Due to consumer demand for inexpensive meat, eggs, and
dairy, suppliers are in constant competition to market their products at the
lowest prices possible, no matter how the animals are treated.
The farmed animals that suffer are hidden from view and easy
to ignore. But millions of people have discovered the reality of factory
farming and have decided that it’s too cruel to support.
Opposing the cruelties of factory farming is not an
all-or-nothing proposition. From eating more meat-free meals to going
vegetarian or vegan, we can all help create a better world through our everyday
choices. What we choose to eat makes a powerful statement about whom we are.
Actions speak louder than words and making ethical, compassionate choices
affirms our fundamental humanity.
Much as we have awakened to the full economic and social
costs of cigarettes, we will find we can no longer ignore the costs of
mass-producing cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep, and fish to feed our growing
population. These costs include hugely inefficient use of freshwater and land,
heavy pollution from livestock feces, rising rates of heart disease and other
degenerative illnesses, and spreading destruction of the forests on which much
of our planet’s life depends.
With rising temperatures, rising sea levels, melting icecaps
and glaciers, shifting ocean currents and weather patterns, climate change is
the most serious challenge facing the human race.
It is all very well to say that individuals must wrestle
with their consciousness, but only if their consciousness are awake and
informed. Industrial society, unfortunately, hides animal suffering. When we
picture a farm, visions of “Old
MacDonald’s” comes to mind, not the warehouses with 10,000 chickens. When we
look, it’s shocking, as our childhood pictures have been transformed into
stinking factories.
Visiting a confined animal feeding operation is to enter a
world designed according to macabre principals; animals are machines incapable
of feeling pain. Since no thinking person can possibly believe this anymore,
industrial animal agriculture depends upon a suspension of disbelief on the
part of the people who operate it and a willingness to avert your eyes and your
innate feeling of compassion.
Our own worst nightmare may be such a place. But it is real life for billions
of animals unlucky enough to have been born under these impersonal steel roofs,
into the brief, pitiless life of a “production unit”.
Virtually
all U.S. birds raised for food are factory farmed. Inside densely populated
sheds, vast amounts of waste accumulate. The resultant ammonia levels commonly
cause painful burns to the birds’ eyes and respiratory tracts. To cut losses
from birds pecking each other, farmers remove a third to a half of the beak
from egg-laying hens, breeding chickens, and most turkeys and ducks. The birds
suffer pain for weeks.
If most
urban meat eaters were to visit an industrial broiler house, to see how the
birds are raised, and could see the birds being “harvested” and then being
“processed” in a poultry processing plant, they would not be impressed and many
would swear off eating chicken and maybe all other flesh as well.
For
modern animal agriculture, the less the consumer knows about what’s happening
before it winds up on their plate, the better. If this is true, is this then an
ethical situation? And, should we be reluctant to let people know what really
goes on, because we’re not really proud of it and concerned that it might turn
them to vegetarianism?
When we
talk about flesh that is “free-range”, does anyone realize that the exposure to
the outdoors by these creatures may amount to one small exit in an over-crowed shed,
as there are no USDA requirements for indoor or outdoor space? So, if the door
is open, these animals can be labeled “free-range”.
Packed in
battery cages, typically less than half a square foot of floor space per bird,
hens can become immobilized and die of asphyxiation or dehydration. Decomposing
corpses are routinely found in cages with live birds.
Though
each hen is less productive when crowded, the operation as a whole makes more
money with a high shocking density: chickens are cheap, cages are expensive.
By the
time their egg production declines, the hens’ skeletons are so fragile that
many suffer broken bones as they are removed from the cages. Some flocks are
gassed on-site and those sent to slaughter often endure long journeys and
sustain further injuries.
The
American laying hen passes her brief life span piled together with a half-dozen
other hens in a wire cage whose floor is the size of a magazine page. Every
natural instinct of this animal is cut-off, leading to a range of behavioral
“vices” that can include cannibalizing her cage mates and rubbing her body
against the wire mesh until it is featherless and bloody. The 5% or so of hens
that cannot bear it and simply die are built into the cost of production.
Birds
with broken legs and wings, open wounds, and large tumors are shackled and hung
on the slaughter line, while some of the birds are left writhing on the floor
for hours beforehand. Workers punch, kick, throw, and mutilate live birds; eggs
are ripped out of the birds’ bodies and thrown at co-workers, and the heads of
the birds are ripped off the birds that were trapped inside the transport
cages.
Contrary
to popular belief, chickens are not mindless or simple automations, but are
complex behaviorally, do quite well in learning, show a rich social
organization, and have a diverse repertoire of calls. Anyone who has kept
barnyard chickens recognizes their significant differences in personality.
What
about the “little piggy that went to market”? Well, these piglets in
confinement operations are weaned from their mothers 2 to 3 weeks after birth,
compared with 13 weeks in nature, because they gain weight faster on their
hormone, antibiotic, fortified feed. This premature weaning leaves the pigs
with a lifelong craving to suck and chew, a desire they gratify in confinement
by biting the tail of the animal in front of them.
The
USDA’s recommended solution to the problem is called “tail docking”. Using a
pair of pliers, without any anesthetic, most but not all of the tail is snipped
off. Why leave the little stump? Because the whole point of the exercise is not
to remove the object of tail-biting so much as to render it more sensitive.
Now, a bite on the tail is so painful that even the most demoralized pig will
mount a struggle to avoid it.
At this
point you might think it can’t get any worse. Think again! Pregnant pigs were confined in two-foot wide
stalls, only able to take one step forward or back. Many of these pigs have
deep infected sores and scrapes from constantly rubbing against the metal bars.
Workers
clip the piglets’ tails with dull pliers; perform castrations, rip out the
piglets’ testes with their hands; and tattoo sows by repeatedly driving a
spiked mallet into the pigs flesh, again, all without anesthesia.
If the
anti-cruelty laws that protect pets were applied to farmed animals, many of the
routine U.S. farming practices would be illegal in all 50 states. Are dogs and
cats really so different from chickens, turkeys, pigs and cows that one group
deserves legal protection from cruelty, while the other deserves virtually no
protection at all?
Disregard
for farmed animals persists because few people realize the ways in which these
creatures are mistreated, and even fewer actually witness the abuse. Once
aware, most people are appalled – not because they believe in animal rights,
but because they believe that animals feel pain and that morally decent human
beings should try to prevent pain whenever possible.
Do we, as humans, having an ability
to reason and to communicate abstract ideas verbally and in writing, and to
form ethical and moral judgments using the accumulated knowledge of the ages,
have the right to take the lives of other sentient beings when we are not
forced to do so by hunger or dietary need, but rather do so for the somewhat
callous reason that
we like the taste of flesh and blood?
Recently in Hawaii, the House
Finance Committee unanimously passed a bill that would allow Hawaii to
construct, maintain and run the only State owned slaughterhouse in the United
States. Despite a dozen protest testimonies and despite over 300 written
protest testimonies, ignorance prevailed.
While testimonies were being given,
those testimonies were constantly met with the words, “let’s summarize now” or
“speed things up” or “there’s a 3 minute limit”. Yet, when the Hawaii Dep’t of
Agriculture Head, Russell Kokubun, spoke, the Legislators held on to his every
word. All this coming from the guy that is a front man for the special interest
groups like Bayer/Monsanto. Mr. Kokubun single handedly killed a previous GMO
labeling bill.
This bill was actually the
brainchild of the Cattlemen’s Association. But, not wanting to assume any
responsibility for the disastrous ramifications regarding environmental
destruction or loss to life and limb, which is typical in a slaughterhouse,
their paid lobbyist successfully convinced our lolo (nut case) politicians that
they should foot the bill of construction – $1.9 million. And once again,
Hawaii remains in first place as the per capita champion of the colon-cancer
capitol of the world.
What do we do to try to instill
compassion in humans? How do we get them to realize what they eat is the result
of immense cruelty, torture and pain? Even more important is how do we wean
people away from their insatiable addiction to the flesh and blood of rotting
animals?
Compassion begins in one’s heart.
If the heart is hard, compassion will not be present. If the heart is soft, compassion
for all living beings will abound.
Aloha!
Sources:
Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.
After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a “plastic” community would be an understatement.
Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.
I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, ” let’s become vegetarians”. I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, “okay”! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.
So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, “The Little Kitchen”.
Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.
I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I’ll elaborate on that in a minute.
But right now, back to “The Little Kitchen”. Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.
The owner said to me, “Let’s make a deal. You do our tax return and we’ll feed you as well”. So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.
But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, “Hawaii”. Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called,” Mr. Natural’s”. I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at “Mr. Natural’s.” To make a long story short, that’s exactly what happened.
So, I’m working at “Mr. Natural’s” and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle – it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka’anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.
Since I was the new guy, and didn’t really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that’s exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.
I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.
Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I’m asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn’t thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, “You expected anything less”? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, ‘enchilada’s at “Natural’s” tonight’. I never had to cook anything else.
A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That’s when they found out I was an accountant and “Down to Earth” was born. “Down to Earth” became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.
In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD’s that would call in asking for my credentials.
My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.
I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii’s premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She said,” If you want to be with me you’ve got to stop working on naked women”. So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.
Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a “chicken” or “egg” or “fish” or “pig” or “cow” was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.
The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.
Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.
For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.
Namaste!
