美国国家公共电台 NPR Organic Industry Sues USDA To Push For Animal Welfare Rules

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And now to a legal battle over the welfare of chickens. The organic industry is suing the government today, demanding new rules that require organic egg producers to give chickens more space to roam. Here's NPR's Dan Charles.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE¹: The organic eggs in your grocery store are supposed to come from chickens that have year-round access to the outdoors. And a huge battle has erupted over what outdoors really means. A few big farmers like Greg Herbruck, president of Herbruck's Poultry² Ranch³ in Saranac, Mich., say it means the chickens get to live in houses with screened-in porches.

GREG HERBRUCK: You know, it's like your screened porch on your house. It's - when you go out there, you're outside. You're protected from the rain. In this case, we protect them from wild birds, which could bring in disease, and predators⁴.

CHARLES: So if outdoors just means a porch, you can build chicken houses right next to each other with tens of thousands of chickens in each one. At Herbruck's organic farm, they have 2.2 million hens in all.

HERBRUCK: And still growing. You know, we've been double digit⁵ growth for many, many years.

CHARLES: Close to half the organic eggs in the country come from farms like this. And it angers hundreds of other organic farmers with smaller operations who do have their hens running around outside. George Siemon, who's CEO of the Organic Valley cooperative, says it's this kind of farming that consumers expect from the organic label.

GEORGE SIEMON: It needs to be a whole system that features the bird's basic needs. And there's no doubt, a hen wants to be outside scratching on the ground.

CHARLES: So Siemon and like-minded organic producers have been trying to revise the rules covering organic animals. And in the very last days of the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved them. The new rules require organic egg producers to provide real outdoor space for each egg-laying hen. Porches don't count.

CHARLES: Laura Batcha, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, says there's overwhelming support for these rules among organic food companies.

LAURA BATCHA: The industry is committed to this. And totally gets it, that it's in everybody's interest to make sure the consumer gets what they're looking for.

CHARLES: But big organic egg producers and their allies in Congress continue to oppose the new rules. And when the Trump⁶ administration took office, it put the rules on hold and suggested it might withdraw them. So today, the Organic Trade Association is going to court, demanding that the government step aside and let the new rules take effect.

Dan Charles, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARMS AND SLEEPERS' "UNSHIELD")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

3 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

4 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 digit   

n.零到九的阿拉伯数字，手指，脚趾

参考例句：

• Her telephone number differs from mine by one digit.她的电话号码和我的只差一个数字。
• Many animals have five digits.许多动物有5趾。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。