Moby has slammed modern-day farming practices in a new interview — and admits he would choose animal activism over making music.
The musician makes his hard-hitting comments in an episode of documentary series Food Exposed with Nelufar Hedayat which airs tonight.
In the episode, which focuses on dairy farming, Moby admits: “The main thing that gives my life meaning and purpose is working on animal activism. You know, it’s the most important thing in my life. I like making music, but if you held a gun to my head and said ‘music or animal activism’ I would choose animal activism.”
During his interview, Moby explains that there are practically no laws in the US to protect farm animals, and talks about how what many see as shocking practices are all legal.
Playing devil’s advocate in our exclusive clip, Hedayat asks Moby and Gene Baur, the co-founder of farm animal protection organization Farm Sanctuary, how they would counter people who argue that getting rid of dairy farms could destroy jobs and a way of life.
Moby replies: “Well it’s funny because actually, animal agriculture is heavily subsidised by our tax dollar. There’s no cute, adorable little farmer holding a pitchfork. It’s stock holders, it’s board rooms, it’s these big corporations running animal agriculture like a machine.”
Baur adds: “And the crazy thing is that a lot of the farming people blame animal rights activists for putting farmers out of business — but it’s the factory farms that are putting most farms out of business.”
Moby says: “Yup, it’s a broken system, but luckily there are people like you who are becoming increasingly aware of it and are going to work to make it better.
Baur continues: “Most people are unwittingly supporting it, and that’s a big part of the problem, but as consumers start shifting away change can happen. I mean, businesses are pretty much amoral — they’re not for or against morality or ethics. They’re for money. So if people start buying different kinds of foods, the industry’s going to start creating them.”
The “Dairy” episode of Food Exposed sees Hedayat travel across America in a bid to learn about the ways dairy farms produce the milk millions of people buy each day across the U.S.
At one large dairy farm in California, she is shocked by its scale, with thousands of cows being milked three times a day. She also meets with an undercover investigator who reveals the impact of keeping costs low, including sick animals not getting medicines that they need.
According to Fusion, a reduction in milk consumption in the US since the 1970s has led to excess production of milk, with 43 million pounds of fluid milk dumped manure pits and rivers in 2016
Food Exposed with Nelufar Hedayat airs tonight, Tuesday, April 10, at 8pm ET/PT on FUSION.