What did surprise me were some of the facts about how people are treated in the Big Food system. While I knew that slaughterhouses were the most unsafe place in the country for a (mostly illegal) worker, I didn't know that Smithfield (the world's largest pork producer) has unspoken 'arrangements' with immigration authorities to arrest just enough illegals to meet America's appetite for 'cracking down on illegals' but not enough to disrupt the labor pool for production. These illegals are those that the largest agriculture companies have recruited from the pools of Mexican farmers that have lost their livelihood b/c cheap American corn flooded the market when NAFTA was signed by Bill Clinton.
Even more surprising was how Monsanto has used US patent law to grow from 7% to 90% soybean market dominance in just 12 years. In the traditional and sustainable form, farmers clean and save seed each year to reuse in planting foods the following year. Seed was public property. What Monsanto has done is to patent a Genetically Modified form of soybean. It has required farmers to pay whenever a farmer 'replants' a Monsanto patented seed. The seed is now so ubiquitous that even farmers who don't plant their seed typically find the Monsanto seed having mixed in with their crop. Monsanto then sues farmers or their suppliers who have deemed to clean or 'plant' their seed - essentially forcing them either to become part of the Monsanto system or go out of business. And that's exactly what's happened.
Another example was of a chicken farm. Already living in incredibly packed quarters, walking amongst their own dead, a former Perdue farmer talked about how Purdue (like Tyson - the worlds biggest meat producer) require farmers to take out debt to build ($300,000 on average) and then continuously require farmers to invest in new (and typically inhumane) technologies to increase 'productivity'. When the in debt and disgusted Perdue farmer refused to 'upgrade' in one case, their contract with Perdue was cancelled. One of these technologies is a fully dark chicken house where the chickens do not see the light of day. One Tyson farmer in the film wanted to show the filmmakers inside the house, but they were strong-armed by multiple visits from Tyson corporate and the inside of the house was never shown.
Some states, at the behest of these companies, have even instituted 'veggie libel laws'; where even the Republican mother of a 2-year old who died a few years ago from eColi poisoning from a hamburger was not allowed to tell the filmmakers whether she and her family have changed their eating habits. The big food companies, under these laws, are allowed to sue those who criticize their practices.
My questions are these:
- Why hasn't anyone sued Monsanto and others who use these practices for monopolistic behavior?
- If most people saw how their meat is raised and produced; they probably wouldn't want to eat it. How have we gotten to the point as a human race where we can practice such unspeakable cruelty (most of which people have 'some' clue about; even if they have never seen a factory farm), on a massive and consistent basis - while we turn away or continue to support the practice by buying factory-farmed meat? The holocaust, the slaughter in Rwanda and other examples of massive cruelty ended at some point, and the world has recognized its moral failure. Even if one has no compassion for animals (of which we are one), data has consistently shown that those that treat animals with such cruelty and disrespect will treat people the same way. Tyson, Purdue, Smithfield, Cargill and others have very directly shown this to be true.
- What happened to our right to free speech? A woman whose son died of eColi poisoning cannot tell a documentary filmmaker if she has cut back on eating meat?
On a positive note, like my watching of Inconvenient Truth many years ago, this film inspired me to want to do something to help. Unfortunately, all of the suggestions at the end of the movie and on its website are things I already do. This was a misstep on the part of the filmmakers b/c no doubt often the converted will be the audience of the film - and most of them have already cut back on meat, dairy and are already buying local and organic.
I spent some time on the Humane Society's site yesterday (an organization of which I am already a member and have been for many years) and the volunteer opportunities are focused on veterinarians.
A friend of mind and I have batted around started a local, cruelty-free pet snacks company. I'm still excited about this idea.
Other ideas?
