USDA officials have recalled 143 million pounds of beef, enough meat to feed two hamburgers to every man woman and child in the United States, as reported by the Associated Press. A video broadcast across the nation showed sickening and cruel abuse of ill, dying, or crippled cattle at a slaughterhouse associated with the recall. Many non-ambulatory cattle were shoved and prodded with forklifts and electrical prods.
As a livestock producer and active member in the Tennessee agricultural community, I eat meat, lots of meat, and I enjoy it. .The fact that an animal will be slaughtered for me to enjoy a good meal does not bother me. I am also an Animal Science major with an interest in large animals ranging from cattle to horses to goats. My education and experiences has helped me understand the physiology of the animals and the necessities of producing and managing such a product as livestock. Used in the appropriate manner, an electrical cattle prod is a useful tool and has saved me from broken ribs countless times. But NEVER have I ever seen the kind of cruelty I witnessed in the video broadcast on CNN.com.
I must say that this is a terrible blow to the livestock producers of America. America is already plagued with public ignorance of where and how their food is produced. The blame will certainly fall on those who are guilty but it will also fall on the actual livestock producers who care for and take pride in their animals. A livestock producer can take no more pride in any of their products than a healthy animal and a clean beautifully dressed carcass. The problem lies in the meatpackers and slaughterhouses that take shortcuts in the processes that jeopardize the public's health and safety. There are thousands of agricultural and meat science students that have the passion and respect to work in such a field as animal slaughter for consumption. But what is cheaper and more cost effective for slaughterhouses and meat packers? Hire unqualified, legal and illegal cheap labors who lack the skill, decency, and respect for life, animal or human alike. There is a terrible gap in the meat industry from producing to processing and some way or another we will all lose. The livestock producers that take pride in their operations, the cheap labors who will lose their jobs when their companies are finally shut down, and the consumers, who will continue to consume cheap, tainted, contaminated meat. Its times like this it seems worth being in debt for the rest of my life, so that I might just change this terrible fate for the American food industry.
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Though you may have respect for your animals, and you may take the time and care to make sure they are treated correctly right up to the day they are slaughtered, correct me if I'm wrong but you don't seem like you are a part of the mass-producing meat industry that has made a home in the United States.
The images that you saw on CNN are not unique to one meat farm. The industrializing of the meat industry has created countless other factories just like this one, who just haven't been found out yet. Books have been written about them -- Skinny Bitch, Fast Food Nation to name two -- yet the American public just doesn't seem to care.
Why do livestock factories like this exist? Because you're right, Americans don't know where their food comes from. But it's also because the American meat-eating phenomenon is outdated and impractical at this juncture. According to a recent New York Times article, "Americans eat about the same amount of meat as we have for some time, about eight ounces a day, roughly twice the global average. At about 5 percent of the world’s population, we “process” (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total."
The industrial meat industry is horrible for the environment: it is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and groundwater pollution, and it is also the main consumer of grains produced in this country. The times article continues to point out that "an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation."
If you are a small farmer, I hope that your business will prosper as Americans - hopefully - begin to cut down on unnecessary meat consumption and buy only the top quality meat from qualified and humane producers.
Here is the link to the times article that I cited: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?pagewanted...
Thats the difference, is there is such confusion and chaos when it comes to figuring out exactly where that cow came from and who owns it. Many animals come from a farm at a small, medium, or large corporation level, and sold to the slaughterhouse. Once this happens the animal's future is out of that producers hands and into the slaughterhouses. I am the Vice Chairman for my county's Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers organization and have met and talked with countless farmers across the state of Tennessee and Oklahoma. In fact I lived for a year with farmers from New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. There is a major problem with vertical integration with companies like Tyson and other major meat "producers". While to an extent this make animal tracking and identification easy and boosts rural economies, it begins to take away from the connectedness and the income of small and medium independent farmers. The problem is so huge it would take forever to debate. I think I'll open one in True Debates. The government, The American Farm Bureau, the USDA, and other agricultural agencies are fighting to establish policies that will help solve many of these problems.
Having been a member of the National FFA for a long time, I have learned a lot about the value of hard work and pride in your product. It's a sad fact that major coorporations give the honest producers a bad name with stunts like this. I think it does give the general public the wrong impression. Sometimes it seems like we haven't come as far as we'd like since Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle.
For more information concerning the actual incident, refer to my blog: Watch What You Eat.
http://www.progressiveu.org/223614-watch-what-you-eat
"I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers."
- Kahlil Gibran
All of this makes sense. I have to say, I disagree with animal cruelty, as will any other American with half a brain. But the question is: do we do anything about it?
I eat meat, although most of it is deer meat that was killed by my father, cleaned by my parents, and prepared by my parents, so I concider that pretty good eating. I try to eat eggs only from the UEP (United Egg Producers), they set up guidelines and regulations for egg producers.
I agree that killing animals in mass is destructive, BUT, I certainly cannot have cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc in my yard! Somebody needs to raise it for me! As a meat consumer I absolutely expect the meat industry to treat animals like animals! They are living things and deserve respect, even if they are "gross", like chickens, which are only cute when they're little (in my opinion). It's really sad that all this meat needs to become garbage because people don't treat the earth and animals (and people) on it, with respect!