New Post (179) : Meat factories on legs.
Food for thought…(chew on it)…Industrial meat production treats animals as simply that, meat. We have reduced animals to nothing more than a means to our ends of cheap food. Moral consideration requires that we must consider animals as more than just meat factories on legs. Animals are created beings that we must wisely manage & not treat as means. It is because of our unwise stewardship of creation that our food production is riddled with unnaturally-raised, diseased animals. Industrial meat production overcrowds animals, predisposing them to develop diseases and be unhealthy, which is why they are fed antibiotics and other medicines. As the bacteria get resistant to the antibiotics, the producers have to keep ramping up and changing the doses. High-density animal production operations can increase livestock disease incidence, the emergence of new, often antibiotic-resistant diseases, and air, groundwater and surface water pollution associated with animal wastes. Feedlot animals are fed antibiotics everyday, which leach out through animal waste into waterways and increase bacteria drug resistance. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a health concern for humans as antibiotic-resistant diseases become more available to the public. Animals are also forced to eat food which they are un-adapted for. Cows are fed corn, ground up cow parts, and other assorted "muck". As herbivores, they are only adapted for eating grass, and yet they are fed corn because it is cheap (due to overproduction) and cow parts, because it provides protein to make the cow grow faster. This makes cows even more prone to illnesses such as mad cow’s disease and other immuno deficient diseases. Finally, some industrial meat producers use steroids and other hormones to make cows grow faster and bigger. Other problems have resulted due to removing meat production from its natural place on a diversified farm to a sprawling feedlot operation. The high density of animals results in a high density of waste. On a sustainable farm, animal waste would be composted and added to the soil for nutrients. However, in industrial meat production, there is nowhere to put the waste, since industrial crop production uses artificial fertilizers, not good old animal poop. Additionally, the waste from industrial meat production is laced with antibiotics, hormones and steroids, which makes it unfit for many uses. The waste becomes a problem, instead of being part of a dynamic food production system. Industrial meat production waste is then dumped into our waterways and is a major cause of marine-life-killing algae blooms and unhealthy wildlife through the absorption of the chemicals. Our unwise stewardship shows results in two ways, declining healthfulness of food and large, preventable environmental problems. Just as with the declining nutrients in produce, there are fewer nutrients in corn-fed, industrially raised beef. Grass-fed chicken has more Omega-3s and other nutrients than industrially raised ones. Grass fed cows have more nutrients and minerals. This shows that our tinkering with natural processes has had damage. Not only are the animals coping with distressing conditions, but the nutrient availability, and thus our health, has declined.
We can consume less meat, which is better for our health and creates less of a market demand that drives industrial meat production.
Charlie Brown
