I don’t think I can eat meat that any more if I don’t know its source, and maybe you won’t be able to either after watching the video in this blog post. It’s hard to verbalize my anger and disgust after watching it, and the same sorts of things are happening all over the place.
February 1, 2008 at 4:00 am
Capitalism is about to undergo some major paroxysms, out of necessity. The next few years — with the end of cheap oil, climate change, immigration and a depreciating dollar and possible depression — are going to be mighty interesting, in the Chinese sense.
February 1, 2008 at 8:26 am
God, Rafe. That was horrible… and important.
p/s. I’m not sure the OpenID commenting is working, at least for claimid.com.
February 1, 2008 at 9:37 am
it’s not just the cruelty, even — animals that can’t stand up probably aren’t safe to eat (especially for children), and there’s little accountability for that either . . .
February 1, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I’m not even going to watch that video, but yeah, eating meat is a big problem for me, mostly because of the conditions animals are raised in, the use of antibiotics, and the frequent cruelty in slaughtering, rather than an innate feeling that eating meat is wrong. I’ve been vegetarian but didn’t enjoy it much, so I’m very well-aware that it’s a selfish choice I make and that I almost inevitably cause cruelty when I eat meat from unknown sources. And there’s also the problem of inefficiency.
As much as possible I try to go to places that use, say, Niman Ranch beef or other low-cruelty/humane producers but of course I often eat meat where I have no idea where it came from.
Oddly, I was just reading Temple Grandin’s book “Thinking in Pictures” which talks a lot about animal slaughter. She thinks that a properly designed plant with well-trained staff and the right killing equipment kept in good repair can be reasonably unstressful for animals, and that standards have improved hugely in the past 10 years because of inspections by restaurant chains and other meat customers.
I don’t really know if I’m right about this, but I do wonder if the widespread participation in hunting in this country is partly responsible for what appears to be a lower interest in animal welfare than in Europe.
February 2, 2008 at 10:47 am
Truly horrifying.
While becoming a vegetarian is probably overreacting, I’m with you — it’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to eat at pretty much any fast food joint from here on out. Ugh.