Food, Inc.

[Hawnu UnilTxep]

I'm watching it right now.
Anyone else seen it?
[I'm studying halfheartedly while mom is watching it]
...
I hate big business.

[sezawte]

Is it an american program?

I also hate big businesses

[Hawnu UnilTxep]

It's a movie on the food industry in USA. Mom's finally seeing what I've been talking about.

Just got done with the first section-- chicken factories.
Look it up, guys. Get people to watch it. Hits home hard.

[Fnua Atxkxe]

Seen that kinda stuff before, put me right off it. Wouldn't want to watch it again if I can help it to be honest once is enough

[sezawte]

I feel kind of bad about saying it but I've seen several documentaries about this general subject matter, but it didn't put me off as much as it probably should have...

[Hawnu UnilTxep]

I dated this guy who was all into this stuff last year. Mom didn't believe him.  Now she does. GOOD FINALLY SHE'S LISTENING.
OMG

... the cows now.
*sigh*

[bagget00]

What's it called?

[Zalorticus]

Food, Inc. I assume.

This is another movie about all of the "bad" things done to make our food, right? I have never watched one before, but the topic always interested me.

[Txontaw]

Eh, I don't really buy into many of the crazy environmentalist movies, because it often times turns from solid facts to questionable propaganda.

But Food Inc. I found tolerable. It was a lot less propaganda than some of the other stuff I've seen (like PETA's "Human Meat"...sheesh).

But I've never really seen what the point of making animals that were born to be killed totally comfortable. I mean, I understand that they should have more freedom than they currently have, but a lot of the extremists wants something along the lines of every cow has a 2 mile square pasture, and every chicken has a hen house all to itself. That's just ridiculous.

And I concur, the bureaucracy of big business is pretty tiring, but wishing for an end to all big business is like wishing for anarchy. If it happens, chaos happens.

[Hawnu UnilTxep]

Txontaw:

I know... I want the animals bred for being killed and eaten to at least see some sunlight in their lifetime. Not have hormones pumped into them to make them grow faster or made to eat something that gets them sick and kills them [prematurely] just because it makes them get fat quicker.  That, I think is wrong. Using hormones and all that, that's wrong.  Geez, we're so worried that a vaccine will give our kids autism, but when it comes to what we feed those kids, it doesn't matter, as long as its cheap?! I don't think so!
I don't like the way society is today [why I love the tribe idea] and though I don't want complete anarchy, I think that big businesses should be uncorrupt and that all their practices should be out in the open.  If they were, we'd be living in a completely different society. 
My mom couldn't even watch half the movie because she couldn't stand to see blood and the chickens or pigs getting killed or whatever.  She looked at me and was like "Don't watch that!" And I'm like "what?" and gave her this look.  It's a movie, yeah, its a documentary, but seeing and hearing it isn't anything compared to seeing someone get burned alive or half their fingers cut off or whatever.  I only tell my parents the happy stuff I see, relatively [I'm an EMT, remember], and never tell them the horrid stuff I see.  They don't need to know that.  That's why seeing a chicken's throat cut doesn't bother me.
But, seeing the Smithfield system of killing their pigs, that did bother me. A lot. Those pigs weren't loved, and they're killed by the thousands like their lives don't matter.  I wish I could change all of that. I want to, so bad.
You have to respect all life, because before we know it, it could all be gone.

[Txontaw]

I understand where you're coming from, and yeah, these animals do deserve a better treatment. However, it's like how China is right now. There are no human rights, so you can literally work someone to death. The individual doesn't matter. The end product matters. This is the thinking of most big businesses. And while it would be nice to have less people interested in money and more people interested in making everything and everybody happy, that's not going to happen, because it's not profitable.

However, rejoice, because more and more people are starting to buy from local small businesses, whether it's food or furniture or something else. So another small business age is starting! Yay!

[sezawte]

I don't think it's a good thing that animals are treated like that, but because of the over-population of humans it's necessary

[Ohakya]

I glimsped at it while my parents were watching it. Its terrible how they treat those animals. I'm glad more people are watching to spread the word!

[Txontaw]

I just realized what those animals reminded me of. It's a certain fly that lives off the coast of tropical areas. Basically, all the babies hatch at the same time. Then they fly around like made, mating and getting eaten by other animals. It's like a buffet. Then, several hours later, all of the bugs go back down to the water, and either lay eggs and die, or just die.

The entire purpose of the existence of those bugs is to provide a short food spike for the other animals.

It's a lot like what we're doing with chickens and cows. They live a short life, the purpose of which is to get eaten. So it actually kind of works, in a way.

[Tsawla Eltu Tsamsiyu]

I saw the movie. It was horrifying. Necessary, but horrifying. Those animals could at least be treated a little nicer, though. I mean, they do not have long to live anyway. So why not make it a little nicer?

[Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn]

I wouldn't exactly call it necessary. If the land used to grow food for big business farms like that grew food for people there would be a lot more people getting fed then wasting so much time and food fattening up cows and chickens. So it's basically hurting people instead of helping.

[Tsawla Eltu Tsamsiyu]

Very interesting... I had not thought of it like that.

[Yeynari]

I can't watch that kind of movies anymore, I get too down. But I know the message by heart, so need to watch. It's not necessary. It's bl***y unnecessary. And it's not just the treatment of the animals that is.

The 41 million tons of grain protein that is fed to cattle in the US becomes only 7 million tons of meat. That's a loss of about 5 kg protein for every 1 kg of beef, because the cattle eats five times as much grain as the human population. If those grains were exported instead of fed to cattle, it would boost the US trade balance by $80 billion a year. Or, if consumed directly it would fill the bellies of 800 million people. If we add the waste of water (counting both the water for the animals and the irrigation for the feed grain, that's about 100 000 litres of water for every 1 kg of beef or pork), the use of fossil fuels to run buildings and drive machines, and the soil loss/erosion connected to the farming of grain feed, it's a dangerous and unnecessary waste.

Source: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug97/livestock.hrs.html

[Tsteu'itan]

Coming from a rural West-Texas town, I've seen the other side of the story.

Every time you watch one of those documentaries, you are watching - as one person said - propaganda.  This one may have been made so that it was more tolerable, but it was still made in such a way as to only show one side of the story, and the absolute worst one possible.  They go to the absolute worst slaughter houses, and they show you the most disgusting practices, and honestly, that's not the way every single farm or slaughter house or livestock group works.  the extremely horrible ones are just a small group, really.

And honestly, if you stopped the livestock industry, you'd be putting millions of people - many of them small-time farmers who own a herd of cattle and provide the meat we eat with their herds just so they can make a living - out of a job.

Yes, Big Business is something I absolutely despise as well.  I can't stand it, and it's one of the reasons the Na'vi Tribe in theory is so fascinating and wonderful to me.  Being able to live in a society where the Big Businesses didn't control you would be wonderful.  But I get kind of irritated when people go so extreme that they try and do the things that the anti-meat groups do.

But like I said, I grew up in Rural West Texas.  There, beef and meat and livestock are a way of life, and it's deeply ingrained in our culture.  Having people tell us that our meat is cruel and horrible and murderous and we're all murdering psychopaths is getting kind of irritating and insulting.

I know that video probably didn't say those things, I'm just mostly going off of my experience with what PETA tries to tell us.    I'm not ranting at anyone here, since I know you guys are a whoooole lot nicer and cooler then that, I just wanted to get it off my chest.  I've just learned to stay far far away from those videos because I know it will only make me so upset.  Sometimes it feels like everyone is making us out to be the bad guys, when 9 out of 10 times, the farmers and meat-eaters and people who grew up in that culture are just like everyone else, and lots of them really do love their animals and take very very good care of them.

[Hawnu UnilTxep]

Very good post on that last.
No, I don't think the actual cattle industry and the raising of livestock is a bad practice-- its worked since the beginning of civilisation.  What the movie [and I] am just trying to tell people is that yeah, these animals have feelings.  If we're going to eat them and kill them [not in that order] then we should show them at least the dignity and respect of some form of emotion-- even just seeing sunlight.  Yeah, I know that's not all of them, but even one slaughterhouse like that is too much.  I don't approve of it.

Mom got freaked out at the Farmer's market the other day.  because a farmer was selling chicks and ducklings.  Poor little things.  Luckily Vi is too young to know any better, so she liked to hold and to pet them.  Give them some love.  Almost bought this one duckling.  he was so cute! *coughs* anyway, yeah, she was like, they shouldn't all be in one box, the farmer didn't even care... and on and on.  I just rolled my eyes and said "mom, that's how life works."

I fear the day Vi realises fishsticks are made from real fish.  haha. that's gonna be a hard day.