Aug 26, 2013

Killing Our Home for Beef and Leather

Have you seen Alma?
The breathtaking images will guide you through the heartbreaking facts about the costs of consuming meat, leather and dairy products. It's an unforgettable film. 

"Greed and consumerism are transforming the Amazon into a sad and deadly place. Not only is the forest being wiped out, in it's place are cows by the millions, destined for slaughter. Ever larger soybean fields are being planted, so that ever more animals around the world can be fed and slaughtered for our consumption."


Have you seen the satellite imagery of U.S. feedlots?

Ninety-seven percent of the flesh from "beef-cows" that are consumed in the U.S. are “finished” on a feedlot.


There are up to 100,000 crowded steers, crammed body to body for the last six months of their short, miserable lives. They gain up to 30 pounds a week on an unnatural diet of corn, protein supplements, and antibiotics. This fattening process also produces a fiendish volume of digested matter.


Feedlot by Sue Coe
One cow creates as much waste as 20 humans... Disposing of the tons of manure has become the unending chore of being a rancher. Cattle poo is saturating our planet. Hasn't anyone heard that you don't sh*t where you eat?

Have you heard carnists say "It's always been this way"?  

No. This isn't so at all. Meat eating has always been viciously wrong for the victims, there's no denying that, but it's never had this devastating impact on the planet and human health:



Plant and animal species are becoming extinct due to the infestation of cattle interests and meat-lust. But as the timeline above shows, this annihilation of other species can be traced to 1627 when the poor wild Aurochs became extinct, a few decades after the invasion of "livestock". 

"The causes of extinction were hunting, a narrowing of habitat due to the development of farming, and diseases transmitted by domestic cattle." And it's no secret that now the Buffalo species is driven to near extinction in order to "protect" cattle.

What I see regarding all of it, is a whole lot of dung-shoveling and a whole lot of dead-planet. 

There's another way to eat and live... It's everyone's planet. No excuses. You can go vegan.

4 comments:

veganelder said...

It's a bleak and unlovely look at thousands of years of human animal selfishness without bounds. None of our fellow Earthlings engage in such evilness...only us...and seemingly voluntarily. It isn't required and we can quit...can't we? You have...I have...so it's not mandatory. Our destructive ways are elective, we can stop.

Bea Elliott said...

We can stop. A lot of us did. I'm sure there are multitudes more to follow. We have to hold on to that possibility. And never be silenced till then! Thanks for being a voice for reason. <3

Ingrid T said...

I've been immersed in wildlife and environmental issues for a number of years now, and I'm often surprised at the many people who see no connection between beef, as one egregious example, and land destruction, along with wildlife harm. I've attended numerous fund raisers for bird-oriented groups where "bird" was the main course. I see photos from fellow wildlife-loving photographers in the same gallery as their barbecued steaks.

Putting aside my personal feelings, I believe it's incumbent upon anyone invested in environmental issues to at least look at how their food habits are subsidizing these ecologically damaging industries. I don't think that's a lot to ask of people who are otherwise conscious and committed to wildlife and habitat preservation. So many wildlife issues today have at their core, a direct linkage to ranching or farming (e.g. Gray wolf eradication). It really seems like a no brainer to refrain from funding those intermediary players in the scheme.

Bea Elliott said...

It seems Ingrid that you've had enough experience working around nature to fully grasp what's a risk if we continue on this route of destruction. I only know a small piece and I can see it. But when I was eating flesh I never gave it a thought. It true that the information stays carefully hidden behind the steak and bacon.

Still, once people know... Especially those engaged in causes that protect the environmental, and they continue to ignore the data and the solution - Well... I don't know how to penetrate their circle of concern after that.

And the eradication/wolf hate? It goes beyond their predation of the livestock picnic set before them. It's the lust the hunters have for the elk and big buck. And don't those folks claim to be "nature lovers" and Earth's caretakers? :/

As always, thanks for your input and working towards the fix.