The Great Divide

The other day I was driving down the highway and talking on the phone with my mom when I nearly drove off the road. “You bastard — what, oh sorry, Mom. Let me call you back.”

As I slowed down and blinked my eyes to make sure I was indeed present in the situation, I witnessed a man driving a pickup truck that was carrying a trailer. Inside were sheep packed so tightly they could not have moved even if they wanted to. A few had their heads jammed sideways, and in some cases they were squished into the wall of the trailer so tightly that they were being pushed up above the other sheep. It was about 90º outside and humid, and they weren’t sheared, so their wool coats were very thick.

Maybe it was because I was stressed, but I broke down and felt tears in the corners of my eyes. I felt like I wanted to flip the guy off, or punch him, or yell nasty things at him – I wished my Blackberry had a camera. But more than the immediate frustration, I was deeply saddened by the reality I was witnessing.

Because of the incredible amount of abuse that happens to farm animals, I will try to address the root of the problem in this post rather than focus on individual abuses. I would encourage you to check out the Humane Society’ssection on farm animals to learn more about some of the most pressing issues. You might also want to start here.

 My encounter with the sheep made me think back to our recentroadtrip to Las Vegas. As we drove through the central valley, one of the most prolific agricltural lands on earth, I was amazed by the amount of animals I saw out the window. In almost every direction you could see animals in feedlots, trucks, or large scale CAFOs(concentrated animal feeding operations). Calloused farmers and their workers operated these monsters like nothing was out of the ordinary – which leads me to my point – nothing was out of the ordinary. Farm animals in our country suffer needlessly each day and for nothing more than human greed and profit motive. In most cases they do not live by the same laws and standards our domestic pets enjoy, and often they are viewed as nothing more than a commodity item that is disposable when their productivity runs out.

In our culture, we have developed an incredible insensitivity to this issue. We power through animal products with little to no thought about where they come from. The entire system has been designed to make it this way. From supermarkets and fast food to dense urban areas void of any rural influence, we have lost touch with the farm animals who provide us with so much. This gap in reality makes for an extremely easy marketing environment – tell them what they want to hear and it will be so. As we continue to distance ourselves from what it takes to produce animal products, the demand is growing tremedously. This means more potential profits, more suffering, and so it goes deeper into a viscous cycle that leaves the animals facing a grim future.

The truth is, taking an animals life for food or goods is never going to be a pretty thing, nor will people ever stop doing it. We cannot kid ourselves and think our whole world will turn vegan. Personally I think trying to push people this way is counter-productive. However, conventional animal farming doesn’t have to be the cruel, mechanized monstrosity that it is today. We have the power to make choices and enact change. Modern farmers who participate in the practices I’ve discussed are only trying to keep up with the demand that we create in the marketplace. Granted, they should be ashamed of their blatent lack of ethics, but still, it is not only their fault. We are all responsible.

I still think of those poor sheep in the back of that truck. I think of the cows that I saw in the trucks throughout the central valley, or the massive conventional dairies I pass each time I drive up the freeway. I think of these things and I become sad deep inside because it feels like such an uphill battle. I am sure that I am not alone in this frustration. As our society cranks forward at ever faster speeds, it can feel like we are just holding on for the ride.

The good news is that those of use who are trying are making a difference in the farm animal reality really are. By supporting those producers who are actually doing it right, we help to create demand in areas that will not tolerate such horrific conditions. We still have a long way to go, but I think we are at the start of an era that will no longer tolerate injustice – be it towards animals, people or otherwise.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”– R. Buckminster Fuller