food inc.

I wish I could simply become a vegetarian and absolve myself of the guilt I feel when I eat meat I know came from a CAFO. However, it is not that simple. Recently, I’ve become consumed with the idea of animal abuse and strongly considered becoming a vegetarian. Ultimately, the idea of becoming a vegetarian didn’t satisfy the guilt I felt for the animals and seemed insignificant. Animals across the country will continue to be abused regardless of my meat consumption. Food Inc. does a great job of exposing the meat industry’s dirty laundry without driving the audience away with gruesome images. However, those images were mild compared to footage presented by PETA and other animal right organizations. This issue extends beyond the poor living conditions. Animals are tortured at the hands of employees and slaughtered horrific ways every day. I realize a lot of this information gets discredited because people assume animal rights activists are just preaching on their soap box, but the fact remains that animals are being tortured and we simply turn a blind eye to it. In this country we have laws known as ad-gag laws. These laws criminalize the use of video cameras in farms and slaughterhouses, which conceals animal abuse making it impossible for unethical treatment to be documented. Not only do we not get to see how the animals are being treated, but we don’t get to see the conditions of the CAFO’s themselves. As a country, we should demand the repeal of ad-gag laws in order to reinstate farmer’s accountability. In the end, supporting strong legislation and sharing information with whoever is willing to listen makes me feel I can make a small difference.

The link below describes the ad-gag laws in better detail.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt08xO5euoA&feature=youtu.be