WHAT: A special screening of the documentary Pig Business with remarks by Robert Kennedy, Jr., followed by a panel discussion with leading experts on the effects that large factory pig farming operations have on workers; the environment, notably our waterways; food safety; independent pig farmers and rural communities; and animal welfare.

WHO: The Center for Food Safety (CFS) is hosting the event in collaboration with Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) with the support of leading environmental, animal rights, food, consumer safety, and agricultural NGOs, including the National Family Farm Coalition, Friends of the Earth, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Waterkeeper Alliance.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 9, 2011, at 6p.m.

WHERE: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, North Orientation Theater, U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.
**The main entrance is located on the East front of the Capitol at First Street and East Capitol Street, NE

Recently shown at the European Union Parliament and the U.K. Parliament, Pig Business highlights how  rural communities, factory workers, small pig farmers, water systems, food safety, and animals are affected bylarge industrial pig farms. The film reveals how U.S. concentrated agriculture feeding operations (CAFOs) are establishing factories around the world to take advantage of lax environmental and labor laws. Pig Business also demonstrates the global links of CAFOs. 

“This film exposes the truth about factory farming. It shows how it cannot produce a pork chop or bacon cheaper than a family farmer unless it breaks the law,” said Kennedy. “Factory farming profits by externalizing the true costs on to the public through sickness and degraded soil, contaminated water and air. In the process it destroys both the economy and democracy by concentrating power and money into the hands of a few giant corporations. Watch the film to see how we can reclaim control over our lives.”

If you would like to schedule an interview with Robert Kennedy, Jr., and/or other event panelists, please contact Christina Stafford at 202-547-9359.

Other panelists include:

• Dr. Michael Greger (Humane Society of the United States)
• Andrew Kimbrell (Center for Food Safety)
• Kathy Ozer (National Family Farm Coalition) 

The event is free and open to the public.

***

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) The Center for Food Safety is a national, non-profit, membership organization founded in 1997 to protect human health and the environment by curbing the use of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture. CFS currently represents more than 175,000 members across the nation.

Event Co-Sponsors:  American Grass-fed Association, Clean Water Network, Food and Water Watch, FRESHFARM Markets, Friends of the Earth, Humane Society of the United States, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, International Society for Ecology and Culture, National Family Farm Coalition, Rural Coalition, Seedling Projects, SlowFood DC, and the Waterkeeper Alliance. 

Panel Speaker Bios:

Dr. Michael Greger is director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture in the farm animal welfare division of the Humane Society of the United States.

A physician specializing in clinical nutrition, Greger focuses his work on the human health implications of intensive animal agriculture, including the routine use of non-therapeutic antibiotics and growth hormones in animals raised for food, and the public health threats of industrial factory farms. He also works on food safety issues, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and plays a role in The HSUS’s efforts to analyze and shape public policy concerning agriculture and nutrition.

Greger has been an invited lecturer at universities, medical schools and conferences worldwide. He is the author of “Heart Failure: Diary of a Third-Year Medical Student” (2000), “Carbophobia: The Scary Truth About America’s Low-Carb Craze” (2005), and “Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching” (2006). Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s reputation as a resolute defender of the environment stems from a litany of successful legal actions. Kennedy was named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. The group’s achievement helped spawn more than 130 Waterkeeper organizations across the globe.

Kennedy serves as Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio. Earlier in his career he served as Assistant District Attorney in New York City. He has worked on several political campaigns including the presidential campaigns of Edward M. Kennedy in 1980, Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

He has worked on environmental issues across the Americas and has assisted several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands. He is credited with leading the fight to protect New York City’s water supply. The New York City watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development. He helped lead the fight to turn back the anti-environmental legislation during the 104th Congress.

Andrew Kimbrell is a public interest attorney, activist, author, and Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. 

He has been involved in public interest legal activity in numerous areas of technology, human health and the environment. After working for eight years as the Policy Director at the Foundation for Economic Trends, Kimbrell established the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) in 1994 and the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in 1997. Kimbrell has written several books and given numerous public lectures on a variety of issues. He has been featured on radio and television programs across the country, including The Today Show, the CBS Morning Show, Crossfire, Headlines on Trial, and Good Morning America. He has lectured at dozens of universities throughout the country and has testified before congressional and regulatory hearings. In 1994, the Utne Reader named Kimbrell as one of the world’s leading 100 visionaries.

Kathy Ozer has worked on farm, rural, and fair trade policy for the past 20 years for the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC). In the mid-1980′s she worked for the United States Student Association (USSA) on education access issues.

She is on the board of the Citizens Trade Campaign and works with the Community Food Security Coalition and the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. Since 1999, Kathy has been part of the farmer delegations at the WTO in Seattle and Cancun and at the United Nations. She was also at the FTAA in Quebec and Miami, and NFFC is an active part of the North American region of the Via Campesina. Her current work addresses the credit and global food crisis; implementation of the 2008 farm bill; and efforts to address the dairy farmer crisis.

Kathy received her B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and lives in Washington, D.C.

Tracy Worcester is the The Marchioness of Worcester and director of Pig Business. Formally an actress of stage and screen, Tracy has worked in the Environmental movement for the last 21 years campaigning, networking, fundraising, public speaking and, to reach a larger audience, has turned to film making. She focuses on shifting ‘development’ away from the dictates’ of giant corporations and banks back into the hands of citizens through local economic systems. Her films include ‘Is small still Beautiful?’ in India, ‘The Politics of Happiness’ in Bhutan, BBC World 2005 and ‘Pig Business’ (Channel 4 summer 2009). Pig Business charts the rise of the factory farm in the USA and the spread of the industrial model as multinational companies comb the globe for good investment climates i.e. most compliant governments offering the most generous subsidies and the lowest wages, environmental standards, enforcement standards and animal welfare standards; thus exposing the true cost of cheap meat.