MAHATMA Gandhi once said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." By these standards, the United States is not the great nation it claims to be, but instead a nation vested in unsound morals and barbaric agricultural practices.
Every year in the United States, 10 billion animals are slaughtered to meet Americans' meat consumption demands. Though Americans represent only five percent of the global population, we account for one-sixth of the world's animal consumption. American demand for meat is twice the world average and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says an average American will consume around 200 pounds of meat each year. In order to grow meat at this rate, livestock are raised in unnaturally dense settings on factory farms, where they are treated with indefensible cruelty.
Most Americans never will set foot in a factory farm, and most never will witness the pain and suffering that goes into a piece of meat. We are cowards - we subject other creatures to unimaginable pain to satisfy our appetite, even when eating meat is no longer necessary to survive.
On today's factory farms, animals are crammed into cages and pens so small they cannot move or turn around for the entirety of their lives. They are force fed, dismembered, castrated without anesthesia, skinned alive and slaughtered in merciless ways. Beyond the ethical issues of factory farming, however, the way we produce meat has other far reaching implications including environmental degradation, resource exhaustion and increased health risks. Reform is imperative for our moral integrity, environmental protection and health.
Reform depends on new legislation aimed at ending factory farming and inhumane practices. Currently, the laws we do have are inconsistent and unacceptable. Within our legal system, some animals enjoy protections against cruelty, while others possess no protections at all. For instance, it would be hard to imagine unwanted puppies being fed through a grinder. Yet the egg farmer trade group United Egg Producers says 200 million baby male chicks are ground up alive at egg hatcheries in the United States each year. Male chicks are worthless to the agriculture industry - they do not lay eggs and they grow slowly. Thus, to cheaply mass produce eggs the agriculture industry employs the barbaric practice of "instantaneous euthanasia."
One might wonder how such vile practices could be condoned by the American legal system, which is meant to uphold certain ethical standards. The answer is that they are justified under "Common Farming Exemptions." Most states sustain laws such as these, which make cruelty to certain animals legal and justifiable.
Common Farming Exemption laws permit acts of cruelty if they are practiced widely and considered an industry standard. Thus, farmers can grind up baby chicks and castrate 65 million calves and piglets a year without prosecution. As long as these Common Farming Exemption laws are upheld by state and federal governments, farm animals will continue to be abused as if they are commodities rather than living and feeling creatures.
If the ethical reasons for eliminating factory farming and reducing meat consumption are not convincing enough, we should turn our attention to the environmental and health consequences of factory farming. The FAO says that factory farms account for approximately one-fifth of global greenhouse gases. This exceeds the amount of greenhouse gases produced by global transportation.\nFactory farms also are exhausting needed resources. Raising meat is largely impractical in a world where 800 million people are hungry and starving - most of the world's grain is used to feed livestock.
The corollary between meat consumption and increased health risks also has been well documented. The high fat content found in meat has led to higher risks of cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart disease.Additionally, the unsafe ways in which meat is processed increase the risks of food-borne illnesses.
Time and time again, we have learned the consequences of oppression. Throughout history, human beings have used theories of superiority to persecute and torture people of different races, ethnicities, religions and sexes. Unchecked power has resulted in some of the grossest acts of human cruelty. Yet despite all we have witnessed, we still use these same theories of supremacy to justify the torture of millions of animals for the purpose of producing and consuming meat.
Yes, farm animals are different in certain ways from humans, but this does not negate their proven intelligence and ability to feel pain. Farm animals deserve dignity and respect, just as we deserve dignity and respect from our fellow humans. As Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker once said, "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men."
We must acquaint ourselves with the horrors of factory farming before we can seek to change its cruel practices. By going vegetarian and fighting for greater protections for American farm animals, we will create a society that is morally respectable and environmentally sound.
Farm animals are among the most abused creatures on earth. Every day, each one of us makes a conscious decision whether or not we will condone our nation's agricultural practices. It is time we give this decision more weight and embrace the consequences of our actions. In the words of Confucius, "To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice."
Ashley Chappo's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at a.chappo@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Scapegoating students will not stop hazing
By Editorial Board | 2 days agoInstead of retroactively responding to extreme hazing allegations, we, and especially the University, must begin asking more probing questions about the role of fraternal organizations on Grounds.
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | April 18, 2024Our independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
ARRAS: U.Va. must revise the Sexual Assault Prevention Training module
By Aoife Arras | April 17, 2024In addition to its failures in interactivity, the module lacks details specific to the University and discusses key concepts in universal terms.
