of factory farming have to go to educate the American public about the cruelty of our food system. Much like the misleading cartoons of happy, “humanely raised” pigs and cows on meat packaging — which often mean very little on the farm itself — Walz’s photo-ops with baby farmed animals reinforce the falsely romantic image that Big Egg has so successfully tapped into. . The consciousness of the people.

The reality, however, is anything but healthy.

Dissecting Walz’s viral farm moments — and his voting record

Without context, Photo Walz seems innocent, even lovable, holding a pig at the Minnesota State Fair. But the pork industry, and the life of that pig? Not much.

The photo was taken at a pavilion sponsored by Christensen Farms, Ninth largest Administered by the American Pork Company, and the Minnesota Pork Board. Virtually all pigs raised for food in the United States come from factory farms — including Christensen’s, as seen in Disturbing 2015 investigation by an animal rights group – which uses a consistent set of practices. Female breeding pigs – those that give birth to piglets that are then raised for slaughter – are confined so small that they cannot move for their entire lives, suffering pregnancy after pregnancy to churn out piglets until their productivity declines and they are sent off. Either slaughtered by the Minnesota Pork Producers Association, an affiliate of the Minnesota Pork Board, the lobby Fundamentally for and against keeping pregnant pigs in small cages environmental measurement

It is also common in the US pork industry to feed these breeder pigs ground-up pig intestines to build immunity against disease.

Pigs’ teeth and tails are cut off, and men’s testicles are cut off, all without pain relief. They spend their short lives in dark, unsanitary warehouses before being sent on the arduous journey to the slaughterhouse and Shocked unconscious In a carbon dioxide gas chamber, an exercise that can be Very painful.

Minnesota’s Huge Turkey Industry – practically all Birds are raised in factory farms – equally humiliating. Last year, an animal rights group found stomach-churning conditions at Jenny-O, the state’s top turkey producer: birds too weak and sick to even walk, while live birds were pecking dead and rotting birds with visible wounds — signs of cannibalism, a common problem on poultry farms (at the time, Jenny-O told Vox that it “takes the welfare of the animals in our care seriously and has strong animal care standards throughout our supply chain”).

Jenny-O’s parent company, Hormel Foods, is headquartered in Walz, a congressional district held before running for governor; There is the waltz promoted D CompanyIts products and Engaged Former CEO of State Economic Council.

And remember Walz Photo option With the dairy calf earlier this month? It covered up the embarrassing reality behind dairy farms, where cows are selectively bred to pump more milk, resulting in More frequent legs and metabolic problemsas well as a high rate of painful plantar fasciitis.

The campaign stop took place at a relatively small dairy farm, which produces an increasingly small portion of the kind of milk Americans buy at the grocery store. Most dairy cows will today Do not set foot in open pasturesAnd farms typically separate babies from their mothers soon after birth, leave them alone and bottle-feed them so farmers can collect their mother’s milk.

In Minnesota – the country of 10,000 lakes – livestock and synthetic fertilizers are used Corn growth they eat account for most state water nitrate pollution; 4 10 water bodies So contaminated that they fail to meet basic health standards. Last year, the US Environmental Protection Agency indicated Minnesota state agencies can immediately address high nitrate levels in drinking water, which may be a cause the range Serious health problems, which have exposed thousands of Minnesotans. EPA encouraged states to better monitor pollution from livestock manure.

Minnesota state government is limited in its ability to crack down on these businesses because court decisions have largely exempted factory farms from Clean Water Act regulations. And Walz, of course, can’t bear the blame for problems that began decades ago because of the uncomfortable realities of farm state politics. but environmental group And even some State legislators Argument Minnesota could do more. Instead, Walz seems to have something to say about factory farming polluting the state’s waterways.

Prior to serving as governor of Minnesota, Walz represented Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives for six terms, where he Voted against Two important agricultural pollution systems. As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, he played a major role in negotiating the Farm Bill — a multiyear legislative package that sets federal agricultural policy — and during his tenure, legislation changed. More and more money Increasing livestock feed for farmers.

Walz became the champion federal And the state “Conservation” funds for farmers to implement more sustainable practices, but they eventually make it Little to no progress to solve the problem. And something Federal conservation funds go to large meat and dairy operations for environmentally questionable practices.

Governor. Walz’s office declined to comment for this story and instead shared a comment from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. “The governor has consistently advocated for and implemented programs that ensure environmental benefits while making agriculture profitable,” the statement read, and pointed to Walz’s support for the Conservation Fund and a rules which sets some limits on fertilizer application.

What Walz in the White House could mean for the future of farming

If Harris wins the presidency, Walz could be influential in setting the administration’s agricultural agenda. This will likely mean more of the same bipartisan, pro-factory farming consensus.

Harris, on the other hand, has a surprisingly strong track record the environment And animal welfareDuring his time as state attorney general, he advocated for California’s ban on foie gras and the confinement of laying hens in small cages.

Walz’s rural sincerity could make him an effective messenger for reforms that a Harris administration might pursue — if he’s willing to buck Big AG. But so far there is little evidence that he is ready to take on that role.

Calling out the meat industry for its misdeeds and advocating for meaningful regulation will require the courage few farm state politicians are willing to show. Doing so in the middle of a tightly contested presidential campaign, in which several battleground states have major agricultural sectors, could be politically disastrous.

So, instead, we get photos of candidates with intelligent pigs and baby calves caught in factory farm systems — images that reinforce the very myth that makes it hard for elected officials to stand up to Big Ag. But that political calculation has led us to where we are today: poisoned water, injured workers and abused animals.

While a second Trump term will likely be friendlier to the Big Egg than a Harris-Waltz administration, there is Low daylight in Republicans and Democrats Everything you can think of in agricultural policy.

“We’re not going back” became Harris-Walz’s campaign slogan. But in the fight against factory farming, their administration probably won’t move us forward.

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