Moo

Today in Human Geography we watched a documentary called King Corn. In the program, two Bostonian college students go to Iowa to plant an acre of corn. They're goal is to follow the corn's route from the field to diets and lives of Americans; they're working to see how corn impacts us. At one point the documentary touches on the subject of feedlots and corn-fed beef. They actually had footage of feedlots that they visited in Colorado. Feedlots are plots of ground on which livestock are fattened for market. On these feedlots thousands and thousands of cattle are confined on what are essentially muddy plains and only fed corn products. They are situated thus in and effort to increase productivity. The corn products that they are fed and the fact that they are not able to really move around make the cattle grow fatter faster for market. A hundred years ago, all cattle raised her grass-fed, today we know it as free-range. Now though, the majority of cattle "farmers" give their cows corn or other grain products. Recent studies have shown that the grain products actually harm the cows; they were meant to graze and eat grass, their bodies are not designed to digest such high levels of starch. Most all meat products that we consume today are made from corn-fed beef because corn is the largest commodity in the mid-west, especially the all-American hamburger. Although the cattle are being raised to be slaughtered, why should they suffer through what little life they have? It's like when someone is dying of cancer and nothing can be done to stop the cancer, the doctors focus on making the remainder of the patient's days of the best quality as is possible; quality over quantity. Why should the cows have to eat corn products that make them sick just so that they'll fatten up sooner so that the obese American population can get its hands on a juicy burger? The same thing goes for the horrible feedlots that the cattle are condemned to. Why should they have to live in mud holes continuously eating without the chance to develop muscle? Americans want their food fast and cheap. Americans seem to have this idea that they are superior. The feel that it is okay to treat sub-human intelligent creatures like dirt, even if it is other humans who are being treated badly; the characterization of "sub-human intelligence" is dictated by the beliefs and egos of the leaders of the general population. For example, in the nineteenth century Native Americans were forced onto minuscule pieces of the worst land in the nation. Americans, in the latter example the Europeans who ran the country, needed a reality check and they still do. Cows may be boring and not as amazing as a lion or a panda, but they are living creatures who, if you choose to believe so, were created by God to reside on this earth with humans in harmony. I am not a vegetarian, but simply an animal lover who hates to see them suffering. MOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Slán go fóill

Peace
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