Did you give your dog an extra pat yesterday, or gave your cat that tasty foodthat is just a bit more expensive? Good thing, because it was animal day (anddon’t eat animal day). Talk shows also talked a lot about animals, such as in_On 1_. Writer and historian Rutger Bregman took a seat there. He sat(literally and figuratively) opposite Linda Verriet, president of theProducers Organization Pig Farming. And the two got into a fight.
In addition to Animal Day, yesterday was also the 25th anniversary of Pigs inNeed, so the organization called for an end to factory farming in theNetherlands in various newspapers. According to the organization, the switchto organic livestock farming would rather happen today than tomorrow. But isthat possible?
Clash in Op1 over factory farming
Rutger Bregman – author of, among other things, the books Most People AreGood and Free Money For Everyone – believes that we should go back to farmshow they are described in children’s books. “There you see pigs with curlytails rooting in the mud, chickens that have a lot of space. But the realityof factory farming is very different,” Bregman begins. “If we look at pigs, wesee that 99 percent of the pigs never come out. 99 percent of the pigs do havethose happy curly tails, but they are burned off.” Farmers do this, saysBregman, because otherwise the animals will bite each other in the tail,because they are so close to each other.
Bregman also thinks that more and more people feel that factory farming is’not okay’ and that things have to change. “We want to propagate a sound thatfewer and fewer Dutch people find normal. A recent study by Kieskompas showsthat 60 percent of the Dutch want a ban on factory farming, although I think aban itself goes a long way.” According to the writer, the three stars of theAnimal Protection meet the guidelines that he and the organization have.
It’s animal day and also the 25th anniversary of Pigs in Need, and so wrote> @rcbregman a letter to> all Dutch people. “I think we need to go back to the image we tell our> children. The farm as we know it in children’s books.” #On> 1> pic.twitter.com/hi5ZhcObiV>> — Op1 (@op1npo) Oct 4,> 2022
‘I only hear frames, like mega stalls’
A little later in the broadcast it is about farmers, and that they are alsohaving a hard time. Bregman: „If you ask yourself: ‘Why are there fewerfarmers in the Netherlands every year?’ Then the answer isn’t that there’ssome angry vegan club chasing them out of the country. No, it is the increasein scale, that intensification.” And then the author cites some examples. “Alot of farmers can no longer keep up with that increase in scale, those megastables. We now have 999 mega stalls in the Netherlands.” But Verriet doesn’tlike that kind of language.
“I really only hear frames all the time,” she begins. “Mega stables, misery, Ifind that really annoying. We really just keep our animals in a very good way.The whole world comes here to see how we keep our animals and it is suggestedhere that we are only dealing with scaling up.” Bregman interrupts her andsays it’s true that there are fewer farmers every year. “They can’t compete inthat enormous competition,” he says. “I would prefer there to be more farmers,who all work on a smaller scale.”
Then Verriet also touches on the aforementioned research, which shows thatmore than half of the Netherlands wants a ban on factory farming. “I thinkthat’s a study from 2021, the researchers were all vegans, I’m allowed to dothat,” she says. Bregman, shaking his head, “No, it’s Electoral Compass.”Verriet: “It doesn’t matter, but I am very curious about the population ofrespondents.” She mentions her own research, done by an independent marketingagency, which showed that 95 percent of the Dutch eat meat and plan tocontinue to do so. “5 percent is not, and that is allowed. And why do thoseothers eat meat? Because it is tasty and healthy.”
‘Mr Bregman doesn’t want pigs to eat meat anyway’
Verriet again addresses Bregman: “I am not at all against organic. I alsorepresent the organic pig farmers here. But we see that market share justisn’t growing.” She wants to continue her story, but Bregman interrupts her.„Do you think it is normal that-“, he does not get any further, becauseVerriet indicates that she also wants to ‘finish her story’. She also saysthat pig farmers can impose something on people, but people ultimately maketheir own choice.
Bregman continues his earlier question: “Do you think it is normal that 99percent of the pigs in the Netherlands never go outside? Do you think it’snormal for 99 percent of pigs to have curly tails that get burned? Is itnormal that all those pigs live on concrete, that they don’t have access to amud puddle, that they can’t behave naturally?” Verriet: “Mr. Bregman does notwant us to keep pigs in order to eat meat at all. We will never agree on that,animal welfare will never be enough for Mr. Bregman, because Mr. Bregman doesnot want pigs to eat meat anyway.”
On 1 -presenter Giovanca Ostiana jumps in between: “What would you like tosay to him?” Verriet: “Let everyone make their own choice. I grant that to allDutch people. Make a conscious choice, but come and see how we keep theanimals at pig farmers and have a conversation.” On 1 -presenter TijsBrinkman to Bregman: “And what do you say?” “I think it is important thatpeople know how pigs, but also chickens and cows, are really kept. That we areoften still telling ourselves a myth.”
You can watch Op1 via NPO Start.