We interrupt your regularly scheduled reminiscence
about Lizzy’s past to bring you this entirely unprecedented and largely
unexpected rant about farming.
A very strange thing happened to me a few
weeks ago. I suddenly started caring about animals. This isn’t to say that I
didn’t care beforehand, but I went from answering the question “are you a
vegetarian?” with *scoff scoff scoff* “NO. I love eating dead animals” to “um,
sort of” in literally a matter of days.
And this strange behaviour is compounded
further and made even stranger by the fact that I live in the country now. I
work with pig farmers. I see trucks full of cattle every day. There are people
around me whose livelihoods depend on people eating meat, and eating it daily.
But here’s what happened. I watched a
video. I watched a ten-minute video about how meat animals are farmed, and I
suddenly couldn’t ignore it anymore. I’m not about to start throwing red paint
on people, I’m not even going to give up meat entirely, but knowing what I know
now, and realising that it was knowledge that changed my mind, I’m going to
impart some knowledge onto you, my readers. I do this not because I want to
create an army of vegetarians, but because I think you are all clever people,
you are all people who enjoy words, who enjoy knowledge, and who are capable of
making good choices with the power of FACTS.
Warning: what follows is pretty effing
graphic.
Chickens:
Chickens taste delicious. Their meat is
relatively cheap and versatile, and they poop out an ovum once a day that can
be used in really important things like cakes.
If they are lucky enough to be born male,
chickens will be killed instantly, either by being gassed to death or crunched
up alive in a big machine. If they are unlucky, and are born female, they will
spend their short lives in a giant shed. Sometimes they have their beaks
chopped off, they have no room to move, and stand in their own excrement all
day. They are bred and fed to grow to full, very large size, very quickly. So
they often can’t support their own weight. When it’s time for them to be eaten,
they are caught by the fistful and shoved into cages, often breaking bones on
the way in. They will see the outside world just once, on their way to the
abattoir. In the abattoir, they will be electrocuted into unconsciousness and then
have their necks cut. It’s probably the kindest thing that happens to them.
Egg chickens live a very similar life,
except they get to live longer, about 12 months. Once they no longer produce
eggs daily, they are also killed.
What
you can do about it: purchase free-range chicken
and eggs at your supermarket. Be mindful that there are no regulations for what
constitutes “free range” and that all the ones with “RSPCA approved” on them
still live indoors without much room. I’m actually not sure why the RSPCA
approves them at all. Don’t order chicken or eggs in restaurants and food outlets when
you can’t be sure.
Pigs:
Pigs can be turned into bacon. And frankly
bacon is the most delicious thing in the whole world. They also make sausages,
pork, ham, and really smelly pets.
The thing is, is that I never thought about
how pigs are farmed. I kind of always knew about chickens, and was pretty happy
to ignore it as best as possible. When I was in New Zealand I saw pigs in
fields, and it was really strange, as I never had before. It’s actually kind of
adorable, in NZ they have little tarps up in each field for the pigs to hang
out under so they don’t get sunburnt. Did I mention that New Zealand’s farming
industry is amazing and even their McDonald’s serve free range? Have you ever
seen a pig in a field? I’m willing to bet not. That’s because in Australia,
something like 95% of pigs are factory farmed.
They live inside large sheds with thousands
of other pigs; many have their tails and a number of their teeth removed without
anaesthetic. Sows are treated like bacon making factories, because that’s what
they are. When pregnant or nursing (the majority of their lives), sows are kept
in “sow stalls” which keep them on their side, unable to move, so that they can
push out babies and those babies can get at their teats easily. Sows are
expected to produce as many litters as possible and when they stop, you guessed
it, they are killed. It’s actually really difficult to explain just how hideous
a sow stall is, so I’m going to suggest you watch the video I watched, even
though it is quite troubling and traumatic. Only do this if you are ready and
not about to eat. I’ll link to it at the end of this blog.
What
can you do about it: Free range pig products
practically don’t exist, but times are changing. Coles, of all brands, is
actually leading the way on this. You will start to notice that all Coles pork,
bacon, ham etc is now starting to come with the label “sow stall free”. BUY
THAT SHIT. Reward the giant corporation for actually making this change.
Because if the big corporations are pushing for this, they will dominate the
industry, and the little guys will have to follow suit, and it will be in
farmers’ best interests to get rid of those stalls. And let’s face it; it will
be in the sows’ best interests too. Don’t eat pig products in restaurants and
food outlets when you can’t be sure.
Climate
Change and World Hunger:
If you are able to look at these facts and
think, “well, there’s more important things in the world”, well I can’t blame
you, you’re right, there are. Human rights should surely come before animal
rights, right? Well yes, I agree, and I’m making changes in my life and
opinions with regards to humans too – I just happen to be blogging about
animals today. But the thing is, this is all relevant to people too. Here’s a
disturbing fact: more food is used to feed food animals, than is actually
produced by food animals. That is, we feed pigs and chickens and cows etc
grains and seeds and those grains and seeds constitute more edible food than
actually comes out of factory farms. So we’re losing out twice. Pigs are eating
all those delicious grains, then they're not even turning into enough bacon to
cover the defecit. Meanwhile, people are literally dying of starvation across
the world. Those of us who benefit from factory farms need to start considering
other options that lessen the burden on food animal production, so that more
people can have access to more food.
Plus the carbon produced by factory farmed
animals, the water and power that goes into feeding the animals and growing
crops to continue feeding those animals is a significant drain on our
environment. Never mind recycling, think how much damage your dinner is doing.
What
can you do about it: Consider eating less meat
generally, or indeed becoming a vegetarian. I am really struggling with the
second option, but I am committing to eating as little factory farmed meat as
possible, and less meat generally.
I know this is all a lot to take in, and
frankly if you’re still reading, thank you, thank you, thank you. Trust me when
I say I understand that it is much nicer and easier to ignore all of this
information, because I’ve been doing so for my entire life. I’ve already
slipped up once, I wanted to eat Japanese dumplings so bad I just had to put
all of this from my mind for an evening. But the world needs us to start caring
about this stuff. How much longer can agriculture support the mass consumption
of animals? How much longer can the environment sustain our eating habits? How
much more bacon can you eat without thinking about where it came from?
TL/DR,
what the eff do you want me to do here, Lizzy?: Um, I dunno, why don't you think about eating kangaroo meat once a week, it’s delicious, they produce zero carbon and
they need to be culled anyway.
Video:
The video that changed my life (so dramatic)
Disclaimer:
I have actually done further research than
this one video, I promise. I am a well-informed ranter. If you have other
arguments for or against, please share them in the comments or on facebook or
twitter. I encourage you to do your own research also, if this is something
that interests you. I don’t want you to just go with what I tell you, or
completely reject it because it’s some hippy vego bullshit. There’re good,
reliable sources out there.
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