Remember back when
you were in high school and had to get a job for gas money or some pocket cash
to let you do what you want? While many of my friends used to mow lawns or work
at convenient stores, I used to spend my summers working at a butcher shop.
Growing up in a very rural community where cattle where raised in large
pastures eating natural grass and local grown corn, hay, and silage. The
livestock lived satisfying lives and they satisfied local customers taste buds
equally as much.
I was eating a big mac during my lunch break, and as good as it tasted the color of it just wasn’t appealing and I couldn’t help but wonder where this burger came from. Turns out Americans alone consume one billion pounds of beef at McDonald's each year, five and a half million head of cattle. (http://www.businessinsider.com/amazing-facts-mcdonalds-2010-12?op=1) How and where are these cattle grown? Selling 75 burgers every second, means you need a lot of beef and for it to grow quickly. This takes place at factory farms which are large confinements containing massive amounts of livestock. Example:
Animals in factory farms are treated as machines, their welfare is disregarded in the name of profit. On standard commercial egg farms, hens are kept in such small cages that they cannot even lift one wing. Factory farmed animals often have their tails, horns and genitals chopped off with no anesthesia. These animals are kept intensively and painfully confined, and are given many hormones for rapid growth. At the end of their miserable lives, they are all sent to violent commercial slaughterhouses where stunning procedures sometimes fail, and the animals are dismembered or skinned while still conscious.
For your own health
concerns and for the sake of these animals please try to stay away from these
large fast food conglomerates and support your local farmers.
Some more supporting evidence might be good to sway your viewers to your point. For example, how supporting local is better than supporting corporate, the health concerns with commercial meat (which you mention at the end, but never said anything about elsewhere), and probably a few other reasons that I'm sure you can think out from somewhere. Decent blog all-in-all, though!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting topic to write on! I have to admit, thinking about this makes me sick to my stomach. For the past couple of years, I have been swaying back and forth between being a vegetarian or not. A part of me loves to eat meat and all of the tasty food options that come with it, however, a larger part of me thinks of things you mentioned in your blog, and I cannot seem to do it. The ill treatment of animals sickens me; how can we as a United States neglect living things and then in turn put them in our body? I hope that you have seen the documentary Food Inc. or Super Size me, both which open our eyes to the unhealthiness of our food and fast food systems in America. I do think that more supporting evidence would be nice to back up your claims and get those who are not as aware of the problem interested in learning more. It definitely makes me think before I stop at my local fast food chain in the future.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that someone wrote a post on this. My mom teaches a sustainability class, and has talked to me about how important it is to eat local produce and meats. Eating from these local establishments is actually better for the environment too, because the cattle are not being shipped from one side of the country to the other. My family now buys cage free eggs, organic milk, and local meat and produce. This is both an animal rights issue and an environmental issue. It needs to be dealt with, so thank you for shedding some light on this topic.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article! Although I would love to be a vegetarian, because I stand very strong for animal rights, not having meat would be very difficult. Its terrible the conditions animals live in before we kill them, then consume it. From a dairy farm, I grew up taking care of thousands of animals, never once did our family put animals endangered for for money. I believe our government needs to step forward about these living conditions, not only for our sake as the consumer but for the animals.
ReplyDeleteI actually lived in Germany for 1 year last year and the quality of the meat there (in restaurants and stores...) was much better. The reason it was much better was because they tend to go local with small farms (they tend not to have slaughter houses like we have here in the US) -- I know in my family we try and buy as local as we can with meat or dairy. Excellent topic
ReplyDeleteI liked that you added a call to action at the end, encouraging consumers to be mindful of where they are purchasing their meat from. One thing I'm wondering, and maybe you could do research on, would be the affects on our bodies eating corporate vs. small farmer meat? I would be curious to know if the poor conditions that the animals live in manifests into our bodies when we eat them, compared to small owner buisnesses meat. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered where fast food meat comes from. I can understand that these corporations need food fast, but using growth hormones might have a drastic affect on our own health as well, (just stating some common sense cause-affect relations.) I feel like some more supporting evidence would be good. Also, relate some more info back to natural grown beef. You must have some good ideas of this because of your background in a rural community. Maybe give some examples of differences between natural grown beef and corporate farm beef.
ReplyDeleteThe issue of factory farming came up in my Moral Problems class last semester, it was a good discussion all around; but one thing struck me as a problem: A lot of the time fast food joints and ready-made meals are sometimes the only food a person can afford in both categories of time and cash. So while we should be definitely acting for reform on such things, it will no doubt increase the healthiness of the food, but also the cost of the food. In addition to that, the sheer number of people it would require to make an impact on a fast food chain or industry as a whole definitely seems like it would require a lot of organizing and educating- something that would definitely require a decent amount of time to see an impact on. However, I am definitely all for increasing the care to animals, and seeing an increase in the healthiness of our food choices.
ReplyDeleteI would advise you to check out the documentary "Vegucated" on Netflix. It brought to my attention the dangers and sick practices of factory farming, and just how disgusting some of the practices that getting our meat can have. Although I do not plan on becoming a vegetarian or a vegan, I do agree with your statement to support local farms, where you know where the food you are consuming comes from. I worked at a farmer's market over the summer and felt that through eating all natural foods from local farms, I felt better about myself and also about my morals when it comes to my food consumption.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that someone else is writing in a similar vein! I think if you were to explore the sustainable vs. industrial dichotomy throughout your next blog posts that this is an excellent introduction. I also agree that expanding the scope to include cost and access would be not only interesting but more impactful.
ReplyDeleteFood is so important! We are what we eat, so they say, and I liked that you referenced the treatment of animals to bring awareness to the issue. I would rather eat a happy animal than a cruelly-tortured one. If you could talk about the rising costs of food and the arguments for localizing with links to interesting factual information that would be helpful to your case.
ReplyDelete