2025 SPE Annual Conference: Adaptations
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print this page"Illegal Art: Photography In The Age Of The Ag Gag Law" - Kai Plews
Friday, November 06 - 2:00PM to 2:45PM
CGS 129
Widespread censorship exists in this country today and it stems from this question: What price are we willing to pay for the abundance that we enjoy?
In the United States last year, we slaughtered eight billion chickens. During that same year, six million hogs were raised in Iowa alone. We have increased the production of food in this country by more than ten-fold since the early nineteen hundreds, while reducing the number of farmers by over ninety percent.
Along with the cost to the animals, the environment suffers from these practices. Manure run-off in rivers and contamination of ground water are now growing concerns in many areas, as well as the concern of epidemics like bird flu and cholera spreading from infected animals out into the community. In Iowa alone over 16 million birds were destroyed due to bird flu this year.
The most disturbing aspect of the growth of corporate farming is the systemic and pervasive censoring of the media with regard to factory farming. Nearly half of the states in the United States have some form of Ag-gag law that legally prohibits the production, possession, and distribution of images of farming activities. These laws are both draconian and extremely vague. They have had the intended effect of stifling discussion of this issue and are among the most troubling issues of censorship that photographers face today.
This work aims to inform the audience of the moral and environmental issues that this type of farming raise, as well as expose the audience to the truth of where their food is coming from. This, in turn, leads to a more informed discussion on the moral implications of our current farming practices and what we can do to change them.
What price are your willing to pay for cheap food?
speaker
Kai Plews
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