LUVERNE - As he stood before hundreds of cattle producers and agricultural professionals Monday night, Kevin Murphy, founder of Food-Chain Communications, writer of the “Truth in Food” blog and creator of the Truth in Food College Initiative, shared a message of urgency, saying, “The agricultural industry is under assault.”

Murphy delivered a nearly hour-long message about the growing food morality movement during the Rock-Nobles Cattlemen’s Association annual banquet, saying the assault on agriculture is taking place in the news media, on college campuses and even in churches.

“Agriculture is no longer the solution to the problem - it is the problem,” Murphy said of the message being delivered by activists against animal agriculture, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

“The food morality movement is everywhere … but it is so much more prevalent than just the activists,” he added. “It might be a teacher in your elementary school, it might be a pastor, it might be your friend or your family member.

“If you don’t change behavior, if you don’t look for an opportunity to correct the lies and distortions that people make today and if you don’t make your presence felt, then those people that are lining up against agriculture will remake it into their own image and likeness.”

Activist groups that once spread their message to denounce agriculture and the modern food production system based on science are now basing their messages on religion, ethics and morality, Murphy attested.

Why? Because denouncing those claims can be challenging.

In a New York Times article, “How a national food policy could save millions of American lives,” four authors - Mark Bittman (a food writer for the Times), Michael Pollan (activist, professor of journalism and author of the Omnivore’s Dilemma), Ricardo Salvador from the Union of Concerned Scientists (an activist group) and Olivier De Schutter, a professor of human rights law - combined to spread the message, Murphy said, that they want the following:

n To allow all Americans access to healthful food.

n To design farm policy to support public health and environmental objects.

n Food free of toxic chemicals, bacteria and drugs.

n Marketing to instill in children the value of healthy eating.

n Animals treated with compassion and attention to well being.

“What they’re trying to do is take the high moral ground so they can turn around and dictate to you what is the high moral ground,” Murphy said. “These folks are getting so bold in taking down agriculture, they’re telling you what they’re doing.”

HSUS is a $180 million nonprofit with scientists and veterinarians, and it now want sto talk about morals and values in agriculture, Murphy said. It isn’t the only group leading the movement.

Murphy said Whole Foods is sending a message: “If you want healthy, if you want good, if you want people that are respectful of the land, then you go organic.”

“Make no mistake, organic is fine,” he shared. “I do have a problem if somebody tells me, though, that I’m immoral or unethical if I’m not an organic farmer - which is exactly what the Organic Consumers Association, the largest organic group, says.”

Murphy said the anti-agriculture message has shifted to one targeting ethics because “if you knew exactly what those people thought, it wouldn’t sell.”

“If somebody tells you … you are an animal, co-equal with all of the other animals, therefore you have no right to use animals for food, clothing or medical experimentation because you are a co-equal, we in agriculture laugh,” he said.

Murphy spoke of Cass Sunstein, the former regulatory czar in the Obama Administration who left his position in 2012 to return to Harvard University. Sunstein teaches animal law at Harvard and, according to Murphy, wants animals to have the right to sue people.

“All he needs is one judge to rule in his favor - one judge to set a precedence - and there will be difficult times ahead for all of agriculture, especially animal agriculture,” Murphy said, adding that Sunstein is seeking to get a primate to have the same status as a human being.

As another example, Murphy spoke of author and journalist Matthew Scully, who says if people truly want to be pro-life, they also need to be pro-animal life.

“He suggests that the Republican party adopt the dual plank of pro-life and pro-animal life,” Murphy said.

During his presentation, Murphy also highlighted nationwide companies that have been positioning agriculture as the problem. One example he gave was Chipotle, a restaurant that promotes its organic, grass-fed, all-natural meat.

“Chipotle has done a very good job of creating a dichotomy that says, ‘Here’s the good food system - it’s organic, it’s natural, it’s non-GMOs, it’s grass-fed, it’s insisting that pigs have a place to roam and root.’ God forbid we put them in gestation crates,” said Murphy. “They had a whole program, food with integrity. Their food is food with integrity, whereas (a restaurant) like McDonald’s is void of that integrity. McDonald’s used to own Chipotle.”

It wasn’t too long ago that McDonald’s announced that farmers who produced pork for the restaurant had to get rid of gestation crates. Murphy said when that press release was issued, it was signed by an individual from HSUS.

“McDonald’s is a $28 billion (company), HSUS is $180 million, but they have influenced McDonald’s to make those demands upon its suppliers,” Murphy said.

He encouraged those involved in agriculture to make their voices heard - to tell the real story of agriculture.

“If we don’t operate with a sense of urgency, I can’t tell you what will happen in agriculture,” he said. “Their goal is to divide and conquer. The organizations we’re fighting against are designed to take you down. They want to pit farmer against farmer, beef against dairy, organic against conventional.”