What do you think about Pollan's article 'This Steer's Life'? (here)
What do you think about our current industrial agricultural system?
Perhaps we should start questioning the systems in which make cheap and mass produced food available to us... that is if we are in take into account environmental and personal health. Many scholars are doing research on why adopting sustainable agricultural practices are essential to the future of this planet.
Interested in sustainable agriculture and/or human or environmental health? Check out this article from John Hopkins School of Public Health, 'How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture' (here)
Samantha Schulman
ReplyDeleteI’ve read and heard many things about the slaughter process and meat production in America. This Steer’s Life gave an accurate and detailed time-line of what goes on with a cow from its birth to its death. It was interesting to me that the author himself was a meat-eater and even after many discoveries during the process, he continued to eat meat regardless of the terrible things put into his meat and with knowledge of the effect that his habit was having on the environment. Because he took a slightly different route than most authors, it made it interesting to hear a “meat-eaters” opinion on the process. Though the article was not necessarily convincing in either direction, it did give the facts and details necessary to understand the slaughter process especially in regards to corn production, the treatment of the animals, and the speed of consumerism in America. Pollan describes meat eaters as having “willed ignorance,” meaning that although most people know that meat probably isn’t the best thing to eat, they will go ahead with it anyway. It was also interesting to hear the difference between “corn-fed” cows and “grass-fed” cows. Many of the problems associated with meat eating, are truly problems with corn-fed meat eating. The corn has terrible effects on a cow’s body including the fact that it concludes in too much acidity in the cow’s body causing bacteria to collect in the liver. The only way to keep cows healthy is with antibiotics, but with the introduction of too many antibiotics in our meat, we see a national problem with citizens resisting to necessary antibiotics. In conclusion, Pollan makes it clear that the meat industry is doing the best they can to produce as fast as they need to in order to keep up with Americans and the food industry, but he also advises that eating meat everyday probably isn’t a good idea and to be very cautious because you are not only what you eat, but you are “what we eat eats too.” I agree that eating meat once in a while can be basically harmless to our own bodies, but after hearing the effects it has on our land and environment, and the amount of oil alone it takes to support the appetite of one cow, I was shocked. Obviously it is too drastic and far-fetched to aspire to live in a land where no one eats meat, but the slowing of the production would be ideal. To revert back to the 50s when cows were slaughtered at 2 or 3 rather than 14-16 months would reduce the corn production, and many of the other hazardous aspects of “fast-food.” –Sam Schulman
I assumed an article about the life of a cow as it grows up to be slaughtered would be something that tried to persuade the reader to stop eating meat by telling disgusting accounts of what the cow goes through during that process. Pollan’s article of “This Steers Life”, however, was a collection of facts that told a true story with hardly any arguments of whether or not eating meat is right. This is probably because the author is a meat eater himself. There were a lot of facts that made me a little sick as a read the descriptions, but that was to be somewhat expected. It included many things to make beef sound very unappetizing. It also made me glad that I don’t eat red meat everyday.
ReplyDeleteMost of the article composed of a description of what the cattle eat. I was surprised how much the corn and other components accelerated the cow’s lifetime. I couldn’t believe that in only 14-16 months, a calf could be fully-grown and ready to be slaughtered. I also couldn’t believe how much each cow eats on a regular basis. After Joe Trumpey’s lecture this afternoon, I have been fairly shocked by the amount of impact that corn has on the planet, and this article only reassures me of this fact. Along with all of the corn that most of the cattle live off of today, there are protein supplements and antibiotics along with other feed ingredients that seemed very artificial and not particularly healthy for the calves’ bodies or for my body. Synthetic growth hormones are just another thing added to cows to make them even less healthy.
The explanation of the actual slaughtering of the animal was hard to read. Things like that are always hard to read, maybe especially for me. It’s weird how many times I can read and hear things about the way cows are slaughtered, but not really consider that fact when I am eating beef.
There are a few people in my life who are vegetarians, and I congratulate them on that, but for some reason I have never decided to cut out all meat in my diet. Each thing I read about killing livestock has pushed me a little more in the direction of a vegetarian though. I am not sure if I will ever choose that path for good, but this article, whether it be persuasive or not, did persuade me a little more to do so.
-Noelle Littler
I never thought much about food we eat. Whenever I eat, I concern more about the taste and smell. Just to comfort my starving stomach, I won’t bother to think about the whole cycle of how food is produced. Food is something on my plate. Factory farms thousands of miles away are just to far away from my dinner table for me to think about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, after reading Pollan’s article This Steer’s Life I start to think seriously about food. Apparently, nowadays in most of the grocery stores anything that is non-organic is not good for us. Or even including some organic food are effected by the mass productive factory farms. However the price of the organic food, especially those sold on farmers market, are quite high. To choose cheap food that went through a disgusting cycle or to choose expensive food that’s healthy for my body is a dilemma. The original purpose of factory farm is to reduce the price of food and mass-produce so that everyone will be fed. As family farm get rear and rear there’s a reason for their products to have higher prices. But if we all support family farms, if we get rid of all the factory farms, will there be enough food for everyone on this planet? In spite of the fact that there are still families cannot even afford food from factories farms. Healthy or not is a good question, starving or not is another question we have to face.
Letao Zhang
Samantha Levy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Observation #2
This week’s reading has not only shed some light on issues within the beef industry but has raised questions and has caused me to think about the written “truth”. Like I mentioned in class, this summer has prompted me to take a closer look at what I am eating. I have read vegetarian diet books and the like and their radical claims often have me wondering, are they really that bad? Is milk really that fattening or bad for you? I am very skeptical.
I am glad that Trumpey explained the new requirements McDonalds has forced onto the chicken farms. I have read numerous stories about the debeaking, forced molting, and close quarters, which I know were true at some point, but why haven’t stories circulated about how McDonalds is causing these horrifying methods to disappear? Why aren’t animal rights activists spreading the good word about advancements as well as the bad? This really got me thinking, how much do I really know about the treatment of our food? Are the activists exaggerating or are the big industries trying to cover their asses? I really don’t know who to believe anymore.
I wouldn’t say that I’m ignorant; I know that animals are often treated poorly and the additives used in meat, eggs and milk (among other products) are really there, but I cannot ignore the efforts of the “evil” industries to improve things. I hear that McDonalds grinds up little male chicks alive, not that they single-handedly revolutionized treatment of chickens. I don’t want to miss out on any of these facts. I want to know both sides of the story. The issue is just finding unbiased material… if only!
In Jared Diamond’s Collapse, he talks about pro-environmentalists and non-environmentalists and where he fits on the spectrum. He considers himself to be an environmentalist, involved with bird watching and documentation, as well as a big businessman. He describes agreeing with some policies of both parties, and tries to create a balance between nature and economics. In a way similar to this, I like to see myself as a careful reader of texts, taking in information and doing research to bolster or disprove that information; I am a concerned food consumer not a solid anti-industry or pro-industry consumer.