Know your food

I have learned a lot about our food system over the past year. I believe it is very important to be educated about how things work in our society to avoid support of any exploitation, inhumane practices, etc. The meat industry has some serious changing to do, but it's not going to change until people become more educated about where their meat is coming from and why it is so cheap. A lot of meat is subsidized which accounts for the low price compared to organic meats from farms. If we would just cut down on the amount of meat we eat, organic meat would be more affordable. This video is why we do not buy meat that is not organic: (warning: this video does not hide anything. This video looks into the business of Smithfield Foods: the largest meat supplier in the country.

Click here: Undercover at Smithfield Foods

I know a lot you are going to breeze right over this post and not think anything of it, that's ok. But I really do believe that any time you buy meat (or anything else really) you are casting a vote for that company and telling them it is okay to continue doing what they're doing.

Our country already eats way more meat that is needed or that is healthy. If everyone just cut down on meat consumption, we would be healthier and we wouldn't use as many resources raising animals for slaughter.

Here's some facts:

1. According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed every minute, much of it to create more room for farmed animals. Of all the agricultural land in the U.S., nearly 80 percent is used in some way to raise animals—that's roughly half of the total land mass of the U.S.10 More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals

2. While factory farms are ruining our land, the commercial fishing industry is pushing entire oceanic ecosystems to the brink of collapse. Commercial fishing boats indiscriminately pull as many fish as they can out of the sea, leaving ecological devastation and the bodies of nontarget animals in their wake. Fishing methods like bottom trawling and long-lining have emptied millions of miles of ocean and pushed some marine species to the brink of extinction.(overfishing is also due to the fact that fish are used to feed livestock)

3. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat. More than 70 percent of the grain and cereals that we grow in this country are fed to farmed animals. The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth. About 20 percent of the world's population, or 1.4 billion people, could be fed with the grain and soybeans fed to U.S. cattle alone.

4.E, the respected environmental magazine, noted in 2002 that more than one-third of all fossil fuels produced in the United States are used to raise animals for food.

5. It takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons.

I could go on and on. Imagine if even half of the resources used to raise livestock was used to fight hunger in the world. And it would cut down on pollution as well. Not to mention the quality of life animals deserve. It saddens me to see such a disconnect from our food and these animals. Millions suffer every day. I used to be ignorant to these facts as many people are. But take the first step and learn about it!

Organic vs. Conventional:

Organic Chickens:

Conventional Chickens:

Organic Cows:

Conventional Cows:

Organic Pigs:

Conventional Pigs

(notice the size difference)

Organic Turkeys:

Conventional Turkeys:

Images found here

I'm sure at least one person who reads this is saying, well we're going to kill them anyway. True, but whether you believe animals are here for us to eat or not, they deserve better.

If you were to cast a vote on a ballet tommorow, what would it be?