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Wikipedia / Dairy Cattle (2016)

Bessie or Big Mac? Desensitizing Americans to the U.S. Meat Industry

Each year, in the US alone, an average of 25.8 billion pounds of beef are produced and sold in supermarkets around the nation. Styrofoam trays containing tri-tips, flank steaks, and filet mignons, are sorted through by ravenous shoppers to find the best cut. Not often do we look at the shiny cellophane, remembering that your dinner was once a living, breathing creature.

For most people, since birth we are thrown into the “omnivorous” way of life. Roughly 97% of the population in the United States eats animal flesh on a day to day basis. This has always been the American way, hamburgers and hotdogs galore! But is there a better alternative?

Within the past decade, meat substitutes have become more and present in grocery stores. Large meat processing facilities like Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. have been exposed for unethical treatment and allowing sick animals to be slaughtered and processed for consumption. The animals are often horribly treated and raised off of unnatural feed which cause their health to deplete at extremely fast rates. Heifers are artificially inseminated to increase the reproduction rates, at the cost of the cow’s life.

fac·to·ry farm·ing

noun

a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions.

When fastfood took off in the early 1960’s, the meatpacking industry could not keep up with the demand for beef patties. This led to a new form of breeding farm animals for consumption — factory farming. Producing animals as fast as possible, for the cheapest price, to make the most profit. Capitalist companies see no problem with this, cows go in, out, don’t come back, and they make little to no dent in the pocketbook.

Teeth-clipping and tail-docking, almost always done without anesthetic

In a study done by the ASPCA, 94% of Americans agree that farm animals raised for eating deserve to be treated right while being brought up. However every year, over 10 million animals are mistreated and neglected on farms all over the US. Some of these unsafe conditions include, but are not limited to: teeth-clipping and tail-docking(both typically done without use of anesthetic), poor air quality, unnatural light patterns, and the misuse of antibiotics to make up for uncleanly living area. Your food or not, there is no excuse for this treatment.

Speciesism is a huge factor in this industry. The belief that we, humans, have an inborn entitlement to life. As Richard Ryder argues, “I use the word ‘speciesism’ to describe the widespread discrimination that is practised by man against other species … Speciesism is discrimination, and like all discrimination it overlooks or underestimates the similarities between the discriminator and those discriminated against.”

Huge meat-packing companies being exploited is becoming more and more common, scandals have popped up all over the nation giving Vegan and Vegetarian companies the opportunity to spring into action and take charge.

Using products like tofu, tempeh, jackfruit, beans, and mushrooms these companies have made a plethora of options for herbivorous people.

Malloreigh / Flickr

The societal benefits of not supporting this industry would be impeccable. The US creates more greenhouse gases raising animals, than all forms of transportation combined. 70% of the grain we grow, is used to feed farm animals. Cutting this production rate, even by ¼ of what it is now, would make an incredible difference in our Earth’s wellbeing.

There’s a reason cow is referred to as beef when being cooked on your barbecue. It’s a way to desensitize us to what we’re really doing. Factory farming is the price of cheap meat, thus the growth and dominance of companies like Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef.

Magazines, newspapers, and publishers avoid this area altogether due to the high-end lawyers these companies bring into play. They fight to hide the harsh truth — the truth that converts 20,000+ people to vegan and vegetarianism every year.

To say that everyone should drop their ways of life and become stout vegetarians. There are far more ethical ways of eating meat than to support the big name companies. Buying locally raised meat; from cage-free eggs and chicken or free roaming, grass fed cows and pigs, could make the world of difference for these animals lives. And our earth’s too.

De Dannan Mara