Telling Your Story
Are you ready for a visit? I am not talking about a nice front-porch sitting evening with friends, pleasant beverages, and good conversation. I am talking about a terrorist attack.
I'm joking, right? Terrorists coming to call in rural, Midwest farm country. They can't possibly find enough publicity and bang for their buck here, can they? Why should I even listen to this nonsense and has this writer completely stepped off the sanity cliff?
Then consider this. Animal activist groups have taken advantage of the hurt and turmoil already plaguing animal agriculture surrounding COVID-19 and turned it into an opportunity to further their agenda of chaos, anarchy and ending all animal ownership. They have been busy creating an interactive map pinpointing livestock farms across the U.S. Project Counterglow has identified and mapped 27,500 livestock farms using satellite imagery to identify buildings that appear to be livestock confinement farms. Long, rectangular buildings in parallels for hog and poultry operations; large areas that appear to be covered in black donuts for dairy farms. Black donuts—silage bunks—a good description if you have no idea what it is you are looking for.
The map, now public, will be a Wikipedia of sorts, where anyone can make a free account and add farm locations to the map. Are you on the map? Maybe your friends and neighbors are already there. You can find out at this link: https://map.counterglow.org/. I checked. We are not. People I know are on the map. Some neighboring farms are missing, too. Locally, they have misidentified ag related businesses as farms.
This "tool" is a complete invasion of privacy, property and property rights and a potential interruption of the businesses we operate to provide food for a nation, livings for families and sustenance for communities.
Connect the dots and find that the entire narrative of environmental activism and sustainability coupled with animal activism all lead to a common goal—the end of animal agriculture, total veganism and the end of all animal ownership including pets, zoos, rodeos and all animal related industry.
Our farms' locations have been un-masked, so to speak. Any animal terrorist can now potentially find your farm, fly a drone overhead, watch and wait. Wait for that moment when torrential rains push the capacity of storage lagoons, watch for the removal of dead animals, infiltrate by way of applying for a job. Once in, begin recording daily chores like moving livestock, treating sick animals, docking and castrating—all daily chores in the management of a farm, but things that seem outrageous and cruel to the radical anarchists who want to end your livelihood.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have been notified regarding the map's existence.
As if you need one more "thing" on your plate these days. Better add to the list to be watchful, be vigilant and be careful who you hire. Someone may be watching. Be careful who you let in to visit and if you see an unfamiliar drone spying on your farm, well, I am not saying do one thing or another. I can say that sometimes, problems get solved by the triple-S method: Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up.
Bev Berens is a mom to 4-H and FFA members in Michigan. Do you have a story to share? Email her at uphillfarm494@yahoo.com.