Take a glance at my poster, what will
first catch your eye? There is a cow and a girl who are looking at each other
with a sort of tenderness in their eyes. They know each other. This is to
signify the relationship people can have with animals, even animals we eat, and
that these animals have emotions and attachments, just like people do. It
creates an emotion of tenderness and compassion. In the background, there are
sections of writing on both sides and a poem going down the middle. One story
on the poster is from the perspective of a cow who loves her life in the green
fields. It may remind you of the cow in the main picture who is looking at the
girl, and it is meant to be a comparison to the other story and poem. The poem
is about the conditions of the animals in CAFOs, or Confined Animal Feeding
Operations, and the second story is from the point of view of a different cow
who lives in a CAFO. The idea behind the last two are to give details about the
conditions of the animals’ lives in CAFOs and to help the reader be empathetic
toward the animals from whose perspective you are reading from. The overall
idea behind this piece is to stir up emotions about treating animals, even if
they are to be our food, humanely and with compassion.
In a study
conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, results say that about 34% of
people eat red meat 2-3 times a week, and about 16% eat red meat almost daily.
That is a lot of meat, therefore a lot of animals that are raised to be our
food. According to Farm Animal Rights Movement, more than 25 billion animals
are killed by the meat industry each year, and that the “average American
meat-eater is responsible for the abuse and death of about 90 animals per
year.” On the other hand, Vegetarian Times has reported that about 3.2% of people
in America are vegetarians and 0.5% are vegans. The fact that these statistics
have been growing proves that more and more people are becoming conscious about
what they are eating and about where there food comes from. It’s time people
start realizing that there is a cost to what they are eating. The cost is 55
square feet of rainforest, 4 pounds of grain, 600 gallons of water, some paper
and plastic, 640 quarts of methane a day the cow is alive, and the cost and
fuel to get the burger where it is and to get you to where the burger is… all
that for one hamburger. It is obvious to me that it is not worth it for the
animal or the planet. Now it’s up to you to make the decision to get your meat
from a local, humane farm, or to stop eating meat, or even to stop consuming
animal products, period.
Both people and animals are beings. We
are living, breathing, feeling beings. When you put animals into feedlots, you
are not allowing them to just be animals. They are going from the beautiful
beings they were meant to be into a machine. The machine works and thumps and
gags and billows smoke and waste. It pumps in cows, fattens and sickens and
slaughters them in the smallest amount of time possible. This inhumane of
treating animals is not just. It is not right. Gandhi said, “The greatness of a
nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are
treated.” Yet we live with the knowledge that it is being done by the hour. We
ignore it so we don’t have to deal with it. Enough is enough. The brutality
against animals needs to stop now.
Sources:
sodahead.com/living/public-opinion-most-people-eat-red-meat-two-to-three-times-a-week/question-2516873/
happycow.net/why_vegetarian.html
vegetariantimes.com/article/vegetarianism-in-america/
epa.gov/oecaagct/ag101/demographics.html
smallfamilycsa.com/about
cfra.org/ruralmonitor/2010/04/29/growing-number-small-farms-living-land
newcommunityproject.org/fastfood.shtml
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