I have never had to worry about what to eat. I have never counted calories. I have only ever learned my weight after a doctor’s visit. I was told to eat my vegetables when I was little- I was actually bribed a few times to finish my lima beans. I have eaten all types of foods. Anything- I am not picky. I have eaten fast food, junk food and candy without a care in the world. Even with all of this said, I was not prepared to be so concerned with the information I learned after taking an English course my freshman year of college. I am one of those people who tend to follow a trend and then forget why it was that I was following it. In other words, when I watched Food Inc. during class, and read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, I realized that I had been following a trend and I had no idea why. The trend I am speaking of is buying fast food and meat and not questioning where it came from or why it was priced the way it was. I started to wonder if food - the only thing I knew I could choose - was just another link in the chain of confusing and corrupted issues in our society. To be honest, I thought about my cat.
My cat is cute and cuddly and going on 12-years-old. HE is almost always mistaken for a she, and I make sure to correct people. My cat is almost like my pre-baby. I can tell how he feels when I look into his eyes, and however strange it may sound, I know that he loves me right back. I do not know what I would do if someone ever abused him- it actually makes me sick to my stomach. So why do I seem to let the fact that animals are abused everyday for food just skip right past my conscience. The only reason I can of is because I do not want to face the fact that in some small part I am abusing the animal that I am ingesting.
In, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” it made me question everything I have ever thought of about the food industry. From what they feed cows and livestock to the way animals live up to their final days and to the way they are killed makes me wish I were a vegetarian. The only solace I found in the article was when the author said, “As I gingerly stepped toward him the quietly shuffling mass of black cowhide between us parted, and there stood 534 and I, staring dumbly at one another. Glint of recognition? None, none whatsoever. I told myself not to take it personally: 534 and his pen mates have been bred for their marbling, not their ability to form attachments” (955). This gave me comfort, however twisted it may be, because at least I can think to myself that killing the cow would not ‘hurt’ his feelings or mine. I have no attachment. It is a thing- a product to be sold. My cat is my baby- something that I would never imagine living in a pen of his own feces or dealing with bloodshot eyes because of feedlot dust (which is actually fecal dust). Is this what has kept me from questioning the food industry- the fact that I do not have a name and a face to what I am eating?
I have questioned if I should be a vegetarian. The thought always pops into my head when I am shuffling through the dining hall or grabbing a package of meat at the grocery. Then I realize that there is a food chain that humans are at the top off. We dominate all food and we take whatever we want- besides our culture’s ideas of “pets”. Whenever the question of meat comes into play I realize that the problem is not that we kill animals- but that we abuse animals. Yes, killing is abuse I suppose, but whatever happened to being humane? The food cycle is real and I do not think it is realistic to stop killing animals for food, but I most certainly do not find it acceptable that animals are tortured or kept in the most disgusting of conditions during their final days. Even after reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and watching Food Inc. I am not sure I was so much angry with the fact that the meat is becoming unhealthy for humans to digest, but that the animals were fed meals with parts of their own species included in it, and being fed so much corn could led an animal to grow a layer of fat that could end up making the animal suffocate to death. It is the abuse and the neglect of the animals. All of this makes me wonder if there could ever be a utopia where animals were respected and humans did not have to worry about diseases from the mistreatment and uncleanliness by the food industry.
In the major motion picture, Avatar, the food chain exists but is respected among a tribe. Every animal that is killed has a purpose and they have a prayer. Respect is what is needed in our society. Even if we do not associate relationships and attachments with what we eat does that mean we become heartless bastards who are able to kick a chicken, or bludgeon a cow without feeling any remorse or sickness in the pits of our stomachs? The food chain is not able to be ignored or passed over, but animal suffering is not an acceptable way to keep our food industry sustainable and respectable. Food is of course something none of us can live without, but I would rather live on grass than see another animal miserable. Believe it or not, they way we treat animals has a direct relationship to they way humans are treated nutritionally.
I have imagined myself on a farm. I never see green grass. I have never seen absolutely clean water. I am injected several times with antibiotics and I stand in my own fecal matter. I do not eat what biology has told me to, but rather I eat corn and lots of it which eventually makes me so unnaturally heavy that my legs will give out from underneath me and I will lie in my feces until my death. I become resistant to bacteria and eventually when I am slaughtered and passed through conveyer belt after conveyer belt and rubbed against manure-caked hides of my pen-mates, I will be given to a human who will unfailingly eat me and intake the strains of bacteria that have accumulated inside of me and develop a disease that will destroy their bodies and the emotions of everyone they love.
I shake myself from this imagination and try to tell myself that that would be an extreme case and is a rarity. The fact of the matter is that cases like what I imagined are becoming less of a rarity. No matter what way the web is presented emotions are a key part of the equation. Society tends to forget that not only is the saying, you are what you eat true, but that “you are what what you eat eats too” (Pollan 960). We are all a part of the process, and it took me a while to completely understand this.
My food habits have not changed completely because I still eat meat- and I enjoy it. What has changed though is the way I chose my meat. I am more prone to choose meat based on packaging that promotes organic farming. I know animals are still suffering for my taste buds, but at least now I know that I can have a voice and that I know of the dangers and corruption of the food industry. Most importantly, food has made me realize that I miss my cat and I can not wait to pet him again and hope that other animals will eventually be treated with respect.
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