To the Editor:

April Fool's Day reminds us how the meat, egg, and dairy industries play us for fools every day.

The meat industry has developed a whole dictionary designed to fool unwary consumers. The flesh of pigs is called "pork" or "bacon" to fool viewers of Charlotte's Web into eating it. Killing of stunned animals for food is labeled "humane." And, cesspools of pig waste that spill into our drinking water supplies during hurricanes are named lagoons.

The egg laying industry is arguing with USDA whether chickens laying organic eggs should have access to the outdoors. But few seem to care that, for each hen that lays eggs, a male chick was ground up alive or suffocated in a plastic garbage bag, because it doesn’t. Or that laying hens themselves get to live less than one tenth of their natural lives.

A number of states have also enacted “ag-gag” laws that criminalize exposes of factory farm and slaughterhouse atrocities.

The meat, dairy, and egg industry's fooling days may be counted. Many of us are seeing through the deception and replacing animal meat, milk, cheese, and ice cream with kinder, healthier, and eco-friendly nut and grain-based products available in every supermarket.

Noah Crawford

Potsdam