Meatrix and Farm to Fridge Video- Draft 2

Watching the Meatrix, I saw some things that I knew were already happening, like the use of machines to milk the cows and crowded conditions to maximize the amount of animals that could be stuffed in a small area, but found a lot of new things that were shocking, like calves that were separated from their mothers at a young age were fed cows milk replacement made with blood from dead cows, which seems a bit twisted to me. It made sense because of the industrialization of the dairy farms, feeding calves milk meant less milk for humans, so industry farms take the milk that would have gone to the calves to us. But because of the way that things are that is more profitable for the industry and they only worry about their bottom line. The Meatrix keeps on giving the message in the end of the video that the power to stop this is in the consumers hands, and its true, since it'll send the message that consumers don't want the product like this, its unprofitable to do it. Otherwise, the incentive to stop doing something like that is not enough to cause actual change. From a purely profit perspective if it doesn't hurt your profits there is no reason to stop doing it, never mind the risk of antibiotic overuse, the dangerous crowded conditions, or the higher risk of spreading disease. The people aren't informed enough, or they don't care so it's okay to continue doing this, that's what the people who run the Industrialized Farms are thinking when consumers continue buying their products because it shows people are not supporting the cause for sustainable food and their profit margins are safe.

Watching the Farm to Fridge video and seeing the treatment of the chickens, pigs, and cows, it seems undeniably cruel and cold, how they are beaten and abused and are helpless against this treatment. The chickens are genetically modified to grow large and the that chickens can't bear the heavy weight induced by the hormones and are beaten with metal rods, which is considered "standard practice". The way they die and are killed is the same, being conscious and having their throats slit alive and scalded with hot water. It makes me think of the pig slaughter video we saw in class and how just a few moments before sliding down they were kicking and alive and they come out dead and still, because I think that's what happened with them, they were scalded alive. I can't help thinking that if they were human something like this would be considered "inhumane", but because people don't bear the lives of animals with the same weight that they do of humans. Watching the video I felt a range of emotions, I was appalled, disgusted, saddened, and angry at the way people treated the animals, to the point where they are spent. The squeal of the piglets screaming was very eerie to hear because you see them struggling as well.

I think if that people must eat meat for food, then these animals should be treated as if they were real, living, breathing beings not just another source of food for humans. Industrial food is very mechanized, the animals are treated as if they don't have feelings or emotions, like Descartes theory, when the scientists had animal test subjects they thought it was alright because animals did not have "souls". Like the anemic cows whom are practically crawling because their muscles have atrophied from lack of use, what kind of living is that? When we selfishly think that we have the right to live, does the right not also to extend to animals? We are animals and for that to extend to them is only natural. What that means is being able to go outside and play, walk, eat, to breathe the fresh air. To live, NOT locked up in cramped little cells for all their lives, NOT going insane from the lack of mental stimulation, NOT abused and mistreated until they are spent from the daily poking and proding. But to have the chance to breathe. I support vegetarianism, but I don't think its wrong to eat meat, I just think its wrong to eat meat that has been treated like that. In the wild, lions hunt and kill deer for food and nutrition, but at least in the wild that deer has been able to run and live their life. What's happening in those animal "farms" isn't natural at all.