Lear Lecture: "Free For All At the Factory Farm"

L to R: Carole Morison, Michele Merkel, Jane Dawson, Derek Turner

On Thursday, April 12th, the Goodwin-Niering Center  hosted two speakers who gave a tag team Lear Lecture. Michele Merkel is an environmental attorney, and co-director of Food and Water Justice, the legal arm of Food an Water Watch. Carole Morison is a farmer/activist from Maryland's eastern shore. She was featured in the documentary, Food, Inc., and has written here about regulation of the poultry industry. They spoke to a packed house in the Chu reading room in Shain Library. Together, Merkel and Morison described how a small number of corporations have come to control the poultry industry on the DelMarVa peninsula, a situation that is pretty bleak from environmental, public health, and animal welfare perspectives. But they also described some victories, such as getting arsenic banned from chicken feed in Maryland. And Morison shared the compelling story of her transformation from an industrial farmer with a contract with a major poultry producer to a smaller scale independent farmer and political activist. We are grateful to Linda Lear, whose support for the Goodwin-Niering Center made this incredible event possible.