If You Eat Meat: Read This

Why does it feel like talking about the cruelty of industrial animal agriculture is passé? Maybe it’s because I had my awakening in high school, when learning about factory farming felt shocking and urgent. Or because my years as a strict vegetarian, and working one summer at Farm Sanctuary caring for rescued animals, now feel tied to a more idealistic version of myself. Or maybe it's that the big exposé documentaries, like Food, Inc., came out over a decade ago, making the conversation feel dated, even though the problem is anything but.

In all the conversations about food I see, I rarely see reminders about the evil system of factory farming. I would assume most people have an idea that billions of land animals are killed in the US each year for food (10 billion to be exact), but it's so uncomfortable that most of us, including me, forget about it.

Sadly, I believe the plant-based/vegan movement has caused a backlash among people defending their right to eat meat, and the protein obsession has caused this issue to move even further into the background. As global meat demand continues to rise, I am here to remind you that 99% of the meat consumed in the US is from a factory farm. Please let that sink in. As much as we want to believe things are improving, they have actually just disappeared from the headlines, and I would argue, are even worsening.

If you are new to what a factory farm is, also known as a Controlled Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), please do your research. If the way animals are treated doesn’t bother you, the environmental pollution and suffering of people who live near these operations should. If I can recommend one film, it’s called The Smell of Money - which is described as “that’s what Big Pork calls the stench of pig waste in the air in eastern North Carolina, where much of the world’s bacon and barbecue is made. But to Elsie Herring and others who live near the state’s giant pig factories, the revolting odor is a call to battle against generations of injustice.”

Raising thousands of pigs at once in a confined area is no easy feat. Like most industries, it’s gotten more efficient over the years — like the time between pig pregnancies or the days until a chicken can be slaughtered — but