by Sharon Brook

Created on: May 21, 2009

Large mainstream newspapers and TV channels are not known these days for their ability to cover a wide range of interests that concern society; they choose instead to focus narrowly on a few widely appealing subjects. The US media are particularly well-known for failing to cover happenings in the rest of the world, for example. This tendency is also the reason that you do not get to read about the strange and manipulative ways of big-money Hollywood, or the heroic struggles of the vulnerable parts of society at making a difference.

Another important thing left out by the mainstream media is concrete and usable information on the ways of industrial farming. The traditions of the US, much like the traditions of the rest of the Americas or Europe, place an emphasis on food from animal sources. The very feeling of convivial warmth in the American tradition requires the pleasure of rich meat. But America's other penchant, the one for large scale in everything, puts a dangerous twist on the country's food preferences.

America's favorite meats are undeniably beef, pork, chicken and venison. The demand by America's large population for cheap and wholesome meat has forced the animal farming industry to respond with the grotesque practice of industrial farming , a practice that can completely destroy historically healthy notions of animal farming. Industrial animal farming has already exposed us to the widely-publicized occurrences of mad cow disease. There is more of the same coming our way from our other favorite meats.

Poultry farms work on robotic industrial practices. The birds in such a farm, from the time they are hatched, are raised on what are known as chicken batteries; these are long barns lined ceiling to floor with long shelves that hold chickens packed as closely as possible for the most efficient use of space. The chickens live out their short lives crammed into these inhuman batteries being fed robotically with unnatural foods and massive antibiotics doses aimed at fattening them quickly with as little chance of disease as possible. The birds are crammed so close that the overseers can usually not see if any individual is sick or dying. If a few should die, they remain there rotting amongst the other birds for as long as it takes for them to be noticed. Some birds respond so well to the fattening diet that the increase in weight combined with the lack of any freedom to move makes them so heavy their legs give way. You can recognize such chicken meat at the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>