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Fast food and its effects
Animal cruelty in farms
Effects of fast food consumption
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According to the article, “The Unhealthy Meat Market,” by Nicholas Kristof, published in The New York Times (2014), Kristof asserted that the meat industry particularly Tyson Foods has done more harm than good. Consequently, to sustain the high demand for meat especially chicken, there has been a negative repercussion on both humans and animals, the environment, as well as, the economy (Leonard). Most chickens in order to reach the level of maturity desired by Tyson are bred to grow “huge breasts.” Hence, Beacham of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stated that “These birds are essentially bred to suffer,” which she classifies as raising “exploding chickens.” Furthermore, the conditions under which chickens are reared
There has been withstanding controversy about whether fast food is easier on the pocket than eating home-cooked meals. Take McDonald’s for instance, they’re notorious for their convenient and affordable dollar and value menus. Since you can get a burger for just $1.19, feeding a family of four should be inexpensive right? Mark Bittman, author of “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” argues otherwise. He claims that fast food is not at all cheaper than buying a few groceries and cooking at home. He expresses the different myths about fast food like how it is supposedly cheaper than real food when measured by the calorie, the mentality of people that if it isn’t fast food, it has to be costly organic food, and that there just isn’t enough time to cook at home. These myths followed by genuine factors such as addictions and a cultural impact, help Bittman prove his argument’s validity across to his audience. I have to say that Bittman proved his argument’s effectiveness, for he clearly stated his thesis and provided various reliable
“U.S. Meat Production,” PSR, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington, D.C. 2014. Print. Web 1 Apr. 2014.
Today, we take many of our natural resources for granted without think about the consequences. For example, cutting down trees, burning fossil fuel, and the consumption of meat. Our ozone layer is becoming weaker and weaker to due factories burning too much fossil fuel. This causes too much carbon dioxide, which affects our ozone layer. If we can limit the amount of natural resources we use on a daily basis, we will be able to see a big change in society.
My Year of Meats (Ozeki) tells the story of two women in two very different parts of the world, and their tumultuous, life-changing journey with meat over the course of a year. Both characters come face to face with situations that test their beliefs and morals, as well as their resolve. There are many themes and lessons that come out of the two women’s’ journey regarding the media, meat products and capitalism, but one of the majors themes that is present in all aspects of the story is the idea of how ideals are carried through society. At one point or another, both women are faced with a choice to either continue on the path their life is currently on, or go against society and change their course. Ruth Ozeki supports the idea in her book that in order to be truly happy and have a less stereotypical society, each individual member of society must be willing to look at their own lives and change it themselves; otherwise, true change will never happen, and society will never be able to move past its limiting views.
Factory farming began in the 1920s soon after the discovery of vitamins A and D. Shirley Leung said, when these vitamins are added to feed, animals no longer require exercise and sunlight for growth (B2). This allowed large numbers of animals to be raised indoors year-round. The greatest problem that was faced in raising these animals indoors was the spread of disease, which was fought against in the 1940s with the development of antibiotics. Farmers found they could increase productivity and reduce the operating costs by using machines and assembly-line techniques. Unfortunately, this trend of mass production has resulted in incredible pain and suffering for the animals. Animals today raised on factory farms have had their genes manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals to encourage high productivity. In the fast food industry, animals are not considered animals at all; “they are food producing machines” (BBC). They are confined to small cages with metal bars, ammonia-filled air and artificial lighting or no lighting at all. They are subjected to horrible mutilations: beak searing, tail docking, ear cutting and castration. The worst thing is that ...
Chickens are one of the top most tortured animals in factory farms. Farmers get the most money for chickens that are heavier and have enlarged thighs and breasts. Like most factory farmed animals, broiler chickens are raised in overcrowded cages their entire life, and become very aggressive. Because of this aggressiveness the employees of the farms cut of their beaks and toes without any type of painkiller or an anesthetic just to keep them from fighting. After being “debeaked” some chickens are then not able to eat and starve. Layer chickens lay 90-95% of the eggs sold in the U.S. (2013b) The torture starts the day they are born. Chicks are placed on a belt, where an employee than picks up each chick to see if it is a male or female. Newborn male chicks are thrown into trash bags, ground up alive, crushed, and killed many other inhumane ways.
This final reading of Peter Singer and Jim Mason’s “The Ethics of What We Eat” was probably the most eye-opening for me. Here, Singer and mason discuss ethical eating options as well as the food choices of a vegan family, the Farbs. They end up summarizing where we should try and get our food and what exactly we should eat. There were many topics that Mason and Singer wanted the readers to hold onto after that section, but I believed that they can all be generalized into one statement: humans must realize that animals are not inanimate objects with no feelings, and how we raise animals for food not only affects us on a personal level but everyone on a global level. They explain that the output is not worth the input, and that there are many
Effects of the meat industry on water Encompassing the agricultural processes involved in the raising and slaughtering of livestock, the meat industry naturally involves some economical, environmental, biological, geographical, and ethical consequences. As one of the largest components of the global agricultural sector, the meat industry is able to impact the world’s water resources on an alarming level. It does this in primarily two very significant ways: through its consumption of water and its contributions to water pollution. These effects on the world’s water are an increasing cause for concern as water scarcity escalates. The economic scope and impact of the meat industry is a significant factor in its ability to affect water supplies
It is horrifying to know the fact that the processed food that we eat today is once animals that are processed alive. The ignorance of the companies has caused the suffering of these poor animals. Gale (2013) writes, “.[media] do not tell us that chickens are the most tortured animals in factory farms and that most chickens have to stand on their own feces all day and end up getting litter burn from their manure. hens are often crammed together in cases so tiny that they do not get enough room to even lift a single wing—which then immobilizes them for their entire lives.”
Poultry is by far the number one meat consumed in America; it is versatile, relatively inexpensive compared to other meats, and most importantly it can be found in every grocery store through out the United States. All of those factors are made possible because of factory farming. Factory farming is the reason why consumers are able to purchase low-priced poultry in their local supermarket and also the reason why chickens and other animals are being seen as profit rather than living, breathing beings. So what is exactly is factory farming? According to Ben Macintyre, a writer and columnist of The Times, a British newspaper and a former chicken farm worker, he summed up the goal of any factory farm “... to produce the maximum quantity of edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene” ( Macintyre, 2009). Factory farmers do not care about the safety of the consumers nor the safety of the chicken, all the industrial farmers have in mind are how fast they can turn a baby chick into a slaughter size chicken and how to make their chicken big and plumped. Factory farming is not only a health hazard to the well-being of the animals, but the environment, and human beings ;thus free range and sustainable farming need to be put into practice.
Tom Regan, “The Case for Animal Rights,” in In Defense of Animals, ed. Peter Singer (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985), 21. U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistical Services, Livestock Slaughter. 2005 Summary, March 2006: USDA, NASS, Poultry Slaughter: 2005
Chickens are the most abused farm animals. In supermarkets chickens are different than they were 40 years ago because of the conditions they go through in the factory. Factory workers put these chickens or hens through chronic pain and it effects them greatly. Chicks are "debeaked" by searing their beaks off with a hot blade. "The beaks of chickens, turkeys, and ducks are often removed in factory farms to reduce the excessive feather pecking and cannibalism seen among stressed, overcrowded birds" (The National Humane Education Society). Egg laying animals can also be starved to shock their bodies into molting. Force molting is when chickens or hens are starved or denied any food for up to two weeks. This can contribute to suffering or early disease of chickens. "It's common for 5% to 10% of hens to die during the forced molting process" (Lin, Doris). Factory farms dominate food production and put animals through abusive environments that cause them
The issue of meat consumption has been a controversial topic on whether to allow the practice or discontinue it, non-meat eaters argue it’s unethical because it is abusive to animals. On the other hand, meat consumers argue that eating meat is ethical as long as meat eaters are conscious of how their meat is collected and the treatment of livestock is fair. The consumption of meat is an act that an individual decides whether to partake in or not. Therefore, the option of eating meat should not be completely taken away, but it should be limited. Eating meat ties in with vegetarian and vegan diets, in the sense that both have to follow guidelines to create an ethical approach to eating any grown foods. The consumption of food is ethical when
What is processed meats? Processed meats is defined as the meats that have been undergo fermentation, salting, smoking, curing or other processes to improves its flavour or prolong its shelf-life. Hot dogs, sausages, beef jerky, hams, canned meat, bacons and corned beef are some of the example of processed meats. In ancient time, the methods that used to prolongs the shelf-life of fresh meats are sun-drying and salting. Todays, these methods have been further developed to produce processed meats that are available on the market for sell. It is known that processed meat encompasses a lot of harmful chemicals that are not naturally found on fresh meat. According to World Health Organization (2015), it stated that processed meats is classified
Pasturing is also a cost-effective and healthy way to raise chickens. It is both good for the environment and the chicken itself. Chickens that are brought up on a farm have a better life and their meat is healthier for the consumer. If you go out and buy chicken from a store, you have no idea what kind of process that meat has been through or what has been added to it. You could be eating something that could get you very sick or even kill you. Factories should have law and those laws should state that artificial growth is illegal and not healthy for our food. If every person in the world took a step back and realized how our everyday food effects our lives or the environment around us we might find better ways to make a profit. So the next time you go to ask a question about where something comes from, you might want to think twice about it.