Taranaki Farm is an example of the animal agriculture industry attempting to improve farming and welfare practices whilst failing to see a moral hypocrisy at the very last step. For the uninitiated, that last step involves the ending of sentient life where it need not be taken.

How could my own morality forcibly pry me out of science, a field of truth and discovery?

During my six years of study at university level, I realised many of the moral failings of what was considered ‘normal’, which included how I lived at the time. After two gruelling years of intense study in the biomedical sciences, I made a very hard decision to cease accepting that animals were morally valid subjects on which to experiment. I was unable to complete my degree without contributing to the deaths of mammals who were killed for labs I was required to attend. In a way, my own morals forced me out of a degree that I should have been able to attend without further animal exploitation. It was very hard for me. Human anatomy and physiology is something I am extremely interested in. As a result, I changed my academic pursuits to environmental science, a degree that better accommodated my morals and values. However, many of my peers were students who wished to get jobs in the mining sector, another field I strongly object to, yet ironically worked in, in an attempt to make small changes and get a better handle on the business that owned these operations. It shouldn’t be a surprise that I left that industry. Many are financially hogtied and cannot leave.

Lucky me!

I’m no stranger to the impacts of conventional farming.

During my early years studying environmental science after my transition, I took a keen interest in conventional and alternative farming practices. I often read prescribed texts for courses that were years away from when I’d be taking them and studied cases of alternative farming practices that were far less harmful on the environment, such as those being implemented by Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm. I learned from other gardeners how to produce compost tea (thanks, Praxxus55712), and even put some of the methods, such as “no dig” gardening into practice to build soil carbon and nurture soil microbiota.

I had a large vegetable garden at my home in Charlestown, NSW (Near Newcastle) that always seemed to expand. I would regularly take surplus produce to my neighbours and they would give me baked goods in return. It was a great exercise in community building.

When I came upon Taranaki Farm’s Facebook post yesterday, I immediately viewed it through the eyes of a vegan of almost six years.

All I saw were animals being kept for food. As an animal rights advocate, I always question the need to use a clearly sentient animal for an anthropocentric purpose (something to fulfil the needs of humans). From an environmental scientist’s point of view, I could see his enthusiasm for nourishing the land once more and improving soil fertility.

Ben Falloon is passionate about spending time outdoors and caring for the animals he is responsible for. He has gone to great lengths to ensure the animals in his care have adequate space, are safe from predation and have fresh, high quality food daily. It is evident that Ben’s operation cares about the animals insofar as they serve a very specific purpose, which has nothing to do with the animals being free from their final, lethal harm.

In his post, essentially, Ben Falloon rejoiced in the conditions meat birds are kept, stressed taking responsibility for chickens and sought crowd funding for onsite meat processing.

Ben Falloon justifies his position focusing on how the animals are raised.

Before further discussing my own point of view, I think it is important to hear what those who supported Ben’s initiative to improve the living conditions of the meat chickens had to say in response to his latest post.

I filtered the most relevant comments (according to Facebook), excluded vegan comments for now, and Ben’s replies to questions and comments.

Lori Sparks: Hey Ben, will co-ops or group buyers be able to do large orders with you?

Charlotte Elise Jane Maverick: You know what's happened? One precious vegan or vegetarian has found this page and shared it with all their friends and they've all come here to be keyboard warriors for chickens. They've masted how to be cocks better than the male chickens have.

Ben Wright: Ben Falloon, thank you for doing your bit and giving these chickens a good life, allowing them to express their instinctual chicken-ness and ensuring that they only have one bad day. Loud mouthed vegan liberals... Clean your room!

Jessica Eve: I dont force Vegans to eat meat so why do they feel the need to force their beliefs on the rest of us? Dictatorship or democracy? Good on you Taranaki Farm. Responsible ethical transparent animal farming.

Denise M Fisher: That’s excellent Ben. I wish I lived closer so I could buy my chicken from you. You are setting a high standard in both egg and meat production. If people don’t like what Ben is doing please just 'unfriend' this site. You’re entitled to your opinion and we are to ours - and we’re all entitled to being treated respectfully. .

Most of those in the sample of comments who do not follow a vegan lifestyle, made comment directly about vegans who had expressed their opinion regarding the farm’s practices.

Some were derogatory, calling people ‘cocks’ and ‘loudmouthed’ while there was a sentiment towards being able to choose what we wish to contribute toward without fear of attack (Jessica and Denise). The initial comment in the sample simply asked about product availability.

Let’s turn our attention to the vegan responses to Ben’s original post.

I will be using the same process to get to the most relevant comments as was used to collect the top five non-vegan comments on the post. All commentators will be unique (removing multiple posts from the same author).

Regan Singer: Do you allow people to visit the farm without paying? I would like to talk with you in person to get a better understanding of your farm processes. However, as a vegan I am unwilling to pay to support the death of these beautiful beings so clearly wanting to live. [Transparency: I authored this post.]

Ania Bee: Bloody psychopaths. Come one, come all. Watch how we slit our chickens throats... Who gets excited by this. Yuck. [A photograph of chickens hanging by their feet surrounded by blood was inserted with the comment.]

Peter Hobbins: Does your golden tour of the farm migrate past the slaughter house .... I’m sure that will excite them, glorified mobile battery hens.

Brandon Cowan: Glad to hear you would like to be 100% transparent in your methods. As I’m sure you’d like your customers and consumers to know how chickens get onto their plate, would you please post a video on your page showing how they’re killed at 8-9 weeks old? Thanks in advance.

Zoe Miles: I don't get this.. there is no compassionate or 'humane' way to kill a living being.

While Ben’s farm focused on the ethical raising of animals, the majority of vegan comments to the original post did not.

Vegan commentators distinctly concentrated on the deaths of the animals being kept. A commentator made reference to psychopathy with respect to wilfully harming the chickens, while another brought up the killing of the animals while they were in their infancy. It’s clear that the vegan message was that they did not support the ultimate killing of the animals despite their conditions prior.

What did Ben Falloon have to say?

As I scrolled down the post, Ben had shared photographs of the animals in their hutches with fresh straw and water in fairly spacious enclosures. Ben knows his strengths and he is playing to them. He has gone to extreme lengths to ensure his farm is spacious and time is spent to provide adequate attention to the animals. However, he provided an insight into how he views the vegan community and those interested in minimising harm through abstaining from buying products that contribute to animal exploitation.

In response to Charlotte’s comment [earlier],

Charlotte Elise Jane Maverick: You know what's happened? One precious vegan or vegetarian has found this page and shared it with all their friends and they've all come here to be keyboard warriors for chickens. They've masted how to be cocks better than the male chickens have.

this is what Ben had to say,

Taranaki Farm: Alas I believe that's precisely what occurred beginning last night Charlotte. Some vegans consider this activism. I've observed it has much more to do with attention seeking and following that, all the psychological rewards that come with patting each other on the back; all from the comfort of their lounge chairs.

They're especially fond of trying to generate the most controversial thread. I've observed in the past those individuals can't left the conversation go and will keep their 'threads' going for days and days. Long after everyone else has lost interest. It's all very self interested behaviour. Of course the owners of Facebook love them for falling hook line and sinker into the emotional reward circuitry designs this place is built for.

The vegans in question are particularly prone to being sucked into dopamine injection systems because their emotional states are volatile to being with, which makes the experience of gaining attention, stirring trouble and otherwise stealing a platform to shout their point of view that much more seductive.

It's an addiction for them. And a way to stoke their narcissism (a trait I have observed is particularly concentrated in this sub-culture). The excessive love of themselves, the belief that their choices are superior and the detachment from reality their behaviour exhibits. I feel sorry for them really. Eventually, most realise how repugnant their their behaviour and shake off their antisocial tendencies. In the meantime however, our exploding population guarantees the 'new crops' of vegans will forever be on the rise, even if the older ones come around to clear thinking.

Oh well.

Ben Falloon’s message is one of condescension and closed-mindedness.

Ever since I shunned animal products in 2012, people around me have rolled their eyes, looked at their watch and asserted that eventually I’ll come round and return to ‘normality’, pitying me for choosing such a ‘bizarre’ lifestyle. Even my own sister was shocked and said she could understand how someone with an allergy (she is a coeliac) had to cut out certain foods, but to willingly do it for no reason, was unnecessary.

Ben Falloon’s, entire business model and financial prosperity is rooted in the exploitation of animals. He defended his position with mockery to deflect the discussion away from killing but to the inadequacies, narcissism and repugnancy he perceived as character traits of the vegans commenting on his thread.

It would take an extremely strong-willed, determined animal farmer to look at alternative points of view in order to make a change toward a life minimising cruelty.

Here are two farmers who did. Mike Lanigan and Jay Wilde, we salute you.

#

What of the comments of the non-vegans? Thanks for your patience. It will be rewarded.

While I only included five comments from the non-vegan cohort, I read many more. My assessment is that the vast majority just don’t want to be told what to do.

It appears to be that simple. I think it is true of most people. We like to think that we are the masters of our own lives and should be able to do as we wish. Many people in favour of egalitarianism, that is, equal rights, focus on their right to choose how they wish to live their lives, usually adding their own caveat, ‘as long as no one is hurt in the process.’ Non-vegans prefer to put the additional caveat, ‘as long as no [human] is hurt in the process'.

A person's right to choose a food ends where another's life begins.

Ninety-nine percent of people aren’t considered psychopaths. Without trying to lump all people who aren’t yet vegan as psychopaths, let’s consider psychopaths as people who are profoundly selfish and lack emotion. All the people I know tell me they love animals or at least wouldn’t hurt them themselves. Society deplores animal suffering and as individuals, we would never consider torturing a pet dog or cat. Animal abuse is a predictor of human harm. Serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer tortured cats, dogs and frogs, while convicted terrorist, Anders Breivik tortured rats that he kept.

Why would Ben Falloon see rat or dog torture [and death] different to the pleasant living, followed by death of livestock at Taranaki Farm?

Thousands of years of cultural practices and religious beliefs, perpetuated, more recently, by fast food and animal agriculture advertising along with an incomplete understanding about nutrition lead us all to believe [wrongly] that we need to eat animals. Farmers feel guilt and the weight of heavy hearts leaves them wishing for other ways after sending their animals away to be slaughtered. So, of course, modernity developed laws to protect the animals as best we can until that fateful moment of death to alleviate our own heavy hearts, knowing we cared for those animals.

Ben Falloon of Taranaki Farm is still hoodwinked by his cultural upbringing and perceptions of nutrition. Ben’s guilt is forcing him to go to extreme lengths to care for these creatures in the belief this is a necessary evil. It isn’t. If you think the protein in meat, eggs and dairy are a necessity for human health, you’re flat out wrong.

Support Taranaki Farm with your words of encouragement, not your dollars [until they cease animal exploitation].

If you wish for Ben to understand that the demand is no longer there for products of exploitation, and that it is more economically viable for farms to grow plants, you mustn’t buy any of his animal products to further fund the needless exploitation of animals.

We are moving through a transitional phase. People are opening their eyes, listening to the newest scientific research and understanding that our lives are one step closer compassion [instead of hypocrisy] through a vegan lifestyle.

Let’s make the move from harm to harmony.

All the best,

Nick.

All content is original.

Disclosure: This article was not a paid promotion and was not self-upvoted. Nor were there any affiliate links.

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