Fair warning: the following excerpt is graphic and it’s recommended that you don’t read it while you’re eating or before you’re about to.
“I see: a man reach inside cattle and pull out their kidneys with his bare hands, then drop the kidneys down a metal chute, over and over again, as each animal passes by him; a stainless steel rack of tongues; Whizzards peeling meat off decapitated heads, picking them almost as clean as the white skulls painted by Georgia O’Keeffe. We wade through blood that’s ankle deep and that pours down drains into huge vats below us. As we approach the start of the line, for the first time I hear the steady pop, pop, pop of live animals being stunned.
Now the cattle suspended above me look just like the cattle I’ve seen on ranches for years, but these ones are upside down swinging on hooks. For a moment, the sight seems unreal; there are so many of them, a herd of them, lifeless. And then I see a few hind legs still kicking, a final reflex action, and the reality comes hard and clear.
For eight and a half hours, a worker called a “sticker” does nothing but stand in a river of blood, being drenched in blood, slitting the neck of a steer every ten seconds or so, severing its carotid artery. He uses a long knife and must hit exactly the right spot to kill the animal humanely. He hits that spot again and again. We walk up a slippery metal stairway and reach a small platform, where the production line begins. A man turns and smiles at me. He wears safety goggles and a hardhat. His face is splattered with gray matter and blood. He is the “knocker,” the man who welcomes cattle to the building. Cattle walk down a narrow chute and pause in front of him, blocked by a gate, and then he shoots them in the head with a captive bolt stunner – a compressed-air gun attached to the ceiling by a long hose – which fires a steel bolt that knocks the cattle unconscious. The animals keep strolling up, oblivious to what comes next, and he stands over them and shoots. For eight and a half hours, he just shoots. As I stand there, he misses a few times and shoots the same animal twice. as soon as the steer falls, a worker grabs one of its hind legs, shackles it to a chain, and the chain lifts the huge animal into the air.
I watch the knocker knock cattle for a couple of minutes. The animals are powerful and imposing one moment and then gone in an instant, suspended from a rail, ready for carving. A steer slips from its chain, falls to the ground, and gets its head caught in one end of a conveyer belt. The production line stops as workers struggle to free the steer, stunned but alive, from the machinery. I’ve seen enough.” – Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.
I’m not a vegetarian, but after having read this, I thought long and hard about my choices. If you read Fast Food Nation and find out what goes into the meat that you eat, not to mention the conditions under which the meat packers work, you might seriously reconsider your choices, too.
Previously? Eyes Closed.
As horrific as the facts sound, it’s better than me having to do it myself.
We are hunters. We are gatherers. It is in our nature to eat animals. Our body has evolved to do so.
That society has evolved to the point where we have slaughter houses is another story. But, like I said, I prefer it to killing and processing the animals myself.
Understand yourself.
I am an omnivoire. I need to eat. If I were in my past then I would use what ever I could to feed myself and my family. I would plant food and I would gather game.
What was described is merely a process to me. Heartless? Somewhat. I look upon the animals in our world and I respect them for what they are. But I never make the mistake that their lives and existence are subserivent to that of mine nor my species.
Anyone who makes the mistake of thinking that nature will co-exist with us is kidding. Take a trip out in the wilderness sometime. Not in a national park but in the real wilds. If you are injured out there no one will help you. When you die out there the scavengers will eat your flesh. They will not think of those you leave behind or grieve your passing.
If that is how they process the steak I eat then so be it. I am a man. I eat what I choose and make no qualms in it’s provision. To those that do the invitation for a nature hike or a swim with the sharks is open.
both your points are well taken, my issue is not with the eating of meat. i do it too and i understand that nature has an order (cycle) and the big ( or more powerful , or more intelligent) eats the small and that’s that.
however, when arguing about how something is “natural” and “how things are done” the issue gets a little sketchy for me when I read that there are over 200 animals that contribute to one hamburger patty. In nature, man kills one animal and a group of men dine on it. Just speaking practically, the new way they’ve “developed/streamlined” the business means the probability of disease in one burger patty is extremely high. That’s how diseases like e.coli can spread to thousands. Not to mention because some fast food companies put beef in your chicken and French fries, you have not guarantee of protecting yourself from eating a sick animal. In the wilderness, one person/group eats one diseased animal, they all get sick or die and that’s that. It’s our system that’s making the disease significantly more spread out. Not to mention, in our society, since we have advanced healthcare, e.coli often doesn’t kill adults, but it does kill children.
There’s very little natural about the animals you’re eating. Most of them are grown in special farms with special additives so that they can be “bigger” or more desirable in a multitude of different ways. These animals don’t eat the same food that animals in the wild do, they don’t grow up in the same conditions, and they don’t even taste the same. With the amount of chemicals that go into your food at McDonalds, you can never be sure what a cattle really tastes like.
I don’t have issue with the idea of “man” killing animals to survive. Even though I don’t believe that’s true in our society, and that in today’s civilized world and healthcare and food industry we could easily survive without eating any animals, I still don’t mind people wanting to eat them. What I mind is how we get there. the way we process the food, the way we treat the humans who process the food, the little control that goes into it such that if a poisonous rat mixes in, no one even think to remove it. not to mention human body parts. What turns my stomach upside down isn’t the idea of killing an animal to eat, it’s the fact that once profits are involved and it’s much more than just about hunger, things have started to go awry quickly and most of us honestly could not say what exactly is mixed into the meat we eat.
That’s a lot to swallow, Karen. Pardon the pun.
I think your thesis is that cattle farms are big, unnatural, ugly, evil places. I’ll buy that … to a point. But I must question your source when he’s teaching you that it takes 200 cows to make one cheeseburger but the evil cattle corporations are in this to make a buck. Seems to me that they’d be worried, at least a little, about efficiency. I think they should be able to make a burger with five steroid induced, non-exercised, grain eating steer. Okay, maybe six. That would improve the bottom line.
Also, implicit in your arguments, is the idea that corporations and profits are evil. They’re not. Hell, I work for a profit. I need a profit to live, to feed my family evil McDonald Happy Meals, to put keep a roof over my head (built with old growth wood, no doubt).
Profits aren’t bad. People and entities who steal my profits and/or tell me what I must do with my profits are.
Now, if you want to tell me that fast food is bad for you. That the companies cut corners. That their food is unhealthy in more ways than one. That they’re bad to their employees, etc. Go ahead and say it.
Frankly, I’m surprised that there is any beef in a McDonalds’ hamburger (let alone 200 head of steer!). And now they have so much left over beef that they’re putting it in their fries?!
The premise that you and Mr. Schlosser are going by is that fast food is real food. It’s not. Not even close.
Hmm I think I need to clarify a a few things:
1. when I say 200 cattle, I don’t mean actual 200 cattle, I mean bits and pieces from 200 cattle. All the cattle get mixed in and down to minced meat and the patties contain bits of each. Makes sense?
2. I certainly don’t think companies are evil. I work on wall street 🙂 however, I do believe that sometimes people get greedy and want to be wealthier and in the process stop being reasonable. I don’t think it’s a company-wide problem. Generally it’s a few individuals who are in positions of power who are removed enough from the situation to not realize their inconsiderateness.
3. Profits aren’t bad, I agree. People who steal it are, I agree. People who make profits with the help of hardworking people who don’t care about the lives or health of those people, are also evil in my book.
4. They put beef stock and crap like it to your fries and chicken. That’s why mcdonalds fries tastes different. Trust me. vegetarian societies have asked mcdonalds if it’s safe to eat their fries, and assume that it contains no animal products and mcdonalds admitted that it’s not.
5. I am not assuming fast food is real food. I know that it isn’t. it’s chemically grown animals who were grown to be slaughtered. The burger is part animal, part chemical, but all I am saying is that the health of the workers and the health of the consumers isnt as high priority as it should be often times. that doesn’t mean profits are evil, that just means some people are selfish to the point of becoming evil. That’s why when they get caught, they go to jail.
Some more grist for the mill…
Yep. 200 cows into one patty. I’ll nod with what Karen said on that. Also about how quickly you could affect the lives of thousands. I would imagine that this should be a concern for the NIPC now.
Also agree on the definition of ‘evil companies’. One thing to add is that companies typically don’t start that way. It’s usually the effect of unmanaged and growth that is too rapid. It depersonalizes the workforce.
The equitable distribution of profits will not be solved til I am dust. That has and always will be a priviledge of the ‘ruling class’. We never really did away with industrial revolution ethics.. The poor are just better off now.
I like McDonalds fries…
They should call it ‘Fast Substitute’… (Did I mention I like McDonald’s fries…. Speaking of which.. it’s lunch time…)