The American industrialized food chain is broken from start to finish. From the rampant animal abuse, to the lack of safety standards, to the misleading marketing campaigns, consumers are unaware of the evils that are taking place right under their noses.
I think it is important to know what you are putting into your body and what your hard-earned money is supporting so this blog is my place to share information about our food.
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I went vegetarian in March of 2008 after unknowingly picking up a book of vegetarian propaganda. (It worked.) What I thought was simply a book on eating healthy, turned out to be a book describing the horrors of our factory farms. I was so upset by the malicious and unnecessarily torturous acts of cruelty that I knew I never wanted to contribute to this kind of suffering and hatred ever again.
What really blew me away, though, was the fact that I’d never been exposed to any of this! I literally had no clue how meat got to my plate. Obviously I knew an animal was raised and killed to be my dinner, but exactly how that happened never once crossed my mind (and that’s exactly how the meat industry likes it). Realizing that the entire process is laced with cruelty, destruction, and deceit, and then realizing that I had been supporting it, quite frankly, pissed me off!
The more I read, the more I realized how little the public knows about our food system. I think that people should be outraged not only by the rampant animal abuse, but also by the lack of safety standards and the quality of product they are consuming (you want growth hormones with that?). I believe that if people are informed, they can make wise, healthy choices that reflect their morals. And I believe that if enough people are informed, the system will eventually change.
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My name is Angie and I’m currently living in Austin, TX, working for The Man. I’ve moved around a few times for my job: Washington, DC, to West Palm Beach, FL, to Philadelphia, PA, back to Washington, DC, and now to Austin. I enjoyed each place uniquely. I was born and raised in San Antonio, TX (hence my love of Mexican Food), went to undergrad at The University of Texas at Austin (Hook Em Horns!), and to grad school at The George Washington University. I am a runner (5 marathons so far), a golfer, an artist, and a recovering Words With Friends addict.
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Rob says:
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 5:09 pm (UTC -5)
Nice story, and fully agreed. The food industry seems to feel that knowledge will be dangerous once in the public’s hands, hence the secrecy surrounding factory farms, the efforts made to propagate misleading labeling, lobbying to alter legal definitions of words such as “organic” and phrases such as “dairy-free,” the successful campaign to prevent farms from having to report emissions to the EPA (as other businesses must do),
and many other factors. Increasingly it’s not just slaughterhouses that need glass walls, it’s the entire food industry.
Enjoyed your art by the way! We have the very same Ikea pillows in our living room too.