Rover is not on the Menu, Wilbur is, and Mahmoud Just Starved to Death

Rover is not on the menu, Wilbur is, and Mahmoud just starved to death:

By Jason Miller

Created Mar 26 2007 - 9:06pm

"Another bacon burger, anyone?"

By Jason Miller

"If my competitor were drowning, I'd stick a hose in his mouth and turn on

the water."

--Ray Kroc

".a funny, jowly, canny, barbarous guy who lives in a multimillion-dollar

condo on Park Avenue in Manhattan and conveys himself about the planet in a

corporate jet and a private yacht. At sixty-seven, he is unrepentant in the

face of criticism. He describes himself as a "tough man in a tough

business"..."The animal-rights people," he once said, "want to impose a

vegetarian's society on the U.S. Most vegetarians I know are neurotic.""

--Jeff Tietz's description of meat processing magnate, Joseph Luter III

(from his Rolling Stone article, "Boss Hog")

Despite the obvious signs that our nation is declining rapidly and despite

the increasing global animosity against us for our greed, excesses,

hypocrisy, and belligerence, we US Americans are defiantly "staying the

course". Neither harsh reality nor the ire of the world community has shaken

our foundations. Mouthing hollow platitudes about freedom and liberty while

supporting a war machine perpetrating genocide in Iraq, we mindlessly

buttress a socioeconomic system some of history's most notable fascists

would envy.

While many of us mollify ourselves with the belief that the malevolence of

the Bush administration is merely an anomaly in American government, the

reality is that the current administration has simply become emboldened

enough to dispose of the false mask of benevolence worn tightly by its

predecessors.

Let's face it. We are obsessed with American Capitalism, a system so rotten

that it actually encourages, enables, legalizes, and richly rewards

pathological degrees of narcissism, greed, competitiveness, and

ruthlessness. While millions suffer and die because of us, we cocoon

ourselves in impenetrable bubbles of denial and continue feeding our

pathetic addictions to fast food, gas guzzling automobiles, American Idol,

military domination, video games, the NFL, "righteous" Christianity, and the

acquisition of material possessions. Yet we actually expect human beings who

are not mentally incapacitated to believe that the United States is a beacon

of hope for humanity on a noble quest to spread "freedom and democracy"?

How could one maintain a straight face while asserting that a Constitutional

Republic (alleged to be premised on Enlightened principles) could co-exist

with such a deeply depraved socioeconomic system?

We're talking about the system that made the "successes" of men like Ray

Kroc and Joseph Luter III possible. Those eager to assuage their guilt or

avoid the mental exercise of critical thinking can simply embrace the inane

mythology that those who rise to the top of the economic hierarchy in the

United States are harmlessly enjoying the fruits of their labor they so

richly deserve. Yet for truth seekers, this conclusion reeks with a stench

that rivals the pungent stink of Boss Hog's factory farms (1a).

Since the meat industrial complex represents such a rich example of the

abject inhumanity of American Capitalism, corporations like Smithfield Foods

and McDonald's were so instrumental in the growth of this complex, and men

like Kroc and Luter profited so handsomely from such a massive entity's

existence, let's scrutinize the devastation this abominable entity is

wreaking upon our fur, feather and scale-bearing cousins, the Earth, and

humanity.

According to muck-raking journalist Eric Schlosser, US Americans spent over

$110 billion on fast food in the year 2000, more than they did on higher

education. Aside from being a tragic indicator of our grossly misplaced

priorities, this shocking statistic is an indictment of McDonald's and its

ilk. Ubiquity, affordability, convenience, laboratory-developed great taste,

and a capacity to manipulate public opinion that puts Bernays to shame

enable fast food giants to spread like noxious weeds, annihilating hapless

"mom and pop" competitors like so much "collateral damage" in a US

imperialistic invasion.

And what red-blooded American would leave the drive-thru without a Big Mac,

chicken nuggets, sausage biscuit, bacon burger, fish sandwich, or some other

delightful victual containing meat?

To keep up with the sky-rocketing demand for meat caused by the

mass-production and mass consumption of fast food, men like Luter jumped to

the fore to pioneer factory farming and "vertical integration" of the

industry.

Thanks to corporate behemoths, livestock producing family farms are all but

extinct. In the United States, 54% of cattle are raised by 5% of the

nation's

farms and corporate entities produce a staggering 98% of our poultry (2).

While many pets in our country receive better care than billions of deeply

impoverished humans in developing countries, we consume the flesh, fat, and

muscle of sentient beings merely to satiate our carnivorous desires.

Compounding this barbarism is the fact that this behavior enriches those who

condemn millions of pigs, cattle, fish, and chickens to abbreviated and

miserable existences.

Consider what our fellow living beings endure that we might indulge

ourselves with burgers, filets, chops and such:

"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 food industry,

animals are not considered animals at all; they are food producing machines.

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. Even

the most minimum humane standards proposed are thwarted by the powerful food

conglomerates." (3)

The 9 billion chickens raised each year for their meat are packed into

horribly over-crowded, filthy and under-ventilated sheds. Pharmaceuticals

and genetic manipulation accelerate their body growth to the extent that

their internal organs often fail or they become severely crippled. Denied

their natural inclinations to roost, nest, and bathe in the sun, their

wretched lives end with a slash of their throats by a mechanical razor

(4&5).

85 million cattle die each year to put beef on our tables. Four corporate

conglomerates account for 80% of this massive slaughter. Ravaged by diseases

and metabolic disorders caused by unnatural diets, over-crowding, and

cocktails of growth-enhancing hormones and antibiotics, cattle fare little

better than their feathered counter-parts. Branding, castration, waddling,

and dehorning are often performed without anesthesia. In spite of the Humane

Slaughter Act, many cattle are improperly stunned before their throats are

slit to bleed them in preparation for the final mutilation of their remains

(6&7).

"Pigs "have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so

than dogs and certainly [more so than] three-year-olds," says Dr. Donald

Broom, Cambridge University professor and former scientific advisor to the

Council of Europe." Yet each year in the United States we torture and kill

100 million of them (8). Factory "farmers" keep sows confined in tiny spaces

and in perpetual states of impregnation for several years until they are

eventually slaughtered. Hogs are "fortunate" in that their sentence to a

life of profound misery is a "mere" six months before they "nobly sacrifice

themselves" to provide us with ham, sausage, and bacon. As with cattle, pigs

are subjected to multiple mutilations without pain-killers, including tail

and tooth removal. Cursed by their own intellect, the porcine "farm"

experience is perhaps the cruelest. Packing them into claustrophobic

enclosures causes them serious mental distress, often leading to

cannibalism, self-mutilation, and repetitive, compulsive behaviors.

Commercial fishing has decimated fish populations to the extent that nearly

30% of the seafood we consume now needs to be raised on aquafarms. Aside

from driving some varieties of fish to near extinction, commercial fishing

techniques cause the deaths of over 100,000 marine mammals each year. Fish

raised on aquafarms face many of the same horrors as their terrestrial

cousins. Over-crowding, disease, and injury kill approximately 40% of

farm-raised fish before they reach market. Aquafarming also has disastrous

environmental consequences resulting from the release of "tons of fish

feces, antibiotic-laden fish feed, and diseased fish carcasses." (9&10)

What does our overwhelming support for this systematic torment and massacre

of millions of our fellow creatures say about our society? Patrice

Greanville, board member of Animal People Magazine (11), editor and

publisher of Cyrano's Journal Online (12), and renowned Leftist radical, put

it like this:

"This moral blindness is inexcusable for those who rightly see themselves as

the moral vanguard of humanity. For the bottom line is that speciesism-a

surreptitious form of human fascism applied to animals and nature in

general-is by far the oldest and most pervasive form of brutal tyrannization

encountered in the sorry annals of human history. I don't use the word

"fascism" as hyperbole in this context or for dramatic effect. I wish it

were hyperbole. But the fact is that fascism is noted for its unilateral

proclamations of superiority by a certain race or breed, endowing said race

with the "right" to dominate, exploit, and annihilate at will any group

deemed "inferior." If that pretty much doesn't describe eloquently our

despicable behavior toward non-human animals, I don't know what does." (13)

Speciesism is yet another ugly manifestation of the hubristic narcissism

that has infected our collective psyche here in the United States. While

tormenting and butchering "lesser beings" simply to please our palates is

reprehensible behavior, there is a less obvious but equally sinister

component to the meat industrial complex. Let's explore it, shall we?

Consuming meat is a luxury that comes with an extremely high human cost.

While dated, agricultural economist Rene Dumont's observation rings even

more true in 2007 than when he made it in 1974:

"The overconsumption of meat by the rich means hunger for the poor. This

wasteful agriculture must be changed - by the suppression of feedlots where

beef are fattened on grains, and even a massive reduction of beef cattle."

(14)

Dr. Aaron Altshul, author of Proteins: Their Chemistry and Politics,

concluded that the foods cultivated to sustain a vegetarian diet provide

enough calories per acre to support twenty times more people than the meat

produced by raising livestock. Altshul further observed that the Earth could

support up to 20 billion people if available agricultural land was devoted

to cultivating vegetarian sustenance (15).

So while we savor our succulent T-bones, relish our tender pork loin, and

feast upon our marinated chicken breasts, over 35,000 of our fellow human

beings starve to death EACH DAY. 30,000 of them are CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE

OF FIVE. (16)

Consider these disturbing facts (17, 18, and 19):

--80% of starving children live in countries where there is actually a grain

surplus, but farmers use the grain to feed livestock in order to sell meat

to wealthier nations

--Due to its profitability, cattle ranching is rapidly replacing the

cultivation of essential crops in Central and South America (where millions

of people are malnourished or starving). Deforestation to create cattle

pasture is also occurring at an alarming rate.

--Over 70% of the grain that we grow goes to feed livestock. Of the calories

animals derive from this grain, only a small percentage yields meat for

human consumption.

--In a world in which potable water is becoming increasingly scarce, the

United States devotes 50% of its supply to livestock production.

--Raising crops to feed humans requires far less land than producing meat.

Today there is 2/3 of an acre of arable land per person on the Earth. Within

40 years that figure is expected to drop to 1/3 of an acre.

--Typically, 60 gallons of water will yield one pound of wheat. It takes

about 2500 gallons to produce a pound of beef. While water is a fairly

renewable resource, the meat industrial complex does its best (or more

appropriately, worst) to ensure that such renewal is seriously compromised.

The EPA has determined that livestock waste, 1.4 billion tons of which were

released into our water supply in 1996, is the principal water pollutant in

the United States.

--"Vegfam, a British non-profit organization also claims that 10 acres can

support 60 people when growing soybeans, 24 when growing wheat, 10 when

growing corn, 2 when raising cattle. Also, PETA claims, "because of

deforestation for cattle land, each vegetarian saves 1 acre of rainforest a

year.""

Pork chops, fried chicken, bacon, and KC strip steaks are delectable in a

way that defies description. Yet like so many of the tantalizing offerings

dangled before us by our corporate masters, they are contributing to the

demise of the human race, our animal brethren, and the Earth itself.

The system we have been conditioned to accept, support, and adore is

unsustainable, vile, exploitative, and, frankly, murderous. American

Capitalism is little more than an "evolved" form of feudalism in which

corporations have replaced lords and the working class has been condemned to

economic serfdom. The concomitant symptoms of this global malignancy,

including runaway industrialization, imperial conquest, technological

advances sans ethical considerations, environmental destruction, fascism,

racism, speciesism, neoliberalism, and rampant consumerism, are straining

the Earth and its inhabitants beyond reasonable limits.

Don Robertson, the American Philosopher, has concluded that "we are all

moral barbarians today." (20)

If we wish to evolve into more civilized human beings and perpetuate life on

Earth, we need to put some serious effort into embodying Robertson's moral

imperative:

"The moral imperative of life is to live a life that detracts not at all

from the lives available to those who will follow us into this world."

While not easy, shunning the egregiously deleterious meat industrial complex

is a simple first step. (To learn more, go to http://www.goveg.com/ [1])

Disclosure Statement: The author of this essay converted to vegetarianism

two months ago. As a result, he has experienced spiritual, physical, and

mental invigoration. He highly recommends it.

--

NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not

always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material

available to advance understanding of

political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I

believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as

provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright

Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107

"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson

More about narcissistic cultures and societies - click on these links:

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/14.html

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/lasch.html

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/journal62.html

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/journal63.html

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/faq47.html

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/15.html

Take care.

Sam