There is nothing wrong with vegetarianism. I used to be a vegetarian, so I completely understand. But I became a vegetarian, because I was upset about the way animals are treated during life and death, not because I think it's wrong to eat meat. I believe we should be able to eat without worrying about how the animal we're eating was treated in life or death, because it is perfectly fine to eat meat. It's natural, and it's a part of life. (Survival of the fittest.) As long as we treat animals well in life and in death, and as long as we don't overkill animals and waste meat, then we should have no problems with eating meat. Remember, our natural design is to have appendices, which are organs that digest raw meat, so obviously we were meant to eat meat. God (or whatever you believe is the reason for life) would not design us with an organ we weren't meant to use. With that being said, I'll reiterate my point that vegetarianism is not wrong. This argument seeks to justify eating meat.
And now I just have to make a few corrections. I'm sure no one cares about the Works Cited, but I included it just for credibility's sake. Anyway, the websites keep messing up when they are formatted into this note, so I did not include them, so please excuse this issue. If anyone wants the websites, because they're interested in this topic, let me know, and I'll send them to you. Also, the spacing and indenting is messed up in the paper and in the Works Cited...It's just another formatting issue, so please excuse that as well. Ok, now onto the point of this note. This is the paper I wrote for English class:
From the last week of October 2011 to the first week of November 2011, the world population reached 7 billion. While it took a millennia for the population to reach 1 billion, it then took only 130 years for it to reach 2 billion, and it only took a measly 12 years for the population to sky rocket from 6 billion to 7 billion (Bess). 312.5 million of these people are Americans (“Population Clocks”), a jump of an incredible 86 million since July of 1980 (“Population in the U.S.”). The world population, along with the U.S. population, is very obviously growing at an extremely rapid pace, and there is no evidence to suggest that it will wane any time soon. Along with the growing population comes a need to feed more than 312.5 million American mouths. According to college professor and author Peter Singer, “global meat consumption is predicted to double by 2020.” In order to keep up with this, meat production industries adopted the mass meat production system. While it may sound great to have more than enough meat on American dinner plates in a short period of time, it is abusive toward both animals and humans, and the implementation of the system results in countless consequences.
The current meat production industry is, in many ways, abusive toward animals in life and, just as well, in death. For many people, the main concern is the way meat factories kill animals. Undercover PETA investigators have witnessed factories slaughtering animals via shocking them with an electric current, thereby inducing a heart attack or seizure. For hogs, after factories stun and scald them, they dunk them head-first into a bucket of water to drown. PETA investigators have discovered Tyson Chicken workers slaughtering chickens by jumping up and down on their heads, dipping them into scalding tanks for feather removal while they are conscious, swinging them by their feet into walls and floors, etc. These PETA representatives have also obtained videos of workers ripping the esophagi and tracheas of cattle while they are still alive and fully conscious. Some workers even chain cattle upside down by one leg prior to killing it, and during this procedure, some cattle’s limbs break (“If Slaughterhouse had Glass Walls”). The killing of animals in these brutal ways is undeniably wrong and torturous, but the main concern for some people is how factories treat animals during their lives.
Arguably what should be the biggest concern is how factories treat animals throughout their lives. Chickens, for instance, live in sheds that can hold up to 20,000 chickens at once, forcing them to trample each other and injure themselves. Workers force chickens to overeat, causing some of their legs to break under extreme weight. As for pigs, employees shove them into miniscule stalls, where they are unable to turn around and have nothing, except concrete, beneath them for cushion. Along with the miserable way factory animals live their lives, workers also feed them food that is not meant for animals, such as chicken litter (animal excrement included,) slaughterhouse waste, corn, and fish meal (Singer.) Not only do meat production workers torture animals during slaughter, but they also torture them throughout their lives.
While many people know the current meat production industry is abusive toward animals, few people realize it is also abusive toward its employees. Evidence of this is depicted in the documentary Food Inc., which explicitly reveals many issues of the meat production industry, including its abusive tendencies toward its workers. In the documentary, the Food Inc. producers interviewed “good farmer” Joel Salatin, who claims that “a culture that just uses a pig as a pile of protoplasmic inanimate structure,…will probably view individuals within its community, and other cultures in the community of nations, with the same type of disdain and disrespect and controlling type mentalities” (Food Inc.). Salatin seems to have the right idea, since writer Susan S. Lang contends that meat industry workers are underpaid, sometimes less than minimum wage, with few or no benefits, even though they work long hours and perform highly dangerous jobs. Employees are under constant fear of losing their jobs, especially immigrant workers, who are prominent in the meat production industry. The meat production industry takes particular interest in hiring illegal immigrant workers, because they can threaten to turn them into the authorities if they raise concerns in the industry. In addition to constant threats, there have been numerous reports of abuse directed toward employees, including physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse (Lang).
Pollution is a product of the current meat production industry, as well. The Vegan Outreach Team recently revealed that 18 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions and 64 percent of anthropogenic ammonia emissions are from meat factories (“Environmental Destruction”). These gas emissions include carbon dioxide (the main cause of global warming,) methane, and nitrous oxide. Emissions of carbon dioxide come from burning fossil fuels, the destruction of forests in order to make pastures for livestock, and animal manure. Methane is the leading cause of trapped heat in the atmosphere and is the result of cesspools filled with animal excrement and animal digestion. The meat production industry is the main source of methane emissions in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Finally, meat, dairy, and egg industries account for 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions globally (“Fight Global Warming…”). Emissions of such gases result in acid rain and acidification of ecosystems, which leads to global climate shifts and global warming. Water pollution with animal excrement, fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones, is another health hazard with which to be concerned. Such pollution results in degradation of coral reefs, resistance to antibiotics, and, of course, diseases. Deforestation in order to create land for livestock destroys the land. Such pollution and deforestation destroy the planet and cause harmful diseases to both humans and animals, to which the world should not turn a blind eye (“Environmental Destruction”).
Readers of this argument may believe there is no alternative to meat production, because there are too many mouths to feed in such little time. However, according to Jonathan Bloom, author of the novel American Wasteland, close to half of the food in America is wasted (Bloom). Since a substantial portion of this wasted food is meat, it is safe to say the meat production industry produces more than enough meat to meet the appetites of Americans. Changing the system would cut down on how much meat is produced, but there is no need for a significant portion of this meat. Furthermore, it would change the lives of humans and animals, alike, and it would extremely benefit the environment.
While this system of meat production started in the West, countries like China and India are following suit, and if the system does not change soon, the entire world may use the same methods of meat production as those of the United States (Singer). This is a frightening truth that the world can only avoid by changing the system as soon as possible. If the United States ignores this, then factory workers will continue to torture animals, factory managers will continue to abuse employees, foodborne diseases will continue to harm humans and animals, and time will only tell what pollution and degradation will do to the earth. No one can expect the entire world to convert to veganism, simply to make change for the sake of humans, animals, and the environment. As New York Times writer Gary Kazanjian puts it, “I’d rather argue against unnecessary cruelty, against overconsumption, for better human and planetary health, than for a strict regimen that the majority of the earth’s citizens will reject outright” (Kazanjian). A different, better system is possible, as there is no need for a mass meat production industry; there is only a need for a meat production industry.
Ok, so that is the paper I wrote, and below is the works cited for that paper. For some comic relief, I'd also like you guys to check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVrIyEu6h_E. It's called Grocery Store Wars and is hilarious, especially if you actually know anything about Star Wars.
Works Cited:
Benzing, Jeffrey, Esther French, and Judah A. Gross. "Salmonella Stays with Chickens, from." Editorial. The Washington Post: National 1 Oct. 2011. Print.
Bess, Deena. "Population Growing Too Big for Planet." Editorial. The Beacon News: A Chicago Sun-Times Publication 2 Nov. 2011. Print.
Bloom, Jonathan. American Wasteland. 2010.
"Environmental Destruction." Vegan Outreach: Working to End Cruelty to Animals. Web. 29 Oct. 2011.
"Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian." PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Web. 29 Oct. 2011.
Food Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. 2008. DVD.
"If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls." Vegan Outreach: Working to End Cruelty to Animals. Web. 29 Oct. 2011.
Kazanjian, Gary. “Eating Meat is Only Human.” Editorial. The New York Times 5 Feb. 2008. Print.
Lang, Susan S. "Meat Industry Attacked For Human Rights Abuses." Cornell Chronicle (2005). Print.
"Population Clocks." U.S. Census Bureau. 14 Nov. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.
"Population in the U.S." Google Public Data Explorer. U.S. Census Bureau, 28 July 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.
Singer, Peter. "The Ethics of Eating." Project Syndicate: A World of Ideas (2006). Print.
This is a chick having its beak cut off, so that it won't try to peck its way out of its cage or peck the other chickens in its cage to death. Yes, animals are just like humans; when they become depressed, they resort to self-mutilation and the mutilation of others.
What is the point of this?
These chickens are lucky, because they actually live in the light. Most chicken farms are pitch black. But they are still unlucky, because they live on top of each other, in their on excrement. They are pumped full of hormones that make them to big to carry their own weight, so their legs break, and they die of hunger and thirst, unable to reach food and water. When workers come to pick them up and take them to the slaughterhouse, they kick them and brutally shove them into trucks, on top of each other.
This is how a lot of cows are killed. They are hung upside down to have their throats slit, but many times, the cows' limbs break before they die, and the throat slitting takes minutes to kill them.
Mass meat production industry in all its polluting glory.
A great fresh market in Atlanta. They get their meat from farms, where their animals are raised right and killed properly, there are no workers being abused, there is no pollution problem, and the food is local and in season. It's a cheaper, healthier option, and it's good for the economy. Everyone wins!
This is a map of the Georgia State University campus in Downtown Atlanta. Number 35 is the University Lofts Dorms. Coca Cola Place is where the Municipal Market is, by the Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital.
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