food industry

All three articles discuss current issues surrounding the food industry, highlighting both the immoral treatment of the animals bred for consumption and of the workers in the food industry. I thought the arguments against “specieism” in the article “In an Animal’s Place” were really interesting and raised some issues that I had never really thought about. For example Pollan’s observation that “The moral idea is that everyone’s interests ought to receive equal consideration, regardless of ‘what abilities they may possess’” (Pollan 2) for example, seems like something you might only apply to people, but can be extended to animals as well. Just because a chicken does not have the capabilities that a human has, it should still be free from pain and suffering and free to participate in any lifestyle that it wants to rather than be forced to live in awful conditions.

The infographic about the chicken industry focused more on how the plants where chickens a held and processed for sale are dangerous for the workers. The workers are at risk of disease through exposure to salmonella, bacteria, and blood, cuts from the birds or tools. One of the most disturbing things in this article to me was that in some plants the workers have to kill the birds themselves. The introduction to “On The Tomato Trail” also discusses how today’s food industry condones inhumane worker conditions. The article talks about how growers are exposed to all the chemicals that are now used in agriculture to create large about of artificially perfect fruits and vegetables. The article also discusses how there is a kind of slavery in the industry where workers are denied rights and even sold to different bosses.