The End of Factory Farming
the ecological resonance between
the animal holocaust and our inner life
Photo courtesy J Gilbert:
www.jimgilbertphoto.com/
If those who consume mass meat products could witness either a) the conditions 95% of the animals in
the factory farm industry have to endure, or b) the loss that is accruing in humanity’s inner life due to
this animal abuse - then the industry would grind to a halt overnight. Surely the human race cannot
be as diabolical as its relationship with the animal kingdom suggests.
- the Earth Vision project, 2008
Recently, although an omnivore in my own diet, and given to eating some meat (organically
and humanely raised), I was ready to give up on humanity, a species that was continuing to
allow acute brutality and suffering to visit animals (could this be the same humanity that
initiated the SPCA? Or was that a mere ruse toward humane treatment of non-human
species?).
However, I was not aware, at the time, of certain developments that gave cause for
hope. For example, some European countries are slated to ban the harshest aspects of
factory farming. And speculation suggests that the entire European Union will go on board in
the (hopefully) near future. This development, in turn, will generate pressure upon North
America to eventually follow suit.
And on this continent, the state of California has recently put forward a proposition to
oppose the worst aspects of factory farming.
The real picture
The crowded conditions of factory farming require the use of increasing dosages of antibiotics
and pesticides to maintain operations.
These chemical applications (through which the pharmaceutical industry is reaping
obscene profits), it turns out, amount to the cultivation of superbugs that will almost certainly
assail humanity in devastating ways.
The degradation of cattle is linked to the rise in Alzheimer’s disease, as the human brain
gives way to a spongiform condition. Contrary to popular opinion, cows are still being forced
to be cannibalistic, as they are fed blood, bone meal, and other miscellaneous aspects of
other cows (no brain matter, but most everything else). And testing for Mad Cow currently
involves only a tiny fraction of overall herds. Further, because Mad Cow can take ten years
to manifest, it is estimated that thousands of infected cows per year are likely entering the
system. If you are still eating beef, run like hell the other way!
(And see The Return of Bison and Wolf for an alternative.)
Environmentally, manure and wastes from combined animal operations account for three
times as much waste as humans produce, wastes that commonly go untreated. This waste is
contributing to emissions that are rapidly warming the planet and creating water pollution and
"dead zones" nationwide.
The factory farm industry, and the wealthy and powerful agricultural and
pharmaceutical lobbies, are at this moment fighting laws that would mandate the provision of
information on toxic emissions.
Many North Americans and Europeans cite the cost of food as a reason to both avoid
choosing organic food and to continue the barbarism against animals. In fact, the cost of
food in North America is extremely low. Consider how in many Third world countries vast
numbers of people are working all day just to feed themselves. That is truly expensive
provision! In the developed countries, food - even if buying all organic and humanely raised
food - is very inexpensive.
(Further, in defense of the organic option, one can eat well, and cheaper than most
non-organic food-consumers - simply by avoiding processed food. Also, smaller quantities
are needed when buying organic, as the nutritional value is higher. North American society,
in particular, has a high incidence of people who are stuffing themselves into obesity, yet still
coming away hungry - because they can’t feed themselves enough nutrients. They eat and
eat, and are still hungry. . .)
From Wikipedia:
“The UN and OIE estimate that in coming decades there will be billions of additional
consumers in developing countries eating meat factory farmed in developing countries, but
currently only about 40 out of the around 200 countries in the world have the capacity to
adequately respond to a health crisis originating from animal disease (such as avian flu, West
Nile virus, bluetongue, and foot and mouth disease). Widespread use of antibiotics increases
the chance of a pandemic resistant to known measures, which is exacerbated by a globally
distributed food system. Decreased genetic diversity increases the chance of a food crisis.”
The factory farm issue is not at all a question of affordability. Rather, and quite remarkably,
when we consider the economic impacts of environmental damage, human health impact
(already big, but only the tip of the iceberg), socioeconomic impact, not to mention the
weighty load of nasty karma diners-on-suffering-flesh are surely accruing. . . it’s becoming
clear now that we cannot afford to continue factory farming.
Some of the ingredients in animal factory feed translate, ultimately, into what they are feeding
you: excessive grain (not a natural diet for cattle - leads to liver and digestive imbalances
and illnesses); shredded bits of plastic(!) in lieu of natural roughage; meat from the same
species (cannibalizing effect, leads to BSE, avian bird flu, lots more to come); animal byproducts (so-called “animal protein products” - rendered feathers, hair, skin, hooves, internal
organs, beaks, bones; drugs and chemicals (needed due to over-crowding).
Numerous forms of abuse
Foie gras, in fact diseased liver, is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese an unnatural
amount and type of food until their livers become diseased and enlarge up to ten times their
normal, healthy size. More than a dozen countries, California, and the city of Chicago, have
all legislated against foie gras production on animal welfare grounds.
Routine mutilations, usually without anesthesia, include castration, de-beaking, de-toeing, tail
docking, and others.
From the Humane Society of the U.S.: “Most eggs produced in the United States come from
industrialized factory farms confining hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of laying hens
in overcrowded battery cages. Arguably the most abused animals in all agribusiness, nearly
280 million laying hens in the United States are confined in barren, wire battery cages so
restrictive the birds can't even spread their wings. With no opportunity to engage in many of
their natural behaviors, including nesting, dust bathing, perching, and foraging, these birds
endure lives wrought with suffering.”
The reader is invited to view the youtube presentations on factory farming at the end of this
article. In addition to the foregoing information, witnessing the conditions of deprivation these
animals are experiencing provides a taste of the real story behind our “modern” food industry.
Implications - the spiritual ecology behind the nature-human relationship
If you are experiencing any of the following emotions in your life, emotions that run parallel to
those of factory farmed animals - anxiety, stress, fear, existential oblivion, or despair - then,
because these feelings become incorporated in the animal’s flesh and blood, you can
eliminate a source of darkness in your life by stopping consumption of non-organic and
inhumanely-raised beef, pork, chicken, meat, eggs, and dairy products, as well as farmed
fish.
Physically, an “interior” experience of the mass meat holocaust occurs when the pollution of
factory farms that taints the water, soil, and air of the external environment finds its way into
our bodies as chemical pollutants (antibiotics, pharmaceuticals in the meat and our drinking
water, etc.)
On the psychological level, accepting lower quality food is reflective of an undervaluing of the
self.
Tied up in the metaphysical weaving of this issue is the notion of “contact.” The more an
individual feels separate from elements of nature, the more he/she feels compelled to assert
some form of contact. The psychopathic extreme of this phenomena manifests as torture to
animals (thus, the factory farms find ready recruits to staff its regime.)
Alternatively, the more an individual opens to the enduring inter-weave between the
soul and nature, the more he/she discovers true contact.
All things considered, how could it come to pass that our relationship with animals could sink
to such abysmal depths?
Just what is happening within ourselves, that we have arrived at a state in which we
are willing to brutalize the very essence of our own being (as reflected by the animal
counterparts within us that embody our soul qualities)?
On a very real level of our being an alarming betrayal is taking place. Because the
dynamics of the mass meat industry are a direct reflection of human self-abuse, to the extent
that an individual partakes of the animal holocaust, that individual visits suffering upon his/her
own psyche. Factory farming, it turns out, is a regime of self-hate.
As a final aspect of exploration on this issue, let us use the domestic chicken as a point of
departure, in order to explore the difference between, on the one hand, the abused and
obliterated non-entity that factory farming creates, versus the dynamic being that became a
close companion to humanity several thousand years ago:
Jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), ornate, exotic, adorned in fiery, multi-hued plumage,
prefers forest edges. Originating in the foothills of the Himalayas, the jungle fowl is equally at
home where it can retreat into the protection of a dim thicket, or emerge to explore
opportunities in open spaces. When kept as pets, chickens are known to exhibit intelligent
behavior. The rooster of the species displays remarkable nerve, often fearlessly confronting a
being 20 times its size. Dubbed the Herald of Dawn, in more ways than one it delivers a
wake up call. In the human cultural context, its call is said to mean “liberation from
darkness.”
The time has come to do just that, on behalf of all domesticated species. Picture the
highest form of existence - for cattle, pigs, chickens, all the beings we have domesticated free-ranging, healthy, able to fulfill their lives. And, rather than being abused in a process of
obliviation, imagine enabling our animal companions to evolve further, to a higher state of
being, that which is their true destiny.
Picture humanity freeing itself, as well, evolving the qualities and resources of the
inner tapestry that weaves in tandem with its companion animals. The two are inseparable.
Co-evolution is calling.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
This article was prepared by nature author, Josef Graf, coordinator of the Earth Vision project - nature
in the light of spiritual ecology, at www.evsite.net.
Links, Resources for more information:
What is Factory Farming?
http://www.factoryfarming.org.uk/whatis.html
Grist.org on factory farming
http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/search.pl?query=factory%20farming&reverse=on&sort=gristdate
Do you really want to get a picture of what’s happening in the poultry industry now?
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/poultry/
Meat Your Meat (youtube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9QtvYYLqLg&feature=related
Inside Factory Farming(youtube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_guAycmYPA&NR=1
Cruelty of Factory Farming (youtube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaHXA1LLB_I&feature=related
The Meatrix Movies:
http://www.themeatrix.com/
Sierra Club video, “Living a Nightmare: Animal Factories in Michigan”, a 24-minute documentary
about the horrors of industrial agriculture.
New York Times article, Rethinking the Meat Guzzler,
An overview of meat consumption:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?ex=1359090000&en=a9d809e1a8
f5d1b2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
Report urges huge changes to factory-farming practices – Washington Post:
“Factory farming takes a big, hidden toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural
America's economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock. . . . even industry
representatives on the panel agreed to such controversial recommendations as a ban on the
nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals -- a huge hit against veterinary pharmaceutical
companies -- a phaseout of all intensive confinement systems that prevent the free movement of farm
animals, and more vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws in the increasingly consolidated agricultural
arena.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042902602_pf.html
“The vast majority of the public has an equivocal attitude to the industrial use of animals: they make
use of the products of that industry, but are nevertheless a little sickened, a little queasy, when they
think of what happens on factory farms and abattoirs. Therefore they arrange their lives in such a way
that they need be reminded of farms and abattoirs as little as possible, and they do their best to ensure
their children are kept in the dark too, because children have tender hearts and are easily moved.. . ”
“. . .The activities of animals-rights organisations have shifted the onus onto the industry to
justify its practices, and because they are indefensible and unjustifiable except on the most narrow
economic grounds ("Do you want to pay $1.50 more for a dozen eggs?"), the industry is battening
down hatches and hoping the storm will blow itself out. Insofar as there was a public relations war, the
industry has already lost that war.”
- J.M. Coetzee, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald - Exposing the Beast: Factory
Farming must be Called to the Slaughterhouse:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/exposing-the-beast-factory-farming-must-be-called-totheslaughterhouse/2007/02/21/1171733846249.html
“According to interviews with slaughterhouse workers included in Gail Eisnitz's book Slaughterhouse,
the end of an animal's life is a torturous and abusive process. One employee elaborates on the abuse
that animals endure by reporting, "On the farm where I work, they drag the live ones who can't stand
up anymore out of the crate. They put a metal snare around her ear or foot and drag her the full length
of the building. These animals are just screaming in pain. The slaughtering part doesn't bother me. It's
the way they're treated when they're alive. Dying animals unable to walk are tossed into the 'downer
pile,' and many suffer agonies until, after one or two days, they are finally killed." Animals such as
cows, calves, pigs and chickens are made to live truly horrible lives, however short, while being
housed in factory farms."
And
“All this negative energy [from animals’suffering] goes right into the meat that consumers swallow.
Once consumed by a human, the energy of that meat is absorbed into that person's system, making
them feel sick, angry or afraid, just like the emotions of the animal from which the flesh was taken.”
From Factory animal farms produce meat through routine torture and environmental destruction, by
Mike Adams
http://www.naturalnews.com/022101.html
Action and Alternatives:
The petition site:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/stop-factory-farming-now
Get involved in California’s Proposition 2:
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/get_involved/yesonprop2.html
Humane eating:
http://www.hsus.org/farm/humaneeating/rrr.html
other organizations:
http://www.factoryfarm.org/?page_id=27
Beyond Factory Farming Coalition:
http://www.beyondfactoryfarming.org/english/
Food labels could help stem factory farming:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/world/europe/agriculture/factory-farms
Citizen’s Guide to Confronting a Factory Farm:
http://citizensguide.ca/
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening:
http://www.biodynamics.com/
Biodynamic and Organic Gardening Resource Site:
http://www.biodynamic.net/
The Return of Bison and Wolf: instigating North America’s eco-rennaissance.
http://www.evbooks.net/earth_vision_024.htm
Prairie Restoration:
http://www.grist.org/comments/interactivist/2007/07/16/manos/index1.html