Modern agribusiness
This page last reviewed October 24, 2006
Back to the Vegetarian Athlete
Utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham and Peter Singer have
argued the suffering of sentient animals to be extremely
relevant to ethical discussion, and many modern vegeterians and
vegans believe the same. Some ethical vegans argue that
exploitation of animals is a form of "speciesism"
that will one day be looked down upon as racism and sexism are
today. Conditions for animals raised on intensive factory farms
(or "concentrated feed operations," as they are
sometimes called) are often downright gruesome: they are kept in
cramped, unsanitary cages or stalls, and subjected to numerous
inhumane practices.
Since all U.S. laws govern the
welfare of nonhuman animals specifically exempt those raised for
food, the well being of the animals themselves is usually of
little concern to the companies running the operation as long
as productivity is maintained. The notion that an efficient
animal is a healthy animal is pure fallacy; drugs, hormones and
other chemicals are used to artificially boost the
"productivity" of animals and mask adverse conditions
such as severe stress, disease, and degenerative disorders.
Ewes, cows, and sows are forcibly inseminated on what the
industry refers to ironically as the "rape rack."
Breeding sows spend most of their lives in gestation crates and
farrowing stalls which are too small for them to even turn
around, and their piglets will face a similar fate as they are
fattened in their own pens.
Babies of all species
are separated from their mothers almost immediately following
birth, upsetting natural motherly instincts and causing untold
psychological damage to both mother and offspring. Males not
selected for breeding are castrated, usually without anesthesia.
Even "cage-free" animals don't always fare much
better than their factory farm counterparts. Cage-free in some
instances may simply mean that they are "free" to roam
about a dark, cramped shed, and the animals may never see the
light of day. Veal calves are confined in tiny crates and
deliberately made anemic to keep their flesh pale for aesthetic
appeal. Chickens and turkeys are debeaked with hot irons, pigs'
tails are cut off, cattle are dehorned and branded --- all
without anesthesia. Animals of all varieties are often beaten
by uncaring farm or slaughterhouse workers.
Laying
hens may be crammed four to six to a cage in a space barely
larger than a folded newspaper; they may only last one year in
these conditions before they are considered "spent"
and shipped off to the slaughterhouse. Other times they are
starved for weeks and kept in absolute darkness to induce
"forced molting," and a form of shock which produces
a few more eggs before the birds are sent off to be turned into
chicken pot pie, bouillon, pet food, and other cheap chicken
products. Male chicks born to laying hens are killed within
minutes of being born, sometimes by suffocation, other times by
being thrown -- alive -- into rendering machines, because they
cannot lay eggs and growing them for meat is deemed
"inefficient."
Dairy cows can naturally live up to twenty-five years, but
under the conditions in modern dairies, they are typically
"spent" (to use industry terminology) in three or
four years before they are sent to the slaughterhouse to make
cheap hamburgers. These cows have a nine-month gestation period
and are forced to calve every year, which, along with being
forced by hormones (including genetically engineered forms of
bovine growth hormone) to manufacture ten times more milk than
they would produce naturally. All of this takes an enormous
toll on the cows' bodies, particularly their bones. There is
also the disturbing connection between the veal and dairy
industries; veal calves are most often the male offspring of
dairy cows, who, because they cannot produce milk and are not
profitable to grow to adulthood before slaughter, are only good
for their starved flesh and are killed before their eighteenth
month.
The colloquialism that "fish don't have
feelings" is pure myth; a fish or other aquatic animal
being pulled out of the water is like a person being held under
water, and many scientific studies have clearly shown that
these animals do indeed feel pain. Farm-raised fish face cramped
conditions not unlike their terrestrial counterparts, crowded
into confined spaces and made susceptible to suffocation and
disease, especially parasites such as sea lice. There are no
humane regulations whatsoever regarding the slaughter of aquatic
creatures; they are often sliced while fully conscious and left
to bleed to death, or they may simply be left to suffocate.
Wildlife
The nonhuman animals to be utilized or consumed directly aren't
the only creatures who suffer. The U.S. government's Animal
Damage Control Bureau kills an estimated 250,000 wild animals
every year -- black bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain
lions, prairie dogs, timber wolves -- ostensibly to protect
ranchers' livestock. Wolves and coyotes in particular are
systematically gunned down from the ground or from helicopters
and often poisoned. When rainforest is burned or temperate
forests clearcut to make room for livestock grazing areas,
the habitat of countless species is lost in the process.
Commercial fishers often inadvertently net whales,
dolphins, porpoises, seals, turtles, sharks, and other
"unwanted" sea life along with their intended catches
in practices such as trawling. "Purse seining," a
common method of catching tuna, is particularly notorious for
netting dolphins. Diseases which run rampant among farmed fish
may also spread to their wild counterparts.
See
environmental concerns for more details.
Reverence for life
Great thinkers from Pythagorus to Da Vinci to Thoreau to Einstein
have abstained from meat for ethical or moral reasons. Ethical
vegetarians often equate meat with murder. (While some
smart-alec meat eaters point out that vegetables are alive, too,
if you consider that animals have to be fed tons of grain,
grasses, and legumes in order to be prepared for slaughter,
meat eaters actually "kill" far more plants than do
vegetarians.) Ethical vegans and vegetarians argue that there
is no such thing as "humane slaughter," and may view
eating a nonhuman animal just as abhorrent as cannibalism. It
could be argued that acculturation is the only reason we may
believe that it is acceptable to eat the flesh of a cow but not
the flesh of a dog. From a moral standpoint, it may argued
that it is not ethical to kill animals for food when plenty of
delicious and healthy options are available that don't require
the killing of a sentient being.
The few "humane
slaughter" laws on the books for terrestrial livestock
exclude animals slaughtered for kosher or halal meat (see notes on ritual slaughter, and most of these same
laws do not apply to birds (kosher or non-kosher), either. Of
course, there is also the question of whether or not there can
be such a thing as truly "humane slaughter."
Some scholars -- both religious and secular -- believe that
gazing into the animal's eyes while killing it is the only way
to truly slaughter consciously. Author Rynn Berry remarks at
this, "There would be damn few meat-eaters if they had to
do that every time they ate a cheeseburger." (Maybe that's
the point.) Reverence for life may have its roots in spiritual
or religious beliefs as well; see religious reasons parts one and two) for
more.
Ethical vegetarians or vegans may also avoid
use non-edible animal products such as leather or silk because
they were produced by the death of a living creature; creating
less demand for these items may theoretically create less
demand for the slaughter of the animals. Many ethical
vegetarians later become ethical vegans once they learn that
dairy cows and laying hens are sent to the slaughterhouse as
soon as they are no longer efficient as egg or milk
"machines." Sheep are killed for mutton when they
aren't capable of efficiently producing wool anymore. Bees may
be killed in the harvesting of honey, and if a hive has become
less productive, some beekeepers kill the bees and start a new
hive rather than wait out the period of non-productivity with
their current hive.
Other people do see meat-eating
as evil per se, but believe that modern-day factory
farms and slaughterhouses are a far cry from the plains and
savannahs our ancestors hunted on years ago, and as such, refuse
to support the systems by purchasing conventional meat from
their local supermarkets. See also "modern animal
agribusiness" above and the "question of nature"section for more details.
Links and resources:
http://www.TheMeatrix.com and http://www.themeatrix2.com
http://www.factoryfarming.com
Adams, Carol J. -- Neither Man Nor Beast
Coats, C. David -- Old MacDonald's Factory Farm
Davis, Karen -- Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs
Eisnitz, Gail -- Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment inside the U.S. Meat Industry
Fox, Michael W. -- Eating With Conscience: The Bioethics of Food
Hill, John Lawrence -- The Case for Vegetarianism: Philosophy For a Small Planet
Jensen, Derrick -- A Language Older Than Words
Lyman, Howard -- Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat
Marcus, Erik -- Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating
Reinhardt, Mark Warren -- The Perfectly Contented Meat Eater's Guide to Vegetarianism
Rifkin, Jeremy -- Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of Cattle Culture
Robbins, John -- The Food Revolution
Schlosser, Eric -- Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal
Singer, Peter -- Animal Liberation
Spencer, Colin -- The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism
Stepaniak, Joanne -- The Vegan Sourcebook
