A
Chicken Eater’s Manifesto
All quarter I have
been writing about food. Apart from furthering
my appetite, I have learned a lot about food.
There have been both pleasant moments and unpleasant ones, but as an
eater, I have evolved. I have learned to
consider more where the food comes from, and what exactly it is, before I shove
it into my hungering mouth. Some of the
foods I enjoy the most, the ones that are abundant and easiest to find, are
most likely to be obtained through unethical practices. I need to watch what I eat. While my knowledge of food has grown I have
also learned healthier ways to eat.
Being healthy isn’t solely about what you put into your body, but how
you choose to eat it. As a result of my
research and personal experience I believe it would be in my best interest to
change the way I eat. I want to have
better knowledge of what exactly I am putting into my body and how I am doing
so.
Much of the food I
mostly eat is meat. Although it tastes
good, and gives the body proteins that help build muscle, there are other
things I should consider before I choose to ingest any meat. Lots of meat in America today is harvested
through what is known as factory farming.
This farming practice subjects animals to inhumane treatment, in order
to yield high results that meet demands in our consumer driven economy. “More than any other institution, the
American industrial animal farm offers a nightmarish glimpse of what capitalism
can look like in the absence of moral or regulatory constraint.”(Pollan, 7) Broiler chickens are harvested for their
meat. They live the entirety of their
lives in small cages called battery cages(Pollan, 1). In these cages the birds will lose most of
the feathers on their wings due to stress.
They bite out their feathers due to stress. Their beaks are clipped so they can’t harm
themselves too much. This has to be
extremely painful for the birds, as they have to know what their lives are
coming down to. They live inside what is
an industrial building with thousands of cages.
Cages upon cages are stacked and the bird’s excrement falls down from
one cage into another. They are born,
raised, and killed in one building. Real
ground is never felt by their feet. Such
practices yield high results, results that meet the demands of our
economy. In other countries many of the
things that go on here, in factory farms, have been banned. Why doesn’t America do the same? Capitalism creates too much greed, and
lobbyists in the meat industry would push such that restrictive laws never
apply to them. The companies behind
these actions make too much money to want to change their methods. We, as people who passively support their
practices, need to take more of a sound and begin to protest these
actions. We need to let them know that
consumers don’t like it.
Thinking about
many of the meals I am offered at this school, I realize that many of them
include chicken. Chicken burritos at
Nagel, chicken pesto sandwich at the Law School Café, chicken Parmesan at
nelson dining hall. Chicken cubes in the
salad bar at Nelson, the list goes on.
Chicken is the most demanded food in the United States. Three out of four times at school, I will eat
chicken at least once during the day. Sure,
it tastes good, but what are the moral implications for eating meat obtained
through unethical practices. It creates
weight on one’s conscious, how can a person fully enjoy eating an animal that
lived a life of hell? They probably
can’t, or at least it’s too hard for me to.
That being said, why would I not want to enjoy every meal I have to the
fullest, would it taste better? Maybe,
that’s hard to judge. But one thing is
for sure; I would feel better about my decision to eat it. One extremely part of food to me, is knowing
where it has came from, what it went through before it was served to me. Was it obtained through ethical practices? Knowing where your food comes from, along
with having healthy eating practices is hands-down the best way to live a
healthy lifestyle. Who doesn’t want
that?
On the note of
health, it is always said that breakfast jumpstarts the day. Does eating this small morning meal really
give the eater a head start on their day?
A study from the “Health
Reference Center Academic Database” helped me gain information about the
effects of eating breakfast. It turns
out that eating breakfast leads to healthier food choices throughout the
day. The study showed that “Eating
breakfast with carbs (cereal) proved to result in healthier choices for the
rest of the day. Diets lower in fats, SFAs, and higher in proteins and
carbs resulted”(Gibson,1). Granted,
healthier choices can still include chicken or other food farmed in unethical
ways, but that is another concern. So
how does breakfast lead to healthier food choices throughout the day? I’d like
to use an analogy to explain this. Food
is energy to our bodies as gas is to a car.
When first starting a road trip, say with a quarter tank of gas, it
might be smart to fill up to be able to get further without needing more
gas. Even though it might save time to
simply drive past the gas station, getting more gas before the car needs it, is
crucial. Lets say that the driver chose
not to stop but to keep driving. Now
they are in the middle of a desert with their tank on “E.” When they need gas the most they don’t have
access to it. Coasting downhill, they
spot a gas station. It is a
miracle. The gas station only has diesel
and mid-grade, but the car needs premium.
It will still run on the lesser “mid-grade,” but not as well, as it is
clearly worse for the engine. When a
person chooses to eat breakfast, they are giving their body energy it will need
later, not immediately, but later. If
they don’t eat it, later they will be much more hungry, needing more energy and
will go for a quick-energy food, that is typically high in sugars.
Eating a breakfast prevents
one from crashing, and splurging on unhealthy, quick-energy foods. At school I am spoiled with what is known as
“The Omelet Bar.” At this breakfast bar,
I can order an omelet or eggs of my choosing with any fillers you can
imagine. It ranges from cubed ham,
tomatoes, other veggies, to things such as green chili. The study showed that eating cereal will lead
to the healthiest choices, due to the carbs, and their lasting energy. Despite knowing that, I don’t really like
cereal, it is too sugary for me, and I think the eggs taste better. It has become my morning routine to get an
egg scrambler from the omelet bar. Eating
these eggs helps me avoid hunger during my next classes, but where do its
ingredients come from? I never see any
packages, only food in metal containers, eggs pre-cracked in a giant bucket for
omelets. Once I considered this more, I
decided I should research these eggs more.
It
turns out that chickens aren’t only harvested for their meat. “Hen's eggs are the most
common source of egg nutrition. In 1989 the three largest egg-producing
countries were China (140,900 × 106 eggs), Russia (84,600 × 106
eggs), and the United States (67,042 × 106 eggs)(Kritchevsky,
560).” The American laying hen is
grown for its eggs(Pollan, 6). The hens are confined to
extremely small cages that have been banned in other countries. But not in
America(Farm, 73). They are
forced to lay eggs and eggs until they cant anymore. Once they no longer have the capability to
lay eggs, they are force molted to lay any remaining eggs they might have. Molting is something a chicken would normally
do in cold weather. To force this
molting, the chickens are typically starved.
What about this, only female chickens have the capability of egg
laying. So you ask, what happens to the
males? At birth they are separated and
all male chickens are thrown out. You’re
probably wondering what I mean by “thrown out,” well here’s the answer; they
are put on a conveyer belt into a massive grinder. If this approach isn’t taken, they are
commonly stuffed into big bags where they will suffocate. Why should so much life be taken just so
Americans can eat cheap eggs? One thing
was very troubling, just because the chickens are maltreated, doesn’t mean they
wont taste as good. If I didn’t know
they were mistreated, would I think it tasted worse? Sadly, the answer is probably
not. Taste is the least of my
worries. I care because I couldn’t live
with myself knowing I am passively supporting such malpractices. It isn’t right to cause harm to any animal,
despite how small, stupid, or abundant they might be. These farming practices of chickens aren’t
bad for just the animals, but also the workers.
“Boneless chicken breast is by far the most popular chicken product on
the market; it is also the most labor-intensive. Workers in "debone"
stand shoulder-to-shoulder, slicing and chopping their way through joints,
tendons, and tough gristle, a process that re- quires 20 to 30 hard twisting
motions per minute.”(Cook, 2) Injuries
commonly arise in groups of factory farm workers. Along with these injuries also come
physiological disorders. What they are
doing in traumatizing. They are
underpaid. They are overworked. But who really cares about the workers, it is
the animals that we should really be concerned about. If the animals weren’t being “harvested” for
their loom, only to be disposed of when “useless,” no workers would have to
work in such factories. Imagine if
humans were grown in huge groups in a factory.
Imagine your brother and sister being taken from you at birth, as you
were thrown into a life of slavery.
Would you want to kill yourself?
The animals sure do.
Back to what I
eat. With the dining hall food - I don’t
know where it comes from. There are no
labels. There is no brand. It is only “Sodexo,” the company that prepares
and serves all food at my college. I
have no information on where the food comes from. It is only presented in a buffet style inside
of the dining halls. Sure, having a plethora
of food gives me a lot of freedom, but it takes away information I would
receive if I bought the food myself. For
example, if I want a glass of milk it comes out of a giant dispenser. I have seen inside this metal, refrigerated
machine when they change out the milk.
Inside sit 3 enormous plastic bags.
Low-fat, 2%, and chocolate. There
are no labels on these bags. No brand
name, no location of origin. Sure, it
tastes good, and the calcium in milk helps my bones keep strong; but where does
it come from? What did the cows go
through to produce this milk? Were they
stuffed with fatty foods inside a cage where they lived solely to produce the
milk I would drink? Maybe the cow was
able to walk around in a field and roam.
I like to fantasize that it got time to really enjoy life. The way a cow should live. If the cow was,
in fact, raised in what is called free range, its milk would undoubtedly be
more expensive. Sodexo would have to
spend more money paying for milk where there is little to no taste
difference. That’s part of the problem,
people wont think lesser of a food where the animals were mistreated, unless
they know. Why would Sodexo spend money
on free-range milk and sacrifice profits to make only a handful of students who
care happy? Simple answer: they
wouldn’t. Eating the right foods is hard
to do out here at school. That is one
reason why I want to live off campus next year.
I could get off the meal plan, to buy food I actually know about. Every summer I buy a lot of food from the
farmers market in my town. This way I support
a local business, and will have the opportunity to ask about their practices. There is a face to the farmer that gives me
my food. He is not a machine. He is not a warehouse filled with animals. His practices are smaller, and more
ethical. His farm is smaller, and it’s
looms are more expensive. But the price
is worth it. I owe it to all the
mistreated animals. I enjoy everyday of
my life, why shouldn’t they? Being so
close to Wisconsin, I have access to all of their farming and dairy
products. Not to mention, lots of
farming comes out of my home state, Illinois.
This makes it incredibly easy for me to pick the right foods. Foods I know about.
I believe it is
necessary to know about what you eat.
Anyone can shove food into their body, but where was it before
then? Other countries have outlawed
certain factory farming practices that the United States commonly uses. We need to change our ways, and it won’t
happen unless people voice their opinions, and word is spread about what goes
on behind these curtains. It will be
hard, helping smaller practices that aren’t as cost effective costs the
consumer a lot more. Americans need to
take action. One person deciding not to
eat food won’t make a difference alone. But one person spreading the word, and
the people they told spreading the word would boom exponentially. I understand that not everyone can afford to
eat only organic, free-range food, its too expensive. But knowing what is going on is enough action
on its own. Change won’t happen without
people caring enough to make a difference.
I can’t continue the way I have been naively eating; now knowing what
happens to the food before it goes into my mouth. Humans may be the dominant animals on Earth,
but they need to give more to those less powerful, those less smart, because
without them, we would be nothing.
Works Cited
Cook, Christopher D. "FOWL TROUBLE." Harper's
Magazine 1 Aug. 1999: 1-2. Print.
"Farm Animals." Animal
Rights. Kim Masters Evans. 2007 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 57-86. Information
Plus Reference Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 May 2012.
Gibson,
S.A., and P. Gunn. "What's for breakfast? Nutritional implications of
breakfast habits: insights from the NDNS dietary records." Nutrition
Bulletin 36.1 (2011): 78+. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 15
May 2012.
Kritchevsky,
David. "Eggs." Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Ed. Solomon
H. Katz. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 558-562. Gale
Virtual Reference Library. Web. 8 May 2012.
Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place." 2004. Web. 30 May
2012.
