Eating Animals by Jonathon Safran Foer

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Comment by Catherine Rogers on November 17, 2011 at 10:14

I don't think anyone is ignoring transport and trade as large polluters - hence more and more countries introducing laws such as the carbon tax.  There are many of us out there who are aware and go to great lengths to buy local food and shop at second hand stores.  Businesses are cropping up everywhere to supply consumers with more sustainable options.  See my blog about Food connect (a sustainable food supplier), eco directory, gum tree (an online place to buy and sell second hand goods in your local area).  These are great ways to reduce consumerism.  In Sydney we have seen an explosion in the number of people riding bikes to work - Sydney City council has built bike paths all over sydney city and councils in the suburbs have as well.  Companies see the growing demand and are developing electric and solar cars.  Hopefully this will continue and more and more people will switch to green energy in their homes and in as many aspects of their lives as possible.  Solar panels on rooftops are becoming more and more common.  Slowly we are shifting our conception of how we live and what we consume - will it be fast enough, perhaps not.

 

But back to food, and especially meat - to take a quote from 'Eatings Animals' "Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change." 

With people going hungry we are feeding masses of factory farmed animals with food that humans could be eating, we are diverting crops to biofuels because we cant curb our energy rich lifestyles.  World trade is just another way that countries like the US continue to assert power and dominance over third world countries. I recently heard Harvey Purse from AFTINET give a talk about the reality of free trade agreements.  HE gave numerous examples of how America demanded free trade with countries yet consistently protected their own industries (and how Australia has done the same thing through trade agreements with pacific countries).  One prominient example:

- In 1996 Mexico was self-sufficient in white corn (considered the superior type of corn) 

- 1993 - Mexico signed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

- North America export 75% of the corn now consumed in Mexico (yellow corn) - basically flooding the market with cheaper corn  

- huge percentages of Mexican corn production has now been shifted to ethanol production - biofuels

 

The US dumps its excess wheat and corn (from subsidised industries) onto third world countries as "food aid" - conveniently enough this often includes crops grown with GM - pushing GM in developing nations and making them dependent on GM seeds, fertiliser ect - increasing Monsanto's monopoly over food production. 

Comment by Peter Wignall on November 15, 2011 at 12:07

We are meat eaters in our family of three, however we do have meat free days of cooking such as omelette, pasta and fish though this is getting expensive.  The Chickens We eat are always Free-Range Organic.

Surely World Trade with ships plying the oceans is the greatest polluter of the Planet.  Ships burn heavy oil in large quantities but all World Trade does is increase thise each year.

Aeroplanes are another great source of World pollution and are likewise increasing in quantities each year.  Why are we ignoring these massive polluters?

Comment by Catherine Rogers on November 13, 2011 at 10:09

It really is pathetic to think that in such an open society consumers are simply blocked from seeing how their food is produced.  To think that the only chance we have of knowing what happens in factory farms is to break in in the middle of the night is pathetic.  

Thank you for sharing your picture Ronnie.  Cara I think more teachers should take children to see the "real"animal farms of today.  Even though it may take away some childhood innocence, at some point we need to start making more conscious decisions as you said - and this starts with opening our eyes to what is really happening.

Ronnie I saw your picture of the factory farmed chickens on my phone whilst visiting my sister in law who has chickens in the garden.  We had just collected an egg from their hen and I was sitting on the grass with my niece watching the chickens rummaging around the garden and nestling into some dirt to make a comfortable place to rest.  Covered in soft silky brown feathers and each with so much individual character - it was a stark juxtaposition to the chicken I saw below! 

Comment by Cara on November 11, 2011 at 8:48

Thanks so much for your thoughtful blog Catherine and Ronnie for sharing your stories & photograph. When I was in primary school one of my teachers took us on an excursion to a pig farm - all of us kids were expecting to walk onto the set of Babe and see happy pigs playing in mud. Instead, 20 years later I can still feel the shock my 7 year old self felt when I saw how horribly the pigs were treated. I think if more people were exposed to these realities more people would make consicous choices about what they eat. I know that vegetarianism isn't for everyone, but making informed choices should be.

Comment by Ronnie Wright on November 10, 2011 at 18:47

Hi Catherine, and thanks for posting all that great information.  I’ve also made some midnight visits to factory farms and have a scar from barbed wire on my arm to remind me of the horror I witnessed on such visits. 

This is a photo I took that shows what an Australian chicken looks like prior to being packaged and shipped off to the grocery store.

Every chicken we picked up looked like this. They could hardly stand up because their breast were so large.  It wasn’t easy to leave them behind.

Ronnie Wright

World Chang Cafe