The postponement of reality and moral responsibilities (final paper)

Through out the years farming in its self has changed from farmers actually going out and plowing and growing all sorts of crops to one to two farmers driving trucks producing mass amounts of crops (usually just two crops, which are corn and soy beans). Industry is to blame for what has happened to the way factory farming has grown and how it produces all its products. The argument can be made that nothing is natural anymore because of the process in which meat and crops are obtained. It can also be seen as the consumer’s fault for how things have turned out with farming. To meet all the demands of the consumers, industrialization has taken over to find the best way to mass-produce our foods. There in lies the question is there any alternative option to industrial food? Then in my opinion there are many people that are not aware that they are surrounded by so many wrongs and are disillusioned about where there food comes from. Many factory farms treat animals inhumanely and by government regulation are allowed to do so. But I feel that if more people got a closer look into where their food came from then they would stop and think about everything that our society has told us or has not told us about our food. Industrialization has caused family farming to be something of the past where it’s image has become distorted with an overwhelming sense of manufacturing.

“Eating is an agricultural act”. It is all part of a process. The factories “make” the food, than it gets put into grocery stores and then bought by the consumer. But most consumers are unaware of what is really happening in the factories that “make” our food. With the overwhelming demand for meat factory farming has found a way that more meat can be made, the same goes for eggs and milk. The animals during when there was no factory farming, lived their lives out in the open where they could roam free. But now most animals are “confined to the point that they can barely move” (Farms to fridge) because the workers want to fit as many animals in a smaller amount of space so that there will be more of them come time to kill them. These conditions just get worse. It is said that the chicken is the most abused animal on the planet. Yet all animals that go into factory farming are abused. All animals are tightly packed. Some even wind up walking on the dead because a lot of animals die in those conditions. Chicken’s beaks get cut off because they do not want the chickens fighting and getting killed. According to the meatrix, dairy farms give their cows RBGH, which is a growth hormone so that cows produce more milk. RBGH have been banned in Canada and the European union and yet is still being used today in the USA. Then after growing up in the factories and being sent to the slaughterhouse most are conscious during the time when their throats are slit. Yet when chickens are sick and are about to die, farmers beat them with metal rods and when pigs get sick they are slammed into the floor headfirst. I have no idea how anyone can do this as a living. I would be so put up with meat but then there lies the problem. The people that do know what’s going on and continue to eat meat probably are less concerned because they do not see it happening, they just know its happening.

Our government is also to blame for the treatment of the animals. They profit from the many factory farms and don't seem to care all that much about the family farms that are being put out of business. The government is also doing nothing about the living conditions of the many animals that live on the farm. Then there is the government telling consumers that the more they "apply chemicals and technology to agriculture, the more food will be produced and the lower the price will be to the consumer"(Industrial Food is Cheap). In many cases industrialized food is cheaper then organic food. But if you look at it in the long run a lot of money is going into the process of making food such as the many hormones being given to the cows, the many machines, etc. There is also the price of the clean up of toxins that get polluted from the factories. These toxins are effecting the many communities that live near these factory farming and it also effects the animals living there. And yet many of these factory farms are under government regulation. As long as they profit they see nothing wrong in what is happening to the animals. But what I cannot seem to understand is why treat these animals so badly? They give us our food and by living in harsh conditions many die. It’s kind of like the slave owner. He treats his workers badly but if it weren’t for them he wouldn’t make any money so wouldn’t it be smarter to be nicer and not get them hurt so that they can function right and do their job. It’s the same with the animals. They help support human life. But all we do is take and there is nothing that is being given back.

Our culture does not want us knowing about these ways in which farming has developed. When we are little kids we are taught about the family farms and are shown pictures of happy animals living in wide pastures. Most Americans today probably are not aware of where there food comes from and how the animals are treated. I think it if anyone is to change it would be kids. Older people are set into their ways too much to make a change but kids have all the potential to change themselves and other around them. If a kid wanted to start eating food that came from family farms then it would cause the other members in the family to try it as well. In my opinion schools should start to teach the kids about what goes on with factory farming so that as they get older they won’t live their lives ignorant to matters that surround their daily lives. Before learning about all of this in this class I was kind of aware that most farms today are not what they used to be. But I could have never guessed that most animals that live on factory farms are treated so badly. Most animals are compacted so closely together that they cannot move right and then there are those like cows that are sick and have milk pumped from them daily and are given hormones that give them more milk. This is such an unnatural way of doing something and it is appalling. I never knew that calf's get fed blood from those that have died. I do not know why anyone would do this to any animal.

Living in today’s society it’s hard to see a world with out meat. It’s the human way to want to control everything. We have taken nature and made it impure and unethical by adding all these machines and treating the animals so badly. Industrialization has lead the movement to shut down family farming going on since the beginning of the 20th century and does not seem to have an end until the whole world is consumed with industrialization. I am also surprised that no one is really speaking out about it and how our government can let this happen. Though I feel that if a majority were told only perhaps less then half might do something about it, half would change their perspective and start watching were they get their food and the other half would be like oh I never knew that and not be affected. After learning this course I have made a resolution to start noticing where my food comes from and when I go out to buy meat and other products from the grocery store I will make sure it is organic. I am a little sad to say that even after watching all the videos on animal’s cruelty I will still eat chicken and occasionally other meat.