Using the legal system to fight factory farms | Michele Merkel | TEDxManhattan

Michele Merkel is co-director of Food & Water Justice, the legal arm of Food & Water Watch. Food & Water Justice uses the court system to advocate for positive change and provides legal support for Food & Water Watch’s mission to ensure that the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced.
Michele Merkel is co-director of Food & Water Justice, the legal arm of Food & Water Watch. Michele was formerly the Chesapeake Regional Coordinator for Waterkeeper Alliance. At Waterkeeper, Michele helped to develop and implement campaigns that protect the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays. Prior to joining the Waterkeeper, Michele was co-founder and Senior Counsel of the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). At EIP, she was responsible for developing and implementing legal campaigns under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, focusing on industrial livestock production and municipal sewage issues. Michele previously served as an attorney in the Enforcement Division of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, where she worked closely with the Department of Justice to develop and bring actions for violations of federal environmental laws.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@JoUnrau]

This is a courageous & smart woman. I shared this on FB & Twitter.

[@MrStuVW]

Thank you for standing up Michele Merkel, Truth is prevailing!!!

[@sarahconnor9747]

You go, girl~!! You inspire me and give back my faith in humanity, you really do. peace

[@PamSchwetz]

We need her and people like her in the EPA...they need to get rid of the corruption in that department and replace those corporate puppets with more people like her who actually care about the environment and work to protect it. We all need to hold the Environmental Protection Agency accountable for actually protecting the environment and wildlife and their habitat and get the corrupt corporate puppets out of there once and for all...in liberty and justice for all!

[@daisycypresstulipgarden2131]

Excellent work.

[@francinetolf7903]

Michele Merkel: my new hero. What a great, informative, inspiring talk. And what brave farmers on the front lines. The best part of this talk is that in spite of the horror of factory farms and the twin corruption of corporations and government, I felt at the end that I myself was not powerless. Michele tells us how we can fight back. Thank you for this Ted Talk. I will share it with whoever is willing to listen.

[@Sheilamaizi]

One of the best and important speeches I have seen!!!! Yes, we need to do something to get back our country!!!

[@EquillibriumClothing]

Shared and voting with our dollars is advocated as well as practiced... thank you for being fierce and all you do Michele Merkel! WE support you and are part of the fight with you \m/

[@gearedupkim9516]

Thank you Michele Merkel. We have a right to know this info, so Thank You for standing up & doing what you are doing to help. I shared.

[@rdelajartre25]

Thank you Michele!

[@zowiebowie1634]

right on

[@figapow]

The applause Michele Merkel gets in this vid for quitting her job and now working for people's rights, against the tyranny of the innumerable little tyrants our politicians create, is only be the beginning of recognition she should have. Only 647 views of this so far. C'MON - SEND A LINK FOR THIS TALK TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS. Do more than just giving a like - everybody who buys food or votes in this country ought to see this!!!

[@karisakeahey1563]

I shared this with a Facebook friend that is going through this fight with a factory farm in Fredericktown, Ohio. He is sharing this also, and contacted the organizations she mentioned in his state. If you want to give support to those in Frederick, Ohio that are trying to keep a factory farm from being built, please look it up.

[@davidewing6149]

Demand change come November. Michele is amazing. Look at what is happening in Iowa as farmers cull tens of thousands of animals. A regionally based system would be more nimble and could support a more humane system for animal welfare. Support Cory Bookers Farm System Reform Act 2019. End factory farming by knowing what you eat. Support Food & Water Justice, support farmers markets, coops like Grass Roots, look for humane labels. Call your reps now and demand change!

[@10toria19]

Keep up the good fight to end corporate farming. The fight is the right.

[@ki5ngau]

What? Smart and beautiful, double positives. 💢. Nice.

[@GershonWolf]

Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@kreassiva9138]

Who would have thought that people who live form brutaly killing innocent beings would menace to kill innocent beings.

[@SeymoreTheDisappointed]

I like eating meat but I really think that people should get rid of factory farms and replace them with normal farms you know so animals don't get abused or killed when alive and also that way more jobs will be available for people ( working on a farm)

[@aidanengel875]

facts

[@bruceblackwood2779]

and it's not just what we eat

[@geronimosilveira7349]

wethever it is on a factory or family farms, you can just eat legums instead of sentient beings

[@missmargarita5505]

No disrespect intended to the great men in this world, but she is the reason many men don't want a woman at the table. It's beautiful to watch more and more people believe that business should have a conscience. Yes, we are evolving to become more civilized and caring humans. I just wish the millionaire and billionaire moguls would catch up.

[@CEarthling]

Anyone who understands pain & suffering will always stand against animal abuse.Please be Vegan.Boycotting animal products is the only way to save animals from cruelty.

[@marklewis4793]

...it's been 3 yrs,...whats changed?

[@m.j.golden4522]

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them [other animals] for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the sense we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of earth." ~ Henry Beston, The Outermost House

[@eugenedaub7126]

Thank you Michele for your courage to stand up against the corporations that treat animals so cruelly , The world need more people like you . Everything i have heard about factory farming is horrific , and now we punish the whistle blowers. You talk was very inspirational . Eugene Daub

[@m.j.golden4522]

My hero! Stewardship, in the Christian tradition, implies protection. [Hu]Man should exist in harmony with the Earth, not work against it as is noted in Colossians 1:16-17 Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man. - Stewart Udall

[@marklewis4793]

i,sometimes,think that man is pollution,the rest of life would be healthier with us out of the way.

[@TheFarmersWife1]

Simply stunning! Every day more Bush and Cheney crimes against America! How much more will we put up with before they are charged and tried for their crimes against this country? I am an organic farmer or I was before fracking destroyed my life, ruined my business, and laid waste to virtually everything I worked my entire adult life for! Before fracking, the fight was Monsanto and GMOs! Talk about huge agribusinesses! Great job Michele! thanks for all you do!

[@g8pure33nergy8]

I am so sorry but she is B E A U T I F U LLLLLLL 😍

[@g8pure33nergy8]

On a serious note we have to wake up.. First seen her on "A River Of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms | Don McCorkell" One of the best docs Ive ever seen. It was released in 2009 when the chickens still looked real. Now the chicken looks like it came straight out a 3D printer and falls apart when you wash it. That was my last day eating meat period December 27 2023. 141 days in babeh. But between now and then I believe nothing has changed. In the doc, activist scientist and doctors worst fear was was the result of a pandemic or epidemic that works its way through animals and spreads to human beings and the possibility of a worldwide outbreak of disease that affects the lung and respiratory system... Sound familiar? GO VEGAN + GROW YOUR OWN FOOD. The soil is contaminated also on some of these farms you cant even trust the produce because of the water that's used on these farms is contaminated by the waste sprayed on the ground and seeps into the water and whats actually dumped in the water. Peace and Love, Spirit and Health

[@aaronverran1360]

eating any animal products is unsustainable and unhealthy a strictly whole foods plant based diet is the healthiest and most sustainable way to eat

[@mdb3102]

Yeah disagree, carnivore diet is where it's at. I am completely against factory farming though.

[@redbeanbunzz]

@@mdb3102 why is the carnivore diet (uhh you need fiber) 'what its at'? If more people had that diet, the rate of environmental destruction would just fold itself.

[@TheWimhoa]

Mucho thanks for putting your feet to a vote! Best of luck and thx for standing up when the EPA (corrupted by Bush et al. and left in place by Obama--ugh) wouldn't.

[@bunymn1]

Factory farms are essential and efficient. You can't beat them on market so let's beat them on court you speech's summary 😂

[@PamSchwetz]

Organic is affordable if people stop buying processed food and junk food with GMOs in them. If you are vegan or vegetarian even better because fruits and vegetables cost less than meat and are better for you and more ethical.

[@mdb3102]

Negative, carnivore beats it hands down except fer a few exceptions. I hate factory farms though

[@balderdashery1]

Only way to satisfy the selfish wish for animal products is factory farming. Family farms can not do it. Even if the switch was made, how is that going to mitigate the waste problem. Animals no matter where they are raised will create the same amount of waste. Even if all the animals were treated like pets until they were slaughtered, their lives would still be a fraction of the length of their normal lives and there is no such thing as humane slaughter. Family farms are just as brutal as factory farms. There is much undercover footage to prove it. Only sustainable way to eat is a plant based one. Of course this issue is not brought up here. If you can live a healthy life without harming anyone....why wouldn't you. Peace.

[@mdb3102]

Good comment but disagree with your main points. Plants dont feed us as well, evolution clearly shows that

[@michaelbisaillon6955]

Just go vegan!

[@kreassiva9138]

First sensate simple comment.

[@valerielewis7870]

Go vegan.

[@mdb3102]

No thanks ill stay carnivore n plot factory farms demise. Silly vegans