I woke up because something in my brain told me that Cheerio was in the bed and I felt a little pressure like a cat was sleeping there, so I was kind of wondering how he got there. There was no cat, but it’s too hot to go back to sleep and plus I can do more useful things with time besides sleep. Like running the risk of sounding like an idiotic, raving lunatic by writing this post.
Over the course of this past week, I have come into contact with quite a lot of ‘interesting’ information. I think as I’ve started this blog and learned other ‘interesting’ information, it has slowly prepared me for what I know now. For part of it I’ve told a less gruesome version and for part of I still have to do research and write it in a way that will convince someone to listen. From here on out, it will get a little repetitive.
I watched Food, Inc. the other day and while I talked about a certain aspect of the meat industry, I talked about it with a fanciful image in my head compared to what I can see now. As I watched the movie, I saw animals being abused in such a horrible way. They were crying out and no one was there to save them or even care. Some couldn’t even walk or didn’t have the energy to cry out. Not only did it talk about that, but it talked about the food industry as a whole. The things we’re letting them get away with are despicable. The worst part to me, is how far we’ve let them go. It’s amazing how much power they have. We’ve become insects. A nuisance to be squashed if we get in their way.
When did it get this way? When did we stop paying so much attention? When did we start being so indifferent? When it stopped being convenient? When it became cheap?
I don’t even know what to say about it because there isn’t any way that I say anything that will even compare to what they said or what they showed. Every time I see something like that or something ‘insignificant’ like the turtle I saw get run over, I go through such a wave of emotion. First, I feel sad and just stricken, sad because I can’t understand why people do the things they do. Why don’t they care about the workers? Or even us? Why don’t they see or even care about how horridly they are treating these animals? Why are they not grieved by the cries of the animals? I don’t except people to react the way I do, with such strong emotions, but why don’t they care at all? Although, my bias for animals seems unwarranted for some, I think I should point out that the mistreatment of animals is only where it starts. If people saw the worker conditions are proof in this video or if people knew the disrespect that they show us then I think they would feel a little differently.
Frustration is my second emotion. Because I probably will never be able to talk to someone in any kind of leadership role, someone who can make a change, but chooses not to. Instead, I can only sit here and run my brain into a wall trying to figure it out. I understand that people are in it to make money, but why do they need so much? Why is it so important that they have to give up every moral just in order to have it? Why do they need it all?
Then comes anger. Frustration, for me, is just anger without the judgment. I still understand that people can’t always afford to do the best thing, so they do what they have to to survive. But, now all the understanding gets thrown out the window, I start thinking about everyone who lets them get away with this crap. The government, you, me, the workers (who only get treated a little better. They’re abused in their own way) and everyone else who has power to stop it, but won’t out of convenience or because they’re getting paid not to (the government). I’m angry because there is absolutely nothing I can do except talk about it and encourage my family and you to put our little few dollars to somewhere else. These huge companies took on several farm owners and the only person who confronted them and got out without their whole lives being destroyed was Oprah, who isn’t even a farmer, but they sued her because she said something about it on the show.
The thing about anger, at least for me, is that it doesn’t go away. It sits in my chest and in the back of my brain. I can’t confront my anger about too many things because it’s usually on something I have no control over. Sure, I can yell at my best friend when she makes me mad. She’ll apologize and we’ll go on, but this I can do nothing about, so my anger builds and builds and I can feel it. It’s always back there waiting for me to do something stupid just so I can let it go. No amount of working out, writing, talking, laughing, praying makes it go away. I can’t just not care either. How much easier my life would be if I didn’t care, but it’s not in me. I don’t have an off switch. It’s exhausting and sometimes I would rather not care at all because then I could get some peace. It would also be different if I had someone who was just as angry as I was, so that I would feel as if someone else understood, but most people don’t want to live like that. I wouldn’t either if I could help it. And not to say that no one cares, or that they’re not working hard enough, just sometimes when you don’t see immediate results, it’s hard not feel frustrated. I care way too much, I’m way too sensitive when it comes to that of animals, but I can’t help it and I’m starting not to care if people think I’m crazy or take it too seriously or too anything else because there is no reason for animals to get treated that way with no one to fight for them. If it has to be crazy nuts like myself or PETA, whatever, but there isn’t any excuse for it.
Anyways, I’m going ask you to watch this documentary.
“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.”
These links are to a couple of sites that have the commercial
http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/film
http://content.bitsontherun.com/players/46Oa1XrL-5Z0lSrn8.html
This little snippet doesn’t do justice to what goes on behind all the closed doors. I ask that when you watch this documentary (which I know you just can’t wait) and if you get to the parts that make you want to turn off the T.V. that you don’t. Don’t reach for that remote. Don’t even think about it. Why? Because that is what it takes. Being horrified, being disgusted, being angry, that is what it takes to change. If you turn off that T.V. right before that final moment, that final moment that will change your life forever, then you’ll never change. You’ll still be able to be in denial and push that knowledge to the back of your mind. Watch it. All of it. Whether it’s the animals, the workers, how weak our voices have come, something about this should disturb you. If it doesn’t disgust you watch it again and again and again, until you feel something. Anything. Contempt, anger, bitterness, happiness, fear, guilt, whatever. What you should not feel is indifference.
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