Fair Oaks Farms has become a household name with dairy products, such as the Coca-Cola Company owned Fairlife products. The other week, a video of an undercover worker showing the abuse of the dairy industry exploded across the internet. The video showed Fair Oaks employees kicking, throwing, and physically abusing calves. After watching this video, I was utterly disgusted.
Having grown up only 30 minutes away from Fair Oaks Farms, I had visited it multiple times on field trips for school and would go to get ice cream there in the summer. So, when I saw the video of the treatment of these innocent animals, I was devastated. I had grown up believing that the animals at Fair Oaks were being well taken care of. They had exhibits to go see the baby cows and the milking process. Of course, what the public saw of this company was very different than what was going on behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, the mistreatment of animals at huge corporate farms is hardly isolated to Fair Oaks. When a farm has thousands of animals to take care of and hundreds of workers to oversee, the treatment of the livestock is not a priority - the profit is. These huge farms that have thousands of animals keep them in tightly confined warehouse-like barns. It is nearly impossible to ensure that tens of thousands of cows are getting the care and veterinary care that is needed. Furthermore, huge "factory" farms make it very hard to oversee each individual worker, so cases of abuse often go unnoticed.
Growing up in the Midwest, I also believe that I have a unique perspective on farmers. They are quite literally my neighbors and an essential part of my town's economy. We don't have to worry about traffic jams, but instead getting stuck behind a tractor. So, I know how much of a negative effect the video of Fair Oaks abusing animals has on the business. These people are not millionaires or huge corporate businessmen. Instead, they depend on their animals to provide for their family. I have seen firsthand how they treat their livestock like royalty. The warehouse-like barns that the corporate farms use to keep their thousands of cows could not be more different than the family farms where the animals spend most of their days outside grazing. These people's livelihoods are depending on healthy, happy cows. With fewer cows and fewer employees, it is much easier to oversee the business and fair treatment of the animals. So, instead of supporting huge corporate farms such as Fair Oaks, I believe that we should spend the few extra dollars to support the family-owned farms that treat their animals with fairness.
By being educated consumers and looking into the products we buy, we can do our part in supporting the dairy farmers that treat their livestock with respect. The dairy industry will continue getting a bad rep with huge corporate farms that put the money before the animals. The ones that really are negatively affected by negative videos of the dairy industry are not the billionaire CEOs of farms like Fair Oaks, but the family-run farms that depend on selling dairy products to provide for their families.
