Three Reasons to Eat Less Meat--Part 1

And I’m back. I think this will be my final installment of my ecological stream of conscious. However, of the three, this is the one I am most passionate about. For that reason, this installment alone will take me about three posts to fully express myself.

A few years ago, I started to cut back on my meat consumption. I started with red meat, in order to decrease my intake of saturated fat. That had me feeling pretty good. I knew I could cut back even more, so I decided to not only keep going with my drastic red meat reduction, but to also go vegetarian twice a week. I’ve since extended that even more. This is because while I was researching vegetarian meals and nutrition, I came across information on factory farming.

Over the next two days, I’m going to try to convince you to go vegetarian at least two days each week. Again, this is about a lot of people who do a little as individuals, but make a big impact when put together. Today, I’d like you to look into factory farming so you can understand why I have such strong feelings about it. Then, tomorrow and Friday, I’ll go over the environmental and health benefits of eating less or no meat.

I should probably tell you right now that I’m not here to tell you that meat is murder and that meat eaters deserve a very special place in hell. I am acquainted with the circle of life and the food chain. However, I have noticed a gluttonous way that we Americans consume meat two or three meals per day and also in snacks. Walk into a Walmart or Costco and look at their meat section. Then check out the frozen food. Then the soup aisle and the canned meat aisle. How many more Walmarts and Costcos are out there with just as much meat? How much of it is wasted because it sits too long? How many animals is that? How many cows and chickens does it take to keep one McDonald’s location in business? We’ve built a dependence on meat that has created a huge demand, which has in turn required the use of factory farming in order to meet that demand.

How much of a demand can it be? It is estimated that each American eats approximately 273 pounds of meat per year, 97 pounds of that being beef. It sounds like a lot, but think about it. That’s an average of only ¾ of a pound per day. A half a pound is eight ounces. If you go out to eat, that’s the tiny steak. We feel ripped off if a hamburger is anything less than a quarter pounder. Most families of four require one and a half to two pounds of chicken to make a meal. Plus, there is meat in places we don’t even notice it—bacon bits on your salad, a vegetable soup made with chicken broth, lard in your refried beans. I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable statistic.

If you take fifteen minutes to look into factory farming, you will be disgusted. After that fifteen minutes of research, you will have enough information to make you heart ache and your stomach turn whenever you allow yourself to think about it for a few seconds. So while I won’t get preachy and say that eating meat is wrong, I will definitely jump on my soap box and tell you that factory farming is one of the most horrible practices out there.

Here are some basics on factory farming:

· The purpose of factory farming is to raise the most possible animals to the biggest possible size in the smallest possible space for the lowest possible cost. It’s about business, not respect.
· Adding vitamins A and D to the feed negates the need for sunlight and exercise. Factory farmed animals live in tiny pens where they cannot even turn around. Farms are usually indoors, so the business can continue year-round.
· Little to no lighting in factory farms prevents the tightly-packed animals from fighting.
· With so many animals packed in such a tight space, disease is a concern. Therefore, the animals are treated with antibiotics, whether they need them or not. This goes into the blood, which goes into the meat, which goes into the consumer.
· Along with antibiotics, hormones are used to increase growth, allowing younger animals to reach a suitable slaughter size. Growing so quickly and being so heavy causes many painful health issues, such as bone and joint deterioration, respiratory problems, and heart problems. Another problem: consumers also ingest these hormones.
· Factory farmed animals are subjected to mutilations: beak searing (removal with a hot blade) in chickens, castration for male beef cattle, horn amputation, plus tail docking and ear cutting, and branding, all without pain killers.
· Genetic manipulation has caused chickens to have larger breasts and legs (the most popular pieces). This leads to skeletal deformities that make it painful to move.
· Ammonia from the huge amounts of manure that build up causes the majority of animals (80% of pigs) to have pneumonia at the time of slaughter. Yum!
· Once the animals leave the farm, they usually face a long trip to a slaughterhouse. It is not unusual for animals to be transported to another state to be slaughtered. It isn’t thought profitable for animals to be fed and watered during the final days of life, or to transport them in a climate-controlled cage, so they often arrive at the slaughterhouse dehydrated, starving, and exposed to whatever weather elements it was their luck to get. Through it all, they have also suffered from the health ailments caused by their experiences at the factory farm. You’d think that the quick death of the slaughterhouse would be a welcome release? Think again.
· The average kill-rate of a slaughterhouse is 400 animals per hour. In order to work this quickly, the killing process is begun, but the animal is often still alive and conscious while being seared in boiling water and dismembered. Production can’t be stopped simply because an animal is still alive.

I could post a video or two or five to further prove my point, but I’m afraid I would throw up—or make you throw up. If you’d like to see video of undercover investigations and plain old documentation, I’d suggest going to http://www.meetyourmeat.com/. Watching just one will change your life if you let it. I suffered through them in order to firm my own resolve.

If you are thoroughly disgusted by all of this and would like to find meat from small farms that treat their animals more humanely, go to www.greenyour.com/lifestyle/food-drink/meat/tips/choose-local-small-scale-farm-meat.

If you’re curious about these facts and would like to know more, do a google search for “factory farming.” Or try these sites, which I think are the most comprehensive:

http://www.idausa.org/facts/factoryfarmfacts.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/Toxic/factoryfarm.cfm
http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=103

What I wish in all of this is that people would just be more mindful of what they eat. We take our meat for granted. When I learned all of this about factory farming, I vowed to stop and think every time I ate meat. I thought about the fact that it was once alive and wondered what the animal had to go through in order for me to have the chicken sandwich. I changed my perspective.

Sure, I’m just one person, but I’m doing my part to stop the demand and support for factory farming. Please help. Start by cutting back on your meat consumption. I’m only asking you to go vegetarian two days each week, thereby cutting your meat consumption by 28%. You can also start buying meat from small farms by using the link I’ve provided.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!