Final Food Assignment

The cows with guns video shows how the cows are thought of as important only for their meat and milk. The cows eat to grow, grow to die and then eaten by humans. The cows are given hormones to make them larger so that they have more meat to offer. The cows can get so large that their legs can no longer support their weight and so they are unable to go eat food and have their utters emptied. This leads to a long painful death. I think farmers will do whatever it takes to produce what they need even if it means torturing the animals and making their lives miserable.

This connects to the animal cruelty video because the animals are mistreated and abused. The only reason the animals are kept alive is for them to grow big and fat so they can be eaten and used for our food. I think it is wrong how the animals are treated on these farms. They should not be tortured while becoming food. At least put them to sleep or something when their necks are slit and they get chopped up. It is bad enough how the animals are raised on these farms and the conditions they must survive in. When watching the video and seeing how the animals are treated and the way they look before going through the machines makes me not want to eat. I could not imagine being cramp up in a small space with other creatures surround me and never being able to fully stretch my legs before be killed in a terrible way. I prefer the way that the Muslims kill the animals. The animals are actually treated like they have brains and can think for themselves. I think that most of the food that Americans eat are raised on these types of farms. I eat food from mcdonalds and all the other fast food places and that food does come from these farms. I think that the farms are able to get away with this because a lot of people don't really care they think that animals don't have minds are just on earth for us humans to eat.

I think that similarly to animal cruelty the farmers also abuse the seeds, fruits, vegetables and plants. Seeds, fruits, vegetables and plants are sprayed with all different types of chemicals and pesticides. In the video "VROOM - Farming for Kids" they show a plane dropping chemicals on a bunch of grown sun flowers. The chemicals kill all the flowers and then machines are used to drive over the dead flowers and pick up the seeds.

I think that most people don't realize that they are supporting these techniques of the farmers, because they think the food is already made so its not going to stop them. But if no one was to buy the food due to how the animals were treated the farmers would have to stop making as much, because no one would buy it and it would go bad.
Another reason why so many people may support is just because the food is so convenient. The food taste pretty good, is prepared quickly and doesn't cost a whole lot of money. Those are some of the reasons I also eat this type of food. You also don't really see a lot of fast food places that have the natural animal meat. If they did I'm sure people would buy that if it was as good, cheap and quickly prepared.

My mother buys milk that says the milk does not come from cows who have been on growth hormones to make the cows bigger and produce more milk. I think this is important, because it as at least one thing that I am not supporting from these farms. It is hard for me not to buy the meat from fast food places, because I am on a low budget and the only other options really are salad but I need meat and chicken. I do eat halal food which is from Muslims. The Muslims don't get their meat from these torture farms. They have their own ways of killing the animals that don't include torture and harsh raising of the animals.

I feel like the growth hormones that the animals are given make the meat fake. The meat is not naturally grown by the animals. Its like when the athletes take steroids all the muscle gained is fake and unnatural. This shows that food is turning fake, because there is usually a substitute food that is similar to the real food but isn't the real food. For example when they were talking about when the baby is given either breast milk or formula. Pollan talks about chips and food that isn't good for you is okay every once in a while. It gets really bad when the junk food is eaten everyday. He says making your own food is the best way to eat, because you know exactly what is going into it. Many people don't really want to know what is in their food, because they like how it taste and don't want to dislike it due to the ingredients.

In Omnivores Dilemma, Michael Pollan also talks about Americans food culture. He thinks that Americans way of eating is mixed up with so many different food cultures that we don't have one of our own. I understand his point, because many Americans eat differently. America is known for obesity so everyone thinks that the American food culture is the only the unhealthy and fatty foods. Everyone bases their opinions of what foods are healthy and unhealthy on what the media and tv tell them. I think that to much of one food is unhealthy and also that everyone has a different body so they can react to foods differently than others. Many people go on diets and think that their body is becoming more healthy but a lot of the they aren't getting all the proper nutrients and protein that is needed.