Throughout my life, I have never been given much of an ethic about what foods I eat. I've just obtained what drips down through the socialization I've been taking part in throughout my life, which admittedly, isn't much.
I've never had the money to go out and eat socially, I've never been given meals that consist of more than the bare minimum amount of meats my mother can afford in any one given week. What I'm given is all I get and I've been okay with that.
The one thing I've been taught not to do is eat fast food regularly. My father, whom has always been at a distance from my upbringing, doesn't care one way or another - he just wants me to be fed somehow.
Mum has always told me that fast food isn't something I should be eating because its unhealthy, but aside from that, never gave much more reason to it.
As I've been in school, I've often heard people discuss animal cruelty, PETA, and other related matters. They make good paper topics.
Through my surfing of the internets, I've happened upon videos capturing the brutal killing of animals in various situations - raccoons for their fur, chickens for food in large bloody facilities on conveyor belts and hanging from hooks, and the mistreatment thereof in their dying moments.
These videos have usually been brought to my attention simply because someone wanted to shock everyone and cause a riot... or, as the terminology online goes, a "shitstorm."
Nevertheless, there is a message I have taken away from these videos. I've always had a negative attitude towards the rampant American consumerism. I feel that, the more we rely on mass produced products, the less creativity and variation in products we will experience in any given area. Of course, mass production has many benefits - availability being the most undeniable. But when a particular product comes into high demand, animal products specifically, what we see is a holocaust for the animals required to make such a product.
There is a cause and an effect in this situation. The demand being the cause, and lack of regard/respect and mass destruction of said animal being the result.
Because of this phenomenon, I have always seen *buying* something as *endorsing* all that occurs in the process of creating it. What we need to come to grips with is that *products* aren't created by a magical wizard living in big white building with garage doors on it.
=Getting More to the Point=
So how does this reflect the main topic of this blog post?
When we consume an animal or plant that we have paid for - we are supporting the way it was made. And in this way, we are solely responsible for it. We are the funding.
And much like how, in Gary Snyder's poem "Hunting Season," the deer become a conscious and living part of the person who killed it without the hunter knowing, whether we know or do *not* know... we commit the atrocities that are happening behind the scenes to put food in our hands.
What we need to do in order to avoid this is... well, first get a job that pays you enough money for you to afford all organic foods or the ability to raise your own foods. So, until I am out of college and a part of the working America, I'll have to live with the black blood on my hands.
Anyways, the point being that we need to make educated choices when we choose what we pay for... because you might be paying for a service that isn't what you expected it to be.
*end of official blog post*
Now we all know PETA wants the world to stop using animals for ANYTHING and they'll only be happy when the world stops eating chicken eggs, even if it means using misleading propaganda about egg yoke having a soul - but they have collected some rather shocking instances of really cruel things happening.
Now we can all reassure ourselves that most of the time when we buy "real fur" that this isn't happening behind the scenes. And that there aren't a bunch of sick people killing the chickens we eat by the World War II load every day... but the odds that something like *this* is happening behind the scenes is enough to scare me off.
And yes, this was a shocker vid posted on a website that I was browsing, probably for the sake of getting people worked up. Don't watch it unless you don't plan on sleeping tonight.
http://www.peta.org/feat/chinesefurfarms/index.asp
Singer, Peter, and Mason, Jim. The ethics of what we eat / Peter Singer and Jim Mason Text, Melbourne : 2007
I agree with your statement on the 'crusades' humans go on when something new is in high demand. The case of the Buffalo when the colonists first came to America and how within hardly 100 years the population of the Buffalo went from 50 million to less than 1000. I watched the first part of that video and it more than enforced my attitudes on the fur inudstry. I almost threw up at the sight of them ripping the fur off these animals while they're still alive, if only somewhat. However, when it comes to mass production, it is difficult in this time in this society, because there are benefits, and it is difficult to come up with a clear concise answer to the issue of food production.
ReplyDelete"I almost threw up at the sight of them ripping the fur off these animals while they're still alive, if only somewhat."
ReplyDeleteI'd like to impress the fact that not all fur production practices are so brutal and unethical. What we need to realize when watching this video is that this is a video that is sourced on PETA's website.
And they are notorious for collecting as much evidence that all use of animals for making products is cruel and should be done away with.
And, personally, I feel like that is true. But, at the same time, PETA doesn't answer the question of replacement - filling the void.
Surely, when producing fur products, we can simply use synthetic fur. But when it comes to doing away with meat farms... that is a different issue entirely.