What's On My Dinner Plate?

I started this blog with the intention of discussing the inherent rights of humans. However, Michael Pollan's fantastic book called Omnivore's Dilemma has inspired me to post about the rights of our furry friends, the animals of the world. Pollan discusses and criticizes the industrial food system, a complex network that is essentially built upon a river of corn. Because corn is heavily subsidized, the huge surplus is used to feed to cows. Perfect solution, right? Not exactly. Cows are not designed to digest corn, and when it is fed to them in large quantities, their stomachs become acidic and their livers can develop large abscesses. Furthermore, industrial feedlots have serious effects upon the environment (waste and fertilizer runoff from such feedlots have created the giant dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico) and human health (industrial meat has become a cheap commodity and excessive beef-eating has inflamed obesity in the US).

In my opinion, meat-eating is not morally wrong, as long as it is done humanely and sustainably. However, the blatant mistreatment that the animals in feedlots is a sickening violation of animal rights. Furthermore, people have a right to know where their food came from, and the industry's attempt to hide that process is simply wrong. The workers in the meat industry are also horribly mistreated, considered no better than the meat that they slaughter at pitifully low wages.Industrial feedlots are by no means natural or "okay"-cows were not meant to be fed corn, chickens were not meant to have their beaks chopped off, and food was not meant to be pumped full of antibiotics and synthetics.

For all these reasons and more, I have become an advocate of sustainable agriculture. That means that I don't eat meat that was produced under these cruel, unsustainable, unhealthy conditions. Even if The Omnivore's Dilemma doesn't inspire a major lifestyle change for you, it will show you what goes into producing each and every meal that you eat, from a midnight McDonald's run to ten-course gourmet feast.