If you're younger or just don't want to read anything particularly graphic, the section after this has a revised version that's a bit more sensitively written. And hey, if you want to, read both!
By AmandaREO
Most people don't realize the effects of their actions, and the huge impacts that simple decisions can make. That needs to change. I could go on and on about all of humanity's flaws—and trust me, there are a lot—but today I'll only discuss one: Our relationship with meat, the (unknown to most of you) gruesome effects of the human meat industry, and the serious consequences of the meat industry's unsustainable ways.
Lives, resources, family. That's what's destroyed every time you eat unsustainable meat. You eat unsustainable meat way more than you would think without blinking an eye. Animals feel love, empathy, anxiety, fear, and pain. Take cows, for example. They are highly intelligent and emotional and they form strong bonds with their family and friends. Mother cows have been known to cry and mourn when their calves are taken away from them, returning to the last spot they saw them. In the meat and dairy industry, families and lives are torn apart everyday. But that isn't even the worst part.
The suffering that all kinds of animals experience, just for the pleasure of our taste buds, is the epitome of inhumane. Even before animals reach the slaughterhouse, their lives are horrible. Cows' horns are painfully ripped off, and their skin is branded with hot irons. Pigs are kept in cramped cages for the entire span of their life, forcefully impregnated with their babies ripped away as soon as they're born. They're forced to eat growth hormones and literal garbage (things like glass shards and the crushed animals from the farm as well). And chickens? Chickens spend their entire lives in dirty cages with tens of thousands of other birds. They're fed to be incredibly obese, which causes heart failure, organ failure, and crippling leg deformations. Turkeys, rabbits, lambs, and dogs go through the same horrors as all the other animals mentioned. And that's just before the slaughterhouse.
Before being slaughtered, animals are starved for twenty-four hours to make sure there is no trace of food in them. They're crammed with no light, food, and water into trucks to be driven to the slaughterhouses, and never see sunlight again. Pigs and cows see each other being killed in front of them, so they know what's coming. Animals are literally electrocuted before being killed to knock them unconscious, and sometimes shot in the head with a bullet to do the same. Animals are dragged and beaten and hurt unnecessarily just to get them to do what they want. Chickens, cows, pigs, and other animals are hung upside down as they're being decapitated so they'll bleed out quicker. Now, get ready for the statistics: nine billion broiler chickens, 113 million pigs, 33 million cows, and 250 million turkeys are killed each year in the U.S. Did you know that people who have worked at slaughterhouses have had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from all the gruesomeness and bloodiness? With terribly inhumane practices and a bloody, horrifying atmosphere, slaughterhouses are literal hell on Earth.
In addition to the cruelty, the meat industry takes up a ridiculous amount of precious resources. Let's start with water. Animals need water to drink, grow their food, and for cleaning factories. Take cows, for example. All in all, it takes 2,400 gallons of water to accommodate a cow every day. Now multiply that by how many cows there are and how many days that this has been going on. Yeah, that's a lot. Besides water, land and energy are huge parts of the meat industry. According to National Geographic, farming takes up 40% of the Earth's land!
5oo million tons of animal waste is produced each year in the U.S. It takes up so much space that could be used as habitat spaces for other animals, but the waste is extremely toxic, not to mention it also releases a toxic gas that ends up killing fish once it lands in water. Habitats that support millions of animals are being destroyed for the meat industry. 70% of deforestation in the Amazon basin is because of cattle ranching, adding up to a part of the Amazon bigger than Washington state being destroyed for the beef industry! The Amazon is not only home to half of the ten million species known to humans, but are also known as the "Lungs of the Planet" because they supply more than 20 percent of the world's oxygen. And all of the trees that are being destroyed are one of the biggest climate moderators. All because of our greedy demand for beef.
And on top of all that, the meat industry is one of the biggest anthropogenic (human caused) contributors to Climate Change. With the crazy amount of methane that animals produce, the energy and fuel that is used to produce the meat, the trees that are destroyed, and the gases that are emitted from the meat once we waste it, the meat industry accounts for 14.5 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions!
People don't want to know the truth about where they get their food. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. But the pain and unnecessary suffering that animals go through isn't okay to ignore. And everyone, everyone, needs to know the truth. This whole process, which I barely skimmed the surface of, shouldn't go on. We can't just laugh it off and make a joke, because this is dead serious. The meat industry is an embarrassment to the human race, something we should all be ashamed of. I'm sure we can all agree that we don't want animals to suffer despicable tortures for us, when there are plenty of more sustainable ways to raise meat. And there are local and sustainable farms out there, but humans have always seemed to opt for the cheapest choice, which are the ones that cause all the suffering.
Now that you know about all of this, I hope that you will make changes. This has to stop, and we are the ones that can stop it. How? Only buy sustainable meat, do the research! Look for local and humane farms. Boycott the hellholes that are factory farms and don't buy their meat! Don't waste meat, only take what you can eat. Give the animal some respect, and while you're at it you'll also be slowing down climate change! Eat less meat in general to help save resources and slow climate change. If you can afford to, try out some fake meats! There are so many alternatives to meat and dairy products, and if that isn't your thing, just google "vegetarian recipes" and you'll be able to find something you like there. Even doing a meatless Monday or something small like that is really important; you don't have to be 100% vegetarian or vegan to care about the planet and animals. Of course, we must acknowledge that being vegetarian, vegan, or restricting your diet in any way is something not everyone is able to do*, but if you can-please do.
*"but bacon though" is not an excuse. (and p.s., that joke's way overused)
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