It’s time for politically, and morally, correct meat

BY THOMAS RIGGINS, People’s World

I THINK WE ALL KNOW, or should know, that there is something wrong with killing animals for their meat. Modern science has shown that animals have both sentience and consciousness, feel pain and experience an emotional life. From insects to us there is a great chain of awareness that we, who claim to be at the top of the chain, should respect as much as possible.

Like the Morlocks in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, our behavior is much to be regretted and we are under an obligation to model ourselves after our future, hopefully, Eloi incarnations. (The Morlocks and the Eloi were the cannibalistic human mutants and the gentle veggie-eating humans of the future, respectively, in the book.) We are also obligated politically to strive towards a world where the exploitation of humans by other humans comes to an end – and beyond that the exploitation and infliction of suffering on our fellow creatures in general.

Now science has come up with a method by which we can satisfy our current Morlock-like desire to eat animal flesh without actually killing and mutilating animals. The July 18th online issue of ScienceDaily discusses tissue engineering in the laboratory, which produces animal meat (“cultured meat”) without the animal, solving not only the problem of our moral responsibilities but actually somewhat reduces the threat to the planet from greenhouse gases.

This scientific study from Oxford and Amsterdam universities shows that cultured meat production would create only 4 percent of the greenhouse gases than are currently produced by animal raising and slaughtering techniques. While fowl would require more energy, the lab meat would require only a very small part of the and land and water used with living birds. Meanwhile, pork, sheep and beef could be produced in the same amount as today for 7 to 45 percent less energy.

Oxford’s Hanna Tuomisto, the director of the study, said, “What our study found was that the environmental impacts of cultured meat could be substantially lower that those of meat produced in the conventional way. Cultured meat could potentially be produced with up to 96 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45 percent less energy, 99 percent lower land use, and 96 percent lower water use than conventional meat.”

There is a friendly little pond bacterium (Cyanobacteria hydrolysate) that is used as a food and energy source in the lab to grow muscle cells. Cultured meat is not yet ready to be mass produced, but such production is feasible. Ms Tuomisto says, “We are not saying that we could, or would necessarily want to replace conventional meat with its cultured counterpart right now, However, our research shows that cultured meat could be part of the solution to feeding the worlds growing population and at the same time cutting emissions and saving both energy and water. Simply put, cultured meat is, potentially, a much more efficient and environmentally-friendly way of putting meat on the table.”

The scientists also pointed out the land no longer used for animal meat production could be reforested and used to capture atmospheric carbon – plus transportation and refrigeration costs would be substantially reduced with cultured meat. Finally, Ms. Tuomisto remarked, “There are obviously many obstacles to overcome before we can say whether cultured meat will become part of our diet, not least of which is whether people would be prepared to eat it! But we hope our research will add to the debate about whether we could, or should, develop a less wasteful alternative to meat from animals.”

Will people eat cultured meat? This depends on their level of political awareness and their moral sensitivity. Nevertheless, another world is possible, and we must set ourselves the task of trying to create it.

Photo: Will the cows get a reprieve? Jelle // CC 2.0

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  BA (Anthropology & Archaeology), MA, MPhil, PhD (Philosophy) is currently a university lecturer in philosophy and ancient studies, & associate editor for Political Affairs magazine

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Guest Editorial: Who is speaking out for pigs & who is eating them

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2011:

South Korean quarantine officers throw live piglets, taken from a farm suffering from an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, into a hole prior to burying them alive in Ansung, in this 2002 file photo.

Mercy for Animals,  having already produced more shocking undercover videos of mistreatment of animals on factory farms than all other U.S. animal advocacy organizations combined,   on June 29, 2011 shocked television and web viewers yet again with footage from inside an Iowa Select Farms facility in Kamrar,  Iowa.

Iowa Select Farms supplies Swift,  one of the biggest names in meatpacking.  

Agricultural trade journals also devote much page space to discussion of manure storage and disposal, air and water quality,  and pesticide use to control the insects typically infesting livestock and poultry barns.  These are all issues to which farmers must respond,  for farming to be profitable, albeit that the most profitable approach is usually to respond as little as possible.

Of course few agricultural trade journals editorially recognize having anything in common with animal and environmental advocates,  even though they are detailing and exposing the same problems.  Most agricultural trade journals denounce animal and environmental advocacy as fervently as revivalist ministers rail against sin.

one of the leading Chinese agricultural trade journals.  That he was invited to address the June 2011 Asia for Animals conference in Chengdu was a bit of a surprise,  though the conference was held in his home city.

 

PETA-South Korean activists protest treatment of animals in factory farms.

There were hints in the abstract that Wang Qian had a unique perspective,  considering his role,  but he spoke toward the end of a long afternoon session which had already left much of the audience numb.  So-Yeon Park of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth in the opening presentation aired video clandestinely obtained in December 2010 near her home in Pocheon,  South Korea,  near the North Korean border,  showing pigs being buried alive by the truckload in a futile effort to contain foot-and-mouth disease.

In all,  3.5 million pigs were buried alive between October 2010 and April 2011. This atrocity resulted from the combination of overcrowded and filthy conditions on factory farms plus the longtime stubborn refusal of the South Korean government to vaccinate livestock against foot-and-mouth disease,  since vaccinated livestock cannot be distinguished from livestock actually incubating infection and therefore may not be exported.

Killing was unnecessary

Most of the six million British livestock who were killed during a 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease were killed out of ignorant panic,  as were most of the 3.5 million pigs who were killed in South Korea, and most of the countless millions of other animals who have been killed during foot-and-mouth outbreaks worldwide,  all because in the 114 years since foot-and-moth disease was first discovered to be of viral origin,  no one had previously conducted a simple experiment to discover the etiology of transmission.

Even had her presentation been less visually shocking and emotionally charged,  So-Yeon Park might have been a difficult act to follow.  Three times in eight months her dramatic initiatives on other animal advocacy fronts have drawn global media notice.  So-Yeon Park has also attracted more favorable publicity within South Korea lately than the oligarchic South Korean media have ever extended to campaigners before her,  including the sisters Sunnan and Kyenan Kum, founders in 1982 and 1997,  respectively,  of the  Korean Animal Protection Society and International Aid to Korean Animals.

So-Yeon Park,  40,  has steadily sharpened her media skills and political savvy since abandoning a stage and singing career in 2000 to promote animal rights. Founding the CARE shelter in 2004, So-Yeon Park waged a successful campaign for passage of a law against animal hoarding in 2005.  She developed a depth of knowledge about South Korean agribusiness while monitoring response to the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak of 2006-2007.  In 2008-2009 So-Yeon Park exposed poor conditions at government dog pounds throughout South Korea and won passage of national pound regulations.  So-Yeon Park emerged as a media star in November 2010,  venturing to Yeonpyong Island to rescue animals who were left behind when the residents fled North Korean shelling that killed two South Korean marines.

Sudden celebrity helped So-Yeon Park to expose the live pig burials more intensively than any animal welfare issue has ever before been exposed in South Korea.  Her efforts may have been politically aided by circumstantial evidence that the South Korean foot-and-mouth disease outbreak apparently spread from North Korea, hitting first a pig farm near Pocheon.

Wang Qian discussed the suffering of pigs on factory farms. He mentioned the loss of dignity among both pigs and pig farmers that he perceives inherent in factory farming conditions.  But,  true to the outline of his speech,  Wang Qian spoke most about how pigs are fed,  as compared to how they ought to be fed to maintain good health.  Wang Qian described disease outbreaks,  such as foot-and-mouth and the mysterious blue ear disease that killed more than 20 million Chinese pigs in 2007.  Proper nutrition and exercise, Wang Qian suggested,  could enable pigs to better withstand infections that fell whole herds in close confinement.

Other international animal advocacy organizations with offices in China have addressed factory farming in various ways, among them ActAsia for Animals,  the Animals Asia Foundation, Compassion In World Farming,  Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare,  and the Royal SPCA of Britain.

The pro-vegetarian and pro-vegan message at Asia for Animals 2011 was amplified by speakers from a variety of pro-vegetarian and vegan societies,  chiefly headquartered in India and South Korea. The major international organizations were conspicuously quiet about the whole matter.

Amid hundreds of vegetarian and vegan delegates from more than 25 Asian nations,  and others in Europe and North America,  some representatives of the major international animal charities were observed eating pork sausages and bacon in the breakfast hall.

Several speakers from the floor expressed profound disappointment in this behavior at the closing session,  among them Asian Animal Protection Network founder John Wedderburn,  M.D .

••••
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Merritt Clifton is a world-renowned ecoanimal journalist and editor in chief of ANIMAL PEOPLE, based near Seattle, WA.  Kim Bartlett, also prominent in animal questions, serves as publisher for the periodical. 

Merritt Clifton
Editor,  ANIMAL PEOPLE
P.O. Box 960 | Clinton,  WA  98236
Telephone:  360-579-2505
Cell:  360-969-0450
Fax:  360-579-2575
E-mail:  anmlpepl@whidbey.com
Web:  www.animalpeoplenews.org

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HOMAGE: Fool or hero? The man who died for ducks

Katerina Lorenzatos Makris, Animal Policy Examiner
This very sad material has recently come to our attention—Eds

Edward Gardner's act of compassion for animals cost him his life. Credit: Courtesy of Jim Gollwitzer

DATELINE: June 1, 2011 –

ON MEMORIAL DAY Edward Gardner saw a group of wild ducklings on an Illinois interstate and couldn’t just keep driving. He had to stop. He had to get out and try to help the animals off the busy roadway, where they might have lost their lives.

As a result, after a passing limousine struck him, he gave up his own.

Gardner, 38, loved animals, his best friend told WLS-TV Chicago. “It was no surprise what he did,” said Jim Gollwitzer, “that he would risk his life to save another. That’s the kind of guy he was. Just an amazing spirit.”

Every hour of every day, Gardner’s fellow animal lovers around the world also make sacrifices small and large for the cause they care about so deeply.

Things like dusting the furniture, combing the hair, and a good night’s sleep go by the wayside.

Things like friendships, marriages, jobs, and health go into question.

Often they are ridiculed, labeled over the top, crazy, or radical in their passion for defending and improving the lives of the most helpless among us.

Sometimes they’re harassed, arrested, or worse by authorities for challenging the intolerable status quo.

There are those who would call Edward Gardner foolish for stepping out of his car on the highway, stepping out of safety, stepping out of his own comfortable world, simply because a family of ducks were in danger.

There are others who know that, foolish or not, they would have done exactly the same thing.

As they feed the family of needy animals who’ve come their way over the years, they might whisper a prayer for Gardner.

As they tap out emails to congress members about animal protection laws, they might stop to send thanks and sympathies to the family of such a caring soul.

The name Edward Gardner might never appear on a monument, as do those of many heroes. But to anyone who knows a little too well what was in his heart at the moment he stepped out of his car, that “amazing spirit” who gave his all for something that mattered to him is a hero nonetheless.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katerina Lorenzatos Makris (a.k.a. Kathryn Makris) has written 17 novels for major publishers; thousands of articles during four years as a wire service reporter; numerous pieces for publications such as National Geographic Traveler and Mother Jones; features for KQED-FM in San Francisco and “Marketplace” on public radio, and a teleplay for CBS-TV. Her interviews include George H.W. Bush, Ted Danson, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader, Tori Spelling, the “real” Colonel Sanders, and Benji the dog.

Find out how to donate to a memorial fund in Gardner’s honor.

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WHOEVER SAYS SPECIESISM SAYS FASCISM

(Essay reposted as a result of specific requests by various readers. This article first ran in February of 2007.)

(Art by Sue Coe)

Adventures in the left blogosphere while trying to introduce a discomfitting issue—

It’s a little known fact that factory farms produce more greenhouse gases and land pollution than ALL modes of transportation combined. To be a defender of animals you only need to be a serious environmentalist.

By Patrice Greanville

In general, pigs are clean, intelligent, social animals. However, factory farms frustrate their natural desires to exercise, explore, play, root, stay clean, and socialize normally. (Courtesy: Compassionate Action for Animals)

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]OT TOO LONG AGO I posted, mostly on impulse, as a result of hearing about yet another execrable crime committed against helpless animals (by the usual suspects)…a plea for “progressives” to consider amplifying their scope of moral consideration to include all sentient beings subject to tyrannization. As a lifelong leftist and animal liberationist I am well acquainted with the temperament and idiosyncrasy prevailing in both tribes, and knew quite well that the “left”—however we may define it, has been less than helpful in the struggles to introduce a modicum of compassion in the brutal interactions between humans and non-humans. I know that it seems inane to ask people who are already horribly busy and overstretched coping with the constant tsunami of crime and idiocies produced by this system by the hour…to take yet another “cause” on their shoulders. I am also quite clear about the fact that the Left has never weaned itself off of the 19th century hangover proclaiming “man” (generically speaking) as the measure of all things and therefore center of the universe. This victory of secularism and democracy with a very small “d” was in fact the result of long centuries of struggles against church and king to give rationality and the “common man” a legitimate place at the table of societal decision making. This impromptu essay, therefore, reflected some of these theses.

I posted the blog, as a trial balloon, on SmirkingChimp and DailyKos, large sites occupying what we might call the centrist-liberaloid part of the spectrum. The vast majority of the folks who visit (and participate in) the sites probably see themselves as far more progressive in their politics than they really are, as their commentary reveals a preponderance of mainstream Democrats, ABBrs (Anyone But Bush), Obamabots, a sprinkling of social democrats, and a vociferous contingent of extreme centrists (who naturally never see themselves as extremists). Refreshingly, most of the featured writers seem to be well to the left of the audience (at least at these sites).

He who says speciesism says fascism—

(DailyKos diary at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/2/22518/25695)

Fri Feb 02, 2007 at 08:22:40 PM PST

By Patrice Greanville

We have become indeed not only the most appalling tyranny over every other sentient creature on this planet, including many segments of our own breed, but also a raging, self-righteous cancer extending itself with impunity to every corner of the earth.

Time to do some rethinking

Confined and overcrowded on factory farms. Pigs often become frustrated, bored, aggressive, stressed and more susceptible to disease.

Today, as a result of a voracious industrialism, ecological destruction (to which meat production contributes a significant share) and other related issues, self-defined progressives can’t afford to go on pretending that suffering on such egregious scale is just a peripheral issue, the concern of kooks or affluent diettantes with little interest in other social issues.

Due to a deeply embedded and largely unexamined 18th Century heritage of philosophical “superhumanism” (“man is the measure of all things”) and the rest of that self-celebratory rubbish, which, we should mention in passing, arose as a reaction to a greater form of human stupidity, the one granting God and King total control over human agency, the Left continues to endorse or acquiesce in human supremacist attitudes toward animals.

This moral blindness is inexcusable for those who rightly see themselves as the moral vanguard of humanity. [Check this article, for example: Rethinking Revolution: Animal Liberation, Human Liberation, and the Future of the Left by STEVEN BEST . It’ll probably challenge many of your assumptions.] The bottom line is that speciesism—an underhanded and primitive form of fascism applied to animals and nature in general—is by far the oldest and most pervasive form of enslavement known on our planet. I don’t use the word “fascism” as purely hyperbole in this context or for dramatic effect. I wish it were mostly hyperbole, but the similarities run too deep. Fascism, which worships institutionalized violence, is distinguished for its unilateral proclamations of superiority by a certain race or breed, with such spurious superiority endowing said race with the “right” to dominate, exploit, and annihilate at will any group deemed “inferior.” If that pretty much doesn’t describe eloquently our despicable behavior toward non-human animals, I don’t know what does.

This pig was found dead with frozen blood discharging from his nose and mouth, and several abrasions and cuts on his face, neck, and front legs.  The large amounts of blood suggest that this animal was still alive when abandoned outside in the Minnesota winter. The way the blood is splattered also suggests he was unable to move, yet struggled, flinging his head around before finally dying.

But such narrow-minded and intellectually lazy positions will surely be exposed—sooner rather than later—for the pretentious sham they truly are. For now, in the age of an utterly deranged industrialism, with a global system blatantly proclaiming as its organizing principle the pursuit at any cost of infinite growth in what to any sensible person is a very finite and fragile planet, the tyranny of humans over nature has acquired monstruous proportions. The colossal dimensions of animal exploitation by the industrial method and the death of one species after another grimly attest to that.

COMMENT BY PAUL DONOVAN—[WhatsLeft]

The Status Quo Never Knows Best

This quote sums up the violent opposition met by narrow-minded thinkers on this thread. We are destroying this planet at a rapacious rate, and animals are just as entitled to live in it as we are.

Moreover, you all think you can have your cake and eat it too, and go on living the American nightmare without an ounce of accountability.

I am a leftist, way further to the left than most of you, but I almost hope the Republicans win, just so you will learn your lesson that you can’t support mediocrity and get real results. The animal struggle is no different than the struggle against Bush. These problems of ignorance and mass stupidity are systemic, and the sooner you learn it, the better off we will all be.

To stand against global morality, equality for all (not just a select few as usual), and truth, is to be a reactionary.

Centrism is the problem!

•••

*Paul is here referring to a guy who taunted me by saying he owned TWO beaver hats and was mighty proud of that.—PG

Notes
(1) The precise figure is difficult to ascertain due to the immensity of human/non-human interactions of an exploitive kind, but 75bn creatures of all kinds is currently regarded as extremely conservative, especially now that growing affluence in China, South Korea and even Vietnam, have pushed the consumption of meat and other animal foods to new heights.



Assholieren Maximus: Ted Nugent, terror on animals

Studies in Human Pathology

A Tale of Two Teds

The Strange Case of Compulsive Hunter and Fulltime Asshole Ted Nugent

Proof No. 654,871 that God doesn’t exist: Ted Nugent does (and thrives!).It follows that at the Nugent compound meat doesn’t come from the supermarket. Oh. no. In the Nugent tradition, the men go out and hunt their meat, and that’s no sissy figure of speech. But. wait, there’s a bonus. Ted, who claims with a straight face that he’s never done drugs and that he’s thrashed anyone who ever offered him some, is certain of another thing: killing animals for food and fun can also keep you clean. Yes, the ills ofsociety‑‑crime, despair, drugs. poverty—they will all miraculously vanish if people will just stay away from junk and go hunting, er, bow hunting, that is. So after decades of cutting a figure as an unreconstructed rebel, a visceral anarchist without a program, Teddy has arrived, to become, of all things, a wholesome, clean‑livingAmerican, a real stand‑up guy kids can look up to. In fact, as he never tires of saying, why do drugs when hunting and the outdoors are much greater highs?

[READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE]

RELATED:

TED NUGENT: KNOW YOUR RIGHTWING SPEAKERS (CAMPUS PROGRESS WEBSITE)

 

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