In a past blog I gave a simple and likely boring yet informative piece about the importance of buying locally. I discussed how large agricultural corporations have destroyed the small local farms in order to mass produce meat & vegetables for economic gain. And that in doing so they have caused mass air and water pollution and contaminated food products with dangerous pesticides, growth hormones and other chemicals.
A point that I did not elaborate on was the cruelty towards animals that these large corporations practice. Cows & chickens do not have acres to graze in, but instead are packed in so tightly that they are literally on top of one another with no space to even turn around; chickens beaks are cut off to avoid pecking one another; calves are fed the blood of other cows (yes this is part of the mad cow issue were meat and bone meal was fed to livestock); cows are slaughtered while not being unconscious - please see this website for much much more information http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/animalwelfare/
I recently watched a movie called Fast Food Nation which is based on a book by Eric Schlosser, a book I was fortunate to have read in sociology class. The movie does a great job at emphazing the economic and political power these large fast food corporations have and how they will put economic gain above public health. Although the film has one momentum from start to finish, the big picture and different perspectives makes for a powerful message.
Even more impressive than the movie itself is the three short animations that are special features of the dvd called the Meatrix starring Moopheus. I urge everyone to go to the following website and play all three movies (part 1, 2, and 2 1/2), as they provide insight into the world of factory farming.
http://www.themeatrix.com/
1 comment:
Another great movie (fast food nation and the meatrix) that really point out what globalization and the overall greed and how we have become such glutton’s in North America. We now -and have been for some time- altering all our food products from an apple to the meat that we through on the barbeque.
We also turned to mass production of chicken, beef, and pork. But when that wasn’t enough to sustain our already expanding bellies, TNCs (Transnational Corporations) decided to up the production by packing in more cows per sq foot and using inhuman techniques like snapping the beaks off of chickens so they do not fight -their natural instinct- when they are placed into small crates with way to many roommates. Some animals don’t get to see the light of day while others have never even turned around.
But purchasing more organic meats and reducing the overall meat that we consume can at least be a start. Funny thing I purchased a few bananas the other day and couldn’t realize why they were browning so fast and then it dawned on me, they were organic. So whatever chemical they use in the regular bananas obviously works well and I wonder what it is doing to my system now?
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