Wired – by BRANDON KEIMSeen from a satellite, an industrial feedlot has a sort of abstract beauty. The washes of colors, the juxtaposition of organic and rigid geometries, initially obscure the subject. Then comes the realization:That’s where our food comes from.
Such is the power of “Feedlots,” a new series of images crafted by British artist Mishka Henner from publicly available satellite photographs. Henner does work with the photos, enhancing the colors — the waste lagoons above, for example, are flat green rather than bright — but the physical details are unaltered.
Henner, who noticed the feedlots while scanning for pictures of oil fields in Texas, didn’t at first realize what he was looking at. Factory farms exist in the United Kingdom, but not at landscape scales.
Even for Americans, though, these sights are unusual. Industrial farming, especially of animals, tends to be hidden from public view — and under so-called ag-gag laws, that secrecy could become law.
The laws, so far enacted by Utah, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri, make it illegal to take undercover photos or videos on farms. Some proposed ag-gag laws would also cover zoos and puppy mills, and would officially label anyone who breaks them as a terrorist.
How might images like Henner’s be affected by ag-gag laws? It’s not clear, said Matthew Liebman, an attorney with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, an animal advocacy group. Texas has no such law, so Henner’s images are safe. In states that do, they could be protected by legal recognition of satellite-level altitudes as public space. Under some proposed laws, though, gathering any imagery without farmer consent is a crime. Taking a snapshot of a feedlot from a window seat in a commercial jetliner would technically be illegal.
Public opinion may be turning against ag-gag laws. Of 11 proposed in state legislatures this year, each was either defeated or tabled until the next legislative session. Utah’s law is being challenged as unconstitutional. “Something’s wrong in the Land of the Free when the act of looking is itself being condemned and punished,” said Henner.
Henner’s work is currently on display at the McCord Museum in Montreal. On these pages are the rest of his photos from “Feedlots.”
Images: Courtesy of Mishka Henner
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/mishka-henner-factory-farms/
Good post there Greg. I wish that people could take personal unanounced tours of these feed lots and factory farms to see what is really going on so that these feed lot/factory farms would not know when they are comeing so they couldn`t have the time for a quick clean up/cover up. If a animal owner treated their pets like these factory farms abused their animals we would be charged with fenony animal abuse, guarenteed……….. It is no wonder that people are getting sick and haveing other health problems when we eat that crap from farms like these.
Compared to what those animals are going thru, the ones we raised on the farm got treated like royalty.
Yes Greg, and ya know, a lot of farmers that have say 100 + pigs or cows or what ever animals they may have will call them all by their own name and they do treat them with respect because the farmers actually do like their animals and what they are doing. That is why I think that farming is one of the most honorable occupations out there. 🙂
Factory farming is mass production of animals for consumpion. It’s horrible, cruel and unnecessary.
I have been a vegan for 21 years and I’m perfectly healthy and believe anyone can be on a vegan diet.
Animal production for consumption is unnecessary and cruel.
I like what I do and evewry animal on the farm/ranch has a name. Most are goofy like HENrietta the chicken but still. We say thanks when we harvest.
Good guy there nottoobitter!! that is cool, 🙂
The pictures portray what looks like a cancer on the surface of the earth, with pus filled holding ponds.