Final food assignment

Food is a fundamental part of living and surviving, both individually and as a society. As a nation, we heavily rely on industrialized food products at every mealtime. The way we treat the Animals we eat really says a lot about our society, our values, and our priorities. 

In the song "Cows with Guns", Dana White sings "They eat to grow, they grow to die, die to be eaten at the hamburger fry; Cows well done". This shows how ugly the business of eating has become; a true corporate entity. The cows are given steroids to expedite growth, and are being tortured and crammed into the smallest spaces possible to expedite profits. It seems the meat industry has this idea that it doesn't matter what the Animals are put through; we are entitled to do it and we are entitled to have these animal's lives at our disposal. This proves once more to me that the Human race as a whole has some kind of superiority complex. 

The song also personifies the cows; the lyrics have them being led by a cow guru and planning a revolution, complete with, you guessed it, guns. While I was watching the video, I wish that cows could actually stand up for themselves and put a stop to the way they are being treated and tortured. 

It was also sickening to watch the videos in class of the workers casually slaughtering the animals and then heading for their lunch break and eating meat. To me this shows that our culture has such a huge lack of respect for Animals. A Human death is seen as a tragic loss, and it is not accepted as morally correct to kill another Human. Yet here workers hold a 9-5 job of slaughtering Animals, and face no real societal stigmas. To me this indicates a lot about the kind of people we are, and our so called "moral codes". In addition, before being slaughtered, the animals face an extreme amount of torture. If such treatment were to be given to Humans, we would have called it a genocide and have seen it as highly immoral. 

This made me think about when Andy was asking us if we could accept a free lamp knowing it was made out of the skin of dead Jews from the Holocaust. Of course, no one would take it. Even though it is true that the Jews were already dead, owning such a piece would be like supporting, encouraging, and accepting the torture that the Jews had faced before death. Similarly, when we buy meat products from these industrial farms, we are sending the message to these companies that we are OK with the way they raise, torture and kill the animals; we are condoning this behavior. 

I think that since cow's don't have guns, we have to fight for them, and for us. I could go for the Animals being treated well, and the food being healthier for us (no antibiotics & steroids). Already there are some companies that sell this type of meat. The downfall is that Americans love cheap, and this meat would be more expensive. However, if lets say a few million Americans decide to purchase exclusively this type, then the hormone infected meat companies would see a decrease in sales, and get the message from their consumers: We need healthy food and humane conditions. I don't know if this will ever happen, but I sure hope so.

In terms of myself, I am already planning to look closely at labels for things such as "hormone free" when I go grocery shopping, and to pick the most natural/ cruelty free products available  in the mainstream market (I don't have access to anything but). 

Overall, this food unit has opened my eyes to what's really on my plate, and has helped me see how I can make the best decisions possible for myself, and in the future, my family.