That last post was a little vague.
Summary: factory farms suck! Perhaps it seems off-topic. (If you
think this blog has a topic, please write to me quickly and tell me
what it is.) You know how sometimes you have a moment of clarity, and
you realize how pure and simple life really is, and how easy it is to
make good choices, and your path lies straight and narrow before you
and dappled with afternoon sunlight? I was in that moment. I
suppose it's worth something to capture it, but probably worth more
to admit to you that (like everyone else) that moment of clarity is
fleeting, and when it goes it is replaced by fatigue and
helplessness.
Factory farms still suck. I hope you
know this. I will not take space here to rehash their horrors—you
can do this easily on your own if you are so inclined. What I do want
to talk about is: Why does it matter? There's the rub. Most of us
think it doesn't really matter, otherwise factory farms would be
dying out. So let's talk about it.
Eating is incredibly complicated.
Every time we place an item in our grocery cart, we enter into a web
of relationships of which we know basically nothing. That's enough
to cause compassion fatigue in the most resolute activist, and we can
throw up our hands right here in the frozen food aisle and say we're
damned both ways. I have a hunch this is what most of us do. I know
it's what I do. Poor me! Forced to participate in the systemic
evils of modern agriculture! Nom nom nom nom....
Sarcasm. Forgive
me. I direct it against myself, because I have those exact thoughts
all the time. Do you, too? Are we all so calloused?
Here's why it matters: Because how we
eat determines how the world is used (Mr. Berry again). That's it. Do we think that, when we eat, we can separate that act
from all its consequences? Eating is the most fundamental act of our
physical existence. The way we eat has tremendous impact on the world. Think of this: if everyone in the
U.S. ate no meat or cheese one day per week, it would be
equivalent to taking 7.6 million cars off the road, or not driving
91 billion miles.
And consider Ghandi's
observation: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can
be judged by the way its animals are treated.” What does it say
about America that we anthropomorphize our pets and treat our farm
animals like machines that can feel no pain?
Consider Immanuel Kant's observation: “He
who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men.
We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” How
do we pass our conscience through this filter? How do we judge our
hearts when, knowing that the animals we eat are treated so
inhumanely, we choose to look the other way?
I
do not have the answer. I still too often choose to look the other
way. I do it because it's difficult to do otherwise, because it's
inconvenient, because I'm too tired to care. Do you think the
current system is justified or justifiable? Do you look at
factory farms and industrial agriculture and the whole state of
affairs and think I'm
okay with this?
How?
