A lot of people don't understand that "factory farms" get franchised out to "small farmers." Big chicken producers hire farmers to raise their chickens. The smaller farmers take on much of the financial risk, employment issues, etc. So when someone takes video of bad practices on a farm, the responsibility might be on the hired farmer, or it might be on the big agra company that hired him but didn't pay enough for humane treatment and sanitary conditions.

The main issue is that often a farm isn't merely some small farmers property. It's the place where big agra policies are being enacted.

Few people would be outraged if someone smuggled a camera into a big factory to document abuses. Be skeptical of privacy arguments here. This is the equivalent of a big manufacturer contracting out to small sweatshops.

My background, I am from Idaho, my father, brother, and brother-in-law are all dairymen, and I worked my dad's dairy for 15 years.

I also know the guy who owns the dairy the film was taken on, and I know quite a few of the people performing the most ageegious acts were fired soon after it was published.

But, as an issue, the film was just published, in the most sensational way they could, and NO effort was made to contact the dairyman ahead of time. The point of making the film was not help, but to hurt, permanently.

The film that was produced, is being used against all areas of the milk industry. The people using it add words to the effect of "this is how all dairies treat their cows". I've already seen it used in campaigns against yogurt and cheese producers.

Also, the debate continues over here about the law. Some dairymen are campaigning to reverse the law and open things up completely. But a big issue is education, too many people in America have never really touched a cow, and think people treat them like a cat.

If you're interested in fixing the image of dairy farmers in Idaho it's probably not a good idea to ban filming on farms. Doing so just makes people assume the worst is happening. If, as you seem to argue, the conditions are not all that terrible, then why not open all diary farms to filming?

I also don't understand why the publisher should have contacted the dairyman beforehand. What purpose would that serve if the video would eventually be published anyway?

People care about where their food comes from now a days, and you're right that the public is ignorant of dairy techniques. However, you can't complain about the public's ignorance of dairy farming while at the same time decrying a publisher for making a move about dairy techniques. Censorship is not an effective means of education. If the dairymen want the public to be better educated then they should open their farms up, or start making their own movies detailing how they raise cows.

I hope Sergey Brin's artificial meat project will take off soon, there is this constantly increasing demand for cheap meat which has been one of the main reasons behind the increase of factory farms over the years:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2013/aug/05/google-...