Is Cheap Meat Worth It?

The following video is from the Human Society website and is extremely graphic. I strongly advise against watching it if you are weak of heart or stomach.



The footage captures dairy cows too sick to walk being shocked, beaten, and terribly abused at the Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California. The men are torturing them to get them to stand because US law prohibits the slaughter of cows that are too sick to stand or walk on their own: such cows heighten the risk of mad cow disease and E. Coli entering the food supply. "Downed" dairy cows are supposed to be humanely euthanized-- these cows are being taken to be slaughtered.

In one instance, a cow is being led to slaughter that "has been lying in manure for hours."

As if it weren't enough that these sick animals are being tortured or that they will be fed to people, but they are to be fed to children: this slaughterhouse provides meat to the second largest supplier of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program, Westland Meat Company.

A number of wider issues can be extracted from this appalling news:

• In our hunger for affordable meat, what costs to our health are we incurring?
• There is an obvious problem with the agribusiness industry: how can we change it to make sustainable and humane farming more profitable?
• How can a school lunch program be effective if it provides such low-quality food?
• We know which kids from which schools in which neighborhoods end up eating this food-- this is not only an animal rights issue but a social justice issue.
  

I have never seriously considered becoming a vegetarian and I'm not sure if I will ever reach that point. However, I do consider the origins of the meat I buy and seek alternatives whenever I can. This could be part of the reason why the bacon I bought last night was the first meat that I've purchased from a grocery store in weeks. I will not be a hypocrite and say that everyone should go out and buy only organic, grass-fed, free-range, sustainably-farmed everything-- that's just not fiscally feasible for many, many people, myself included-- but I do believe it is important to maintain a consciousness regarding these issues, even if we cannot always act upon them.

More information:

• Learn more about the National School Lunch Program
• A community food assessment from South Central Los Angeles that highlights food justice issues: ACTION 2004
• See what Jamie Oliver has been doing in England about the state of school meals