Find out more at meat.org.
Well...I never want to eat meat again.
I'm trying to decide if the book was more jarring, or the documentary. Both have the exact same information, but Foer's satirical tone takes away some of the punch. His personal accounts of anonymous workers, factory farmers, and PETA members reveal more truly what factory farming is, and his openness and developed ethos made me believe that all factory farms were like this, not just a few isolated cases.
The fact of the matter is this: During our last BLA meeting, I was the only omnivore left in my group. Now, after watching this video - which has less information, less credibility to me, and is significantly shorter - I don't know what to think.
Foer told me that this is what they did, that animals were scalded alive, beaten, and genetically mutated - all for three seconds on a human tongue. I knew this before I watched the video, but the three seconds outweighed it for me, it just didn't affect me. But now I've seen the images, I've heard the narration running over it, and I can't get the images out of my head. I guess this is just a credit to visual arguments.
Barbaric. Malicious. Primitive. How can this be the norm in society? That fancy little filet on your plate, decorated with a sprig of herbs and maybe a nice little side salad? That used to be hanging upside-down on a kill line. It might have been alive while its blood drained from its neck. It might have been frozen but conscious while its body was stripped away. Because these "accidents" aren't rare in the modern food industry. I don't know why that isn't a bigger problem.
Foer and this video give three reasons to not eat meat (coupled with pleasant pictures of happy animals outside, nice touch, eh?): "Do it for the animals, do it for the environment, and do it for your health." Alright, I will.
People want cheap food, so farmers have to give them that. I'm not blaming the farmers. I'm just not going to support it...as much. I'm gonna try it though. That isn't to say that I won't eat turkey on thanksgiving, or indulge a little to celebrate. If I'm at a barbeque, I'm not gonna demand a special dish. Veggie-burgers are still disgusting. I'm just gonna try to eat less from now on. It won't change my life that much, hopefully no one will even be able to tell.
I'm still shuddering.
Pork: no
Beef: a lot less
Poultry: less
Fish: same
Tofu: is still gross
Shellfish: doesn't count
What bugs me is that animals are quite literally ripped apart in crop harvesters, as well; a single combine can drastically reduce vole/mole/rabbit/mouse populations in a wheat field as the rotary threshers tear open innocent wildlife.
ReplyDeleteI'm always somewhat irked by this argument. If activists truly want to prevent animal cruelty, they'll grow and handpick their own crops in their own fields. Sure, some might say that doing just a little "helps," but in my view, killing five people is just as bad as killing ten. :/