S02.E14: Chickens

[Athena]

John Oliver explains how chicken farming can be unfair, punishing, and inhumane. And not just for the chickens!

[Victor the Crab]

Hey! I like Midnight Oil. Especially their album Diesel And Dust. They can have Rupert Murdoch and Mel Gibson. But could they send more Australian Rules Football this way please? Just askin'.

 

How do Ollie and LWT come up with these main topics? One would never think about the plight of chicken growers in America. But holy Christ, that is some fucked up shit these industries in Big Chicken are pulling on them.

[Jamoche]

I kept misremembering the FIFA president's name as Bug Blatter

[enlightenedbum]

Hey! I like Midnight Oil. Especially their album Diesel And Dust. They can have Rupert Murdoch and Mel Gibson. But could they send more Australian Rules Football this way please? Just askin'.

 

How do Ollie and LWT come up with these main topics? One would never think about the plight of chicken growers in America. But holy Christ, that is some fucked up shit these industries in Big Chicken are pulling on them.

Probably read a story like this one from a few months ago and decided it was interesting enough to cover.

[attica]

I'm willing to bet not one of those chicken farmers vote for the Job-Killing-Regulation-Loving Dems. Because Republicans and corporations always do right by the people! Freedom! And that the Arkansas dude has run unopposed? There's your capitalist paradise, people. Now keep fucking those chickens.

 

To borrow a phrase.

[Hanahope]

Chicken is big business because the propoganda against beef has been very successful (and pork is only second best).  And now I know why chicken has been so cheap to buy.

 

The whole business sounds like a timeshare scam.  The company throws these numbers at you, making it sound like such a great deal, but once you've paid your money you realize that its never going to work out for you, its going to cost you more money to get any benefit at all from it and now your stuck with a worthless 'ownership' you can't get rid of.  Just like the Fifa president, can't get rid of him either.

 

Had to laugh that we're not giving back Hugh Jackman.  Damn straight we're not.  But don't kill the koala.

[purist]

Oh, Barnaby Joyce. He has a reputation here in Australia as being a bit of a dickhead, but most Australians would agree that Johnny Depp was an even bigger dickhead for smuggling those dogs into the country. Our quarantine laws are draconian for a reason. And another person who is a bigger dickhead than either Barnaby OR Depp is the radio guy who called Barnaby a wanker: Kyle Sandilands is one of the biggest wankers we have ever produced. I groaned when Ollie played that clip.

 

(I do love Barnaby Joyce's name, though - here's what used to happen on the brilliant Australian faux-news show Mad As Hell every time his name was mentioned. Hee!)

 

ETA: ICYMI, the top trending Twitter topic in Australia during the Depp's Dogs saga was #WarOnTerrier. Bwah!

Edited May 18, 2015 by purist

[iMonrey]

Well I am definitely writing to my congressman and telling him not to be a chicken-fucker. But honestly, I'm not sure what this bill/amendment would accomplish even if it passed. The right of chicken farmers to speak out without fear or reprisal? What kind of guarantees can we give them to ensure that? Their suppliers punish them in ways that can't really be proven as reprisals.

[Skyfall]

Anyone else catch Letterman at the end of the opening title sequence?

Also FIFA is not like the NFL. The IFAF would be like FIFA. The NFL would be like The FA. Ollie should know better!

[stillshimpy]

Yeah, the only meat I eat is fish and it is partially because I was aware of some of the industrialized practices.  

 

I drive all over hell and gone to get humanely certified eggs too, which are not the same thing as cage-free, by the way.  

 

So once again I get to say, "wow, that wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be, whew." All the while being aware that it's still absolutely awful.  We've made poultry serfs, basically.  Argh.  Very dispiriting . 

 

By the way, the guy who was talking about "What definition of poverty?"  needs to be stripped of all material goods and forced to work as a migrant farm worker.   

 

Seriously, something materially bad needs to happen to that fucker's fortunes.  

[cattykit]

How did Johnny Depp and/or his entourage not know about Australian quarantine?  Even I know about it and I don't know shit.  I know not to go to Australia, the UK and fucking Hawaii. 

 

I remember reading a news story in 1989 about a plucky little cat that somehow managed to stow aboard and survive a transAtlantic trip to the UK...no goddamn happy ending for the brave little cat.  Fucking UK customs killed it in the name of quarantine.  I felt new levels of hate that day.

[DrScottie]

In an eerie coincidence, going on right now is the worst bird flu epidemic on record spanning 15 states with millions of chickens to be killed because of it. Yet another setback for the livelihoods of the local farmers. 

[ganesh]

I'm willing to bet not one of those chicken farmers vote for the Job-Killing-Regulation-Loving Dems.

I was thinking when the guy said "we need rules." Well, did you vote for a candidate who doesn't like those kind of rules? If that guy who represents 650 farmers got them all voting, there might be some change then.

Not that the farmers haven't gotten scammed, but it is another tragic example of voting against your own interests.

[Wax Lion]

 

I know not to go to Australia, the UK and fucking Hawaii.

 

With the way John was covering it I was wondering if the UK had the kind of quarantine policies that island governments tend to have. There's a good reason for them, even if some of the specific policies seem to miss the point and I didn't get the impression John was familiar with it, or if they miss the point in the UK...

 

I remember reading a news story in 1989 about a plucky little cat that somehow managed to stow aboard and survive a transAtlantic trip to the UK...no goddamn happy ending for the brave little cat.  Fucking UK customs killed it in the name of quarantine.  I felt new levels of hate that day.

 

 

Wow. That seems ridiculously overboard, I'm guessing they killed it because no one would be there to claim it after the quarantine period? That's still overboard (I mean why not turn it over to an adoption center afterward) but that's the only explanation I can come up with.

Edited May 19, 2015 by Wax Lion

[fastiller]

I kept misremembering the FIFA president's name as Bug Blatter

There is an eerie similarity between the two, dontcha think?

 

 

The whole business sounds like a timeshare scam.  The company throws these numbers at you, making it sound like such a great deal, but once you've paid your money you realize that its never going to work out for you, its going to cost you more money to get any benefit at all from it and now your stuck with a worthless 'ownership' you can't get rid of.  Just like the Fifa president, can't get rid of him either.

 

Or Amway.

 

Oh, Barnaby Joyce. He has a reputation here in Australia as being a bit of a dickhead, but most Australians would agree that Johnny Depp was an even bigger dickhead for smuggling those dogs into the country. Our quarantine laws are draconian for a reason.

 

Agreed. As was previously noted, it's not like we here in the USofA don't have serious quarantine laws: just look at Hawai'i.  If I'm remembering correctly, when my ex-fiance's mum moved there from Southern California, she had to quarantine her two dogs for three or four months.  And she couldn't visit them often becasue she lived on the Big Island and quarantine was on Oahu.

[Hanahope]

I'm guessing its mostly a matter of "some" celebrities thinking they are above the law.

[plurie]

How did Johnny Depp and/or his entourage not know about Australian quarantine?  Even I know about it and I don't know shit.  I know not to go to Australia, the UK and fucking Hawaii. 

 

I remember reading a news story in 1989 about a plucky little cat that somehow managed to stow aboard and survive a transAtlantic trip to the UK...no goddamn happy ending for the brave little cat.  Fucking UK customs killed it in the name of quarantine.  I felt new levels of hate that day.

The reason for the Australian quarantine is to keep rabies from reaching Australia (which is rabies free). They have a related disease, Australian Bat Lyssavirus, in flying foxes, but it doesn't seem to have spread to terrestrial mammals. Keeping Australia rabies free is much more important than Johnny Depp missing his dogs.

 

It's not the policy that's the problem, it's the way the Agriculture Minister spoke to the press.

Edited May 19, 2015 by plurie

[iMonrey]

 

By the way, the guy who was talking about "What definition of poverty?"  needs to be stripped of all material goods and forced to work as a migrant farm worker.

 

The ironic part (if you can call it that) was he might have made a decent point if he'd shut his mouth sooner. Because it's a fair question to ask by what standard you're measuring poverty. For example, I wasn't hearing that any of these farmers were actually losing their property or in hock up to their ears. How deep in debt are they and what are their assets? Are they going to be living on the streets next year? Or is it simply that they're not really making as much as they'd like? Breaking even but not getting rich? Or even making a small profit and earning a decent living but nowhere near what they were promised?

 

But then the idiot had to go and say the poverty level was measured differently in different areas so he basically sandbagged his own argument by admitting they were at poverty level by some legal standard.

 

 

The reason for the Australian quarantine is to keep rabies from reaching Australia (which is rabies free).

 

But, can't the dogs be tested and certified? It's essentially the law that dogs have to get annual rabies shots almost everywhere in this country, can't you just prove they have their shots up to date? That's what I don't get about the quarantine. And I'd never be able to put my dog in a kennel for weeks or months on end.

[ganesh]

Japan has the same standards. I took my dog to live with me there. The short of it is you have to get like a 'double rabies shot' and wait for 180 days to verify the dog is clean. The 'quarantine' period is just normal life in the USA. Once my dog waited the 180 days and was cleared, she came to Japan, they went through the paperwork and we were all set. 

 

So if Depp knew when he would be filming in Australia, he could have put that in motion ahead of time, or just have the dogs come in after the 180 days. Presumably, since he lives in the USA, the dogs are up to date on their shots, so they were probably ok. They didn't need death threats, they could have been placed in local quarantine, or flown home. 

[Wax Lion]

I know a lot of quarantines can be shortened nowadays, providing you go through certain requirements first. I don't remember where I heard it but one story said Australia's quarantine can be just a few days and it looks like Hawaii is similar. I'm guessing it comes down to being willing to pay for tests and waiting for any period when the test wouldn't catch the presence of rabies, otherwise you wait the period when a dog with rabies would take of go rabid.

 

The short-lived 90s drama The Byrds of Paradise showed the family medicating their dog to travel to Hawaii before them in the pilot, IIRC, that scene was in winter and then when we saw them move it was clearly much warmer.

[RadiantAerynSun]

I have some friends who have exported show dogs to Australia. I think what they told me is quarantine isn't necessarily long there, but it is very expensive. So they typically do the rabies vaccine, the 180 day wait (or whatnot) and titer tests and then send the dog, and avoid quarantine. Interestingly though they had a case recently where they titer tested a dog 2 or 3 x and it failed the test every time (meaning it was registering as not having immunity to rabies, despite having a rabies vaccine) Lots of wasted time and money and they couldn't even send the dog.

[OneWhoLurks]

Anyone found an update on this?

 

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/07/john-oliver-1-big-chicken-0/

 

"Big poultry companies have also spent millions in Washington lobbying on behalf of their interests. The National Chicken Council has spent over $2.5 million just in the last five years; Tyson goes above and beyond with over $9 million in recent lobbying expenditures; Perdue has spent hundreds of thousands, as has Pilgrim’s; and Sanderson Farms has spent over a million dollars in the last three years. They have each lobbied against GIPSA reform in some capacity.

 

Their efforts, however, may have been in vain this time. Last week [as of July 13], the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2016 Agriculture bill and, for the first time in years, the bill did not include a GIPSA defunding rider. The Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is expected to release and debate its version of the 2016 Agriculture Appropriations bill this week; historically, the Senate has not attached the defunding rider to its legislation.

 

As it turns out, Oliver’s beef with the chicken giants may have made a difference."

[Hanahope]

Doesn't look like anything further is expected to occur until the end of the year.

[OneWhoLurks]

Early Wednesday morning, the Democrats of the House Appropriations Committee released a summary detailing Republican provisions left out of the bill.

 

Below is their list of policy riders and provisions that were not included in the bill:

 

[...]

 

The omnibus does not include the “GIPSA rider” stopping implementation of a USDA [u.S. Department of Agriculture]  rule protecting poultry farmers from strong-arm tactics of the processing industry (featured by John Oliver on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.”

 

 

http://dailysignal.com/2015/12/16/democrats-are-celebrating-these-conservative-policies-not-being-in-omnibus-spending-bill/

[Julia]

Aw, good for him.

[possibilities]

I love that the show seems to make a real difference sometimes. I'm sure there are other lobbying efforts happening, but it sometimes does at least appear that LWT is actually moving the needle. I know they got a lot of credit for boosting Net Neutrality advocacy. It has to feel good to imagine you're actually helping chicken farmers also!!

[fastiller]

I love that the show seems to make a real difference sometimes. I'm sure there are other lobbying efforts happening, but it sometimes does at least appear that LWT is actually moving the needle. I know they got a lot of credit for boosting Net Neutrality advocacy. It has to feel good to imagine you're actually helping chicken farmers also!!

Between Oliver and Jon Stewart doing his own moving of the needle on Zadroga, it seems that comedians can make a difference.

[OneWhoLurks]

Actor Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty Monday to providing a false immigration document amid allegations she smuggled the couple's dogs into Australia.

 

Prosecutors dropped two more serious charges that Heard illegally imported the Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country last year, when Depp was filming the fifth movie in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. A conviction on the illegal importation counts could have sent the actress to prison for up to 10 years. The false documents charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of more than 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,650).

 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/amber-heard-pleads-guilty-australian-dog-smuggling-spat-38472040

 

Actress Amber Heard pleaded guilty on Monday to providing a false immigration document when she entered Australia last year with her pet Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo. Two more serious charges of illegally importing the dogs were dropped, and she was slapped with a one-month good behavior bond.

 

The incident, which gained global attention after Australia's now-deputy prime minister threatened to kill the dogs, reached a fittingly bizarre conclusion with Heard and husband Johnny Depp issuing a filmed apology that has been likened to a hostage video.

 

The superstar couple, sitting in an undisclosed office setting in front of closed drapes, read a prepared statement that was submitted to the Queensland court on Monday.

 

[...]

 

Barnaby Joyce, the Australian politician whose overzealous rhetoric sparked the furor last year, said he didn't know how much influence the couple had on the mea culpa, but admitted "I don't think it'd be something that they would've willingly wanted to do."

 

[...]

 

When asked why Depp wasn't charged as well, the prosecutor's office said that there had been a "lack of admissible evidence" against anyone except Heard.

 

Heard's lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, told the court on Monday that his client never meant to lie on her incoming passenger card by failing to declare she had animals with her. In truth, Kirk said, she was simply jetlagged and assumed her assistants had sorted out the paperwork.

 

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/amber-heard-pleads-guilty-australian-dog-smuggling-spat-n557431

Edited April 18, 2016 by OneWhoLurks

[OneWhoLurks]

GIPSA ROADBLOCK WINS A ROUND: In a sign that there may be a statute of limitations on John Oliver-induced public shaming, Harris also successfully resurrected a controversial “GIPSA rider” during the markup on Tuesday.

 

The measure, which narrowly cleared the committee, 26-24, would block the USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration from finalizing regulations designed to protect poultry farmers who contract with large processing companies that typically own the birds. Among those voting against Harris’ amendment were five Republicans, including Reps. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington. One Democrat voted in favor — Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas. Last year, Congress kept language out of the bill after comedian Oliver excoriated and mocked lawmakers for not standing with chicken farmers.

 

Harris said during the hearing that the GIPSA rules would harm the tournament system in the poultry industry where companies pay farmers different amounts based mainly on feed efficiency. The Maryland Republican, who hails from a state with a $1 billion poultry industry and where Perdue Farms is headquartered, said the system encourages growers to take care of their animals and makes the U.S. poultry industry competitive in the global market. But longtime opponents of the rider, Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) and Chellie Pingree (Maine), said it puts poultry farmers on an unequal playing field with large corporations that can abuse the system and denies transparency into how pay is calculated.

 

 

http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-agriculture/2016/04/appropriators-move-to-block-fda-on-sodium-gipsa-roadblock-wins-a-round-house-calls-for-olive-oil-testing-213861

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

The logjam was finally broken, not by presidential leadership or a consumer outcry, but by comedian John Oliver. A 2015 segment on Last Week Tonight exposed the grower abuses rampant in the chicken industry, and called out the members of Congress blocking the remaining GIPSA rules. Oliver’s descriptions of the conditions faced by contract chicken growers sparked national outrage and Congress was flooded with calls. The rulemaking started moving again.

A full year later, on December 14, 2016, with just five weeks left in Obama’s term, the USDA released revised Farmer Fair Practice Rules, as they are now called. They include an interim final rule, which will go into effect 60 days after publication, and two draft rules, open for public comment for 60 days. They still offer the best hope chicken farmers have for basic human rights protections—but they are a mere shadow of their original promise. The two draft rules also contain what small farmer advocates see as a major loophole: allowing companies to continue practices with a “legitimate business justification.”

 

Quote

 

Eric Hedrick, another West Virginia chicken farmer, didn’t vote for Obama, but “listened to his message” and was hopeful about GIPSA reforms in 2010. After speaking out against unfair practices since then, and in the absence of rules prohibiting retaliatory behavior, Hedrick says he is being squeezed into bankruptcy by the company he grows for. “The only light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, “was what Donald Trump said—we need to fight for the little man against the corporations.” He and Mike Weaver admit that Trump’s cabinet choices thus far are troubling, but they remain hopeful.

Lina Khan, in her 2012 postmortem of the GIPSA rule process to that point, wrote, “It is no stretch to assume that, from the perspective of the White House, the choice to abandon an apparently failed effort to protect independent farmers from such abuses may have seemed politically pragmatic. But over the longer term, it may prove to have been a strategic political failure.”

Following the 2016 election, it has become clear just how grand that strategic failure was. “How did a slick businessman—one of the 3 percenters—from New York City talk to rural America and get them off their butt to come out and vote?” asks Eric Hedrick. His analysis is straightforward: “People were fed up with Washington, D.C. and wanted to bring in a game changer.” In its impacts on the livelihoods of farmers and communities, agriculture policy, or the near-lack thereof, has implications far beyond food, including fueling frustrations that may have turned the election.

 

Long-Delayed Rules to Protect Small Farmers Might be Too Little Too Late

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was delaying implementation of an Obama administration rule designed to give America’s farmers more leverage in their dealings with mammoth agriculture companies that control almost every aspect of their livelihoods, so-called Big Meat. 

The move, though not out of the ordinary for an incoming administration, is seen by farmer advocacy groups as a sign Trump is bending to the will of the industry, which strongly opposes the rule. The decision comes as Sonny Perdue III, the president’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture, is likely to be confirmed next week. Perdue is the former governor of Georgia, the country’s top chicken producing state, and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from agribusiness, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. And finally, Trump has proposed a 21 percent budget cut to the USDA, provoking an outcry from agricultural groups that worry rural communities will be hurt most.

Those communities were a driving force in putting Trump in the White House. After the latest pro-industry decision, some say they are having buyer’s remorse.

 

Farmers’ Beef With Trump Over ‘Big Meat’

[Hanahope]

So again, voters are learning that trump has appointed people who are just from a different swamp.

From the article:

Quote

“A lot of folks down here have come to not trust the Democrats or Republicans. They think members of Congress can be bought. They’ll throw a bone to the common folk every so often, but they’re beholden to lobbyists.” All of Trump’s talk about draining the swamp and being a self-made man indebted to no one resonated deeply with a population that has long felt left behind. 

On 4/21/2017 at 4:57 PM, OneWhoLurks said:

The decision comes as Sonny Perdue III, the president’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture, is likely to be confirmed next week. Perdue is the former governor of Georgia, the country’s top chicken producing state, and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from agribusiness,

[dusang]

On 4/25/2017 at 2:12 PM, Hanahope said:

So again, voters are learning that trump has appointed people who are just from a different swamp.

If only they were.