Jim Henley at the Art of the Possible blog has a great article on agribusiness and sustainable farming, touching on the neglected libertarian issue of humane farming as well:
Liberals should also work to remove the impediments to small-scale farming and food production that the USDA and other agencies have thrown up. I'm not asking you to end all health and safety regulations, but the burden on the farmer that I can look in the eye, and who will let me walk her land before I buy anything from her, should be less than the burden on the slaughterhouse that won't even allow cameras inside. Joel Salatin's Everything I Want to Do is Illegal is a good place to start. Smaller, even part-time slaughterhouses. Freedom in marketing.
Liberals are now asking what libertarians are supposed to do while they carry out all my assignments. Answer: bug you guys to get all this done. You're the ones with the power anyway. Honestly, it's a naive program anyway. I don't think the large interests who benefit from existing policy are going to yield, and I don't think most progressives have the interest to see comprehensive agriculture policy through.
But, for libertarians: Spend more money for better meat, when you buy meat. Try to eliminate factory-farmed meat from your shopping cart and diet. Stop thinking of owned animals as the same kind of property as a cheap toy. Stop picking on vegetarians and vegans. If you're really anti-state rather than merely anti-left, respect their choices. Even if a given veg's reasoning sounds silly to you, remember that it's their life. (Open season on vegans who want to legislate you into veganism; and I recommend brining for extra tenderness. But this country has millions of vegetarians and vegans and, let's face it, no movement for forced veg-ism worth noticing. Most vegans and vegetarians just go about their herbivorous business.) Every new vegetarian lowers the demand for meat, putting that much downward pressure on price.
This isn't about "easy ways to make a difference" so much as being on the leading edge of the massive changes this country will face in the years to come. Start changing your life now so that you can help others later. That is a far more crucial matter than politics.
Read this article
