Meating of the Minds
I don't get hung up on it, except with all the chemicals and drugs and how unsanitary the processes are -- you just need to ride past a chicken or pig farm to smell just how bad it is.
The concentration of agriculture into a few corporate hands is probably one of the biggest problems in the overall process -- their worst practices become the industry standard, instead of alternative processes being put into practice (whether free-range, organic, etc.)
I wonder if the quality of the produce were better, whether it would reduce intake of it, paradoxically enough. Just like how real sugar and butter satisfies more than corn syrup and margarine, so (I imagine) would meat from healthy, drug-and-hormone-free animals probably be healthier and more satisfying for those who choose to eat it.
Unfortunately, as currently constructed, the junk-food (meaning food that is mass-marketed with profit emphasized over quality -- e.g., what's good for the food producer, versus what's good for the food consumer) is cheaper than the quality food -- there's a market advantage in the way things are tipped toward the bottom feeders.
Lest vegetarians think they are immune to the problem of agribusiness, the concentration of agricultural capital ensures even a vegetarian a diet rich in petrochemical fertilizers, corn syrup, pesticides, toxic sewer sludge masquerading as healthy fertilizer (e.g., "biosolids"), GM-modified crops foisted on consumers without their consent, etc.
The whole American food production system needs an overhaul to reflect consumer health needs, versus the desire of the industry for maximum profits. So, let the vegetarians and the meat eaters put down their forks and knives and find common cause in the pursuit of better quality for the food they choose to eat.
With regard to the comment lambasting Bush's tepid stance on global warming...
Wind and Solar Farms?
What about taking agricultural subsidies that are paid out to farms to lie fallow and using it instead to develop wind and solar power on those farms, or else providing some additional incentive to farmers to develop wind and sun farms?
It's perhaps a way of helping out small farmers and the environment at the same time, and also would ideally decentralize the power generation industry, which could help make the country that much safer in the long-term (versus, say, proliferation of nuclear plants, which could be risky in the post-9/11 world).
Failing that, have those fallow farms grow trees -- just plant trees and let the land go wild where possible. Obviously this won't solve the entire problem, but it would have to help, when taken with other steps.
No comments:
Post a Comment