Readers Write: Gaza resolution in Minneapolis, hog farming

Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here . ••• At the City Council meeting Monday, the vote on a resolution calling for a permanent cease fire in Gaza was delayed two weeks, apparently due to opposition from the mayor, some council members, the Jewish Community Relations Counsel and its supporters ( "A council confronts war," Jan.

9). Over Council Member Robin Wonsley's objection, the word "genocide" was removed from the resolution . In the coming two weeks, Israel will kill up to 2,800 Palestinians, 70% of whom will be women and children. Starvation and infectious disease will deepen to life threatening levels.

If this isn't stopped, those who enter Gaza once the fighting ends will be shocked by scenes reminiscent of the concentration camps that I heard about growing up Jewish. I can't help but wonder: For the council members who forced the delay, expressed opposition or remain uncommitted, if it were their children, traumatized by the constant shelling, dislocation and death all around them, suffering from diarrhea, hunger and thirst, would they feel differently about the urgency to pass this resolution? I implore these council members to reconsider.

Passing this resolution won't immediately stop the genocide, but it may contribute to the growing pressure on federal elected officials to do so. It's time to end the bloodshed and prioritize the release of the Israeli hostages and the Palestinian prisoners. Family and friends of the hostages are demonstrating by the thousands in the streets of Israel, demanding just that.

They want their loved ones back. Alive. It's time the council members joined their call. Bob Goonin, Minneapolis ••• "This is a complicated issue, but that doesn't mean we should avoid it." So says my new Council Member Aurin Chowdhury at the first organizational meeting of the new Minneapolis City Council.

This in support of a resolution calling for a cease fire in the Israel Hamas war that wasn't even on the agenda. Or anywhere remotely within the city's jurisdiction. Nor did its authors even have the courtesy or decency to inform the mayor of this addition to the agenda. I'm not a fan of the mayor, didn't support the "strong mayor" charter amendment and voted for Chowdhury, reluctantly.

I hadn't planned to support the potential charter amendment to restrict the City Council's appointment oversight. But if this is the City Council's first and top priority, then maybe we should further limit the City Council's authority. And since it's now purely a legislative body with too much time on its hands, maybe make it a part time body, which certainly seems to work in St.

Paul. I'm glad that some City Council members are energized about this. We should all be concerned. But I suggest that the council work on issues within or closer to their authority, like the Police Department, homelessness, crime and safety, etc. Louis Hoffman, Minneapolis ••• Thanks for covering Minnesotans' concerns about the slaughter of innocents in Gaza — finally! I call you on highlighting the disruption of the chanting, however, at the "largely ceremonial" first meeting of the City Council.

Numbers of us have been protesting in anguish for months. KSTP notes : "The resolution vote was added after a weekend of demonstrations throughout Minneapolis. The Free Palestine Coalition ended a week of planned protests and calling for a cease fire during a Sunday event, when they marched from the federal building to senator Amy Klobuchar's Office." But without Star Tribune reporting, your readers — and perhaps our government officials — have not heard about our great pain as it pours out in ever larger and louder ways.

Why this is a local issue and how our humanity is on the line was detailed in a very dramatic news conference Friday by the framers of the Gaza cease fire resolution. I'm glad I was there because I certainly couldn't read about it in the paper. Your readers also deserve to know of the many Jewish voices for peace.

This disproportionate, asymmetric slaughter is genocide, not war. I am aghast that our public treasure is dispensed in this unconstitutional, immoral, climate destroying and pointless manner. Amy Blumenshine, Minneapolis ••• What does weighing in on international issues have to do with the City Council's job? This is a waste of time, money and energy.

I do not pay Minneapolis taxes for this. There are additional horrible conflicts taking place around the world. Is the plan to weigh in on these as well? Cindy Landis, Minneapolis Regarding "For state's hog farms, California 'law is law'" (Jan. 9): As a retired hog farmer who never used crates and founder of the high animal welfare meat brand Niman Ranch, which today boasts a community of 500 plus crate free hog farmers, including over 40 in Minnesota, I'd like to share an alternative perspective on California's Proposition 12.

Our network proves every day that not only is producing crate free pork possible, it can be profitable and ultimately more pleasant for the pig and farmer alike. Prop 12 has served as a convenient red herring to distract from the true underlying challenges hog farmers face today — inflation, high interest rates, astronomical land prices and a consolidated agriculture industry hyper focused on quantity and scale.

In this pursuit of cheap meat, the industry has lost sight of basic consumer expectations on animal welfare, including the ability for pregnant mother pigs to stand up, turn around and lie down during their nearly four month gestation period. Leading animal welfare expert Temple Grandin compares gestation crates to being forced to spend months at a time strapped in an airplane seat — while pregnant, no less! No one is forcing farmers to sell their pork into California.

This law provides the opportunity for savvy farmers to tap into a higher premium market. Because it's the law, not just a corporate crate free commitment that can be walked back, farmers have assurance that crate free demand will always be there and that compliance investments will see returns over time.

I acknowledge change isn't easy, but it's time for the industry to listen to consumers, the ballot box and the Supreme Court by embracing more humane production practices. Paul Willis, Thornton, Iowa ••• Basil, the pig featured in "For state's hog farms, California 'law is law,'" caught my eye.

Basil's freedom, walking from a sunny pasture to a sunlit pen, reflects the pastoral scene most people imagine when they think of farming. It calls to mind the Fisher Price farm set I played with as a child. But most pigs' lives in Minnesota are nothing like Basil's. Nearly 99% of pigs eaten in the U.S.

come from factory farms where they are forced to endure gestation crates. These crates confine pregnant pigs to an area barely larger than their bodies and are so small that they cannot even turn around. Had the article's featured photo been of hundreds of pigs lined up in gestation crates, instead of Basil roaming freely, the reader's sympathy would center on the unnecessary suffering of these animals and not on the large factory farms being required to convert their (cruel) methods of confinement.

In the article, Todd Marotz from Gaylord's Wakefield Pork said that banning gestation crates is part of a "vegan agenda." Keep in mind, it took a majority of voters to successfully ban gestation crates in California (as well voters and lawmakers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island) though only 4% of Americans are vegan.

This isn't a conversation about whether or not we should eat pigs; it's a question of how much we are willing to make them suffer. As the nation's second largest pork producer, Minnesotans could make a profound impact on the lives of millions of pigs by banning gestation crates. I hope that Democrats will use the upcoming legislative session to ensure pigs in Minnesota have the basic freedom to stand up, lay down and turn around.

Sarah Super, St. Paul.