Mass Incarceration Vs Factory Farming Essay

680 Words2 Pages

Throughout most people’s lives, one hardly considers how the food they are eating arrives on their plate. This phenomenon can be attributed to the old adage, out of sight out of mind. However, if one decides to uncover the truth behind the meat we eat they will discover an unsettling reality. Meat that the western world eats largely arrives via factory farming, a method of farming that produces massive quantities of livestock by any means available. In this essay, I will discuss the pervasive and perverse nature of society turning a blind eye to factory farming and things akin to it, such as mass incarceration, that do not appease one’s own world view. To understand how such societal cornerstones as mass incarceration and factory farming occur without much acknowledgement from the public one must first consider the common desire to simplify multifaceted situations into simple situations and easy narratives. Thus, with this tendency to avoid inspection of unpleasant things the simplest answers to the questions become the …show more content…

In turn, this ignorance allows such objectionable practices as factory farming and mass incarceration to carry on in the manner in which they deem fit, without many constraints or backlash. Therefore, we are able to excuse ourselves of the glaring failings of such societal institutions, by simply believing that it is for the best and that the “experts” will do what is both effective and just, effectively casting these institutions into the shadow. Once something enters the shadows in the way animals do in factory farming, there is very little that cannot be done to them without creating attention. Consequently, we have an industry that is the most pollution creating industry in the world and that treats animals abhorrently existing without so much as a leash to reign it in

Show More
Related

  • Mass Incarceration Essay

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most black Americans are under the control of the criminal justice today whether in parole or probation or whether in jail or prison. Accomplishments of the civil rights association have been challenged by mass incarceration of the African Americans in fighting drugs in the country. Although the Jim Crow laws are not so common, many African Americans are still arrested for very minor crimes. They remain disfranchised and marginalized and trapped by criminal justice that has named them felons and refuted them their rights to be free of lawful employment and discrimination and also education and other public benefits that other citizens enjoy. There is exists discernment in voting rights, employment, education and housing when it comes to privileges. In the, ‘the new Jim crow’ mass incarceration has been described to serve the same function as the post civil war Jim crow laws and pre civil war slavery. (Michelle 16) This essay would defend Michelle Alexander’s argument that mass incarcerations represent the ‘new Jim crow.’

    Read More

  • Barbara Kingsolver Called Home

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    Moreover, this system of mass farming leads to single crop farms, which are ecologically unsafe, and the unnatural treatment of animals (Kingsolver 14). These facts are presented to force the reader to consider their own actions when purchasing their own food because of the huge economic impact that their purchases can have. Kingsolver demonstrates this impact by stating that “every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we

    Read More

  • Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Food, especially meat is such a central part of human society that it cannot be ignored. Just as big minds came together in the 60’s to make a better chicken, they can come together to solve a crisis that harms every person living in this country. Jonathan Safran Foer’s book gives an important look into what goes on behind the scenes of factory farms, and offers logical solutions. However, it will take more than this, and more than just vegetarian encouragement to make any lasting changes. It will take the votes of consumers both in the supermarket and on ballots to evoke a better system. Take a look at what is on your plate next time you sit down for a meal. Did you vote well?

    Read More

  • Food Inc Rhetorical Analysis

    489 Words  | 1 Pages

        At any average supermarket, the meat aisle contains no bones in the meat. It has all become processed meat that does not come from a farm as all the top beef and pork producers advertise. The reality is not a farm, it’s a factory. A rhetorical strategy the film uses is the voices of the real victims of the food industry, out of all the farmers interviewed, only one spoke out and that shows the power

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration Essay

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his chapter on “Assessing the Prison Experiment”, he explained that the increase in crime rates is not the sole reason that mass incarceration occurs, it was also because courts and legislature did indeed get ‘tougher” on offenders (Currie 14). Under the circumstances of the war on drugs, which was launched by President Richard Nixon, the incarceration rate and sentence longevity increased dramatically, as Currie discussed in his chapter. Currie also pointed out that the war on drugs had a huge influence on the incarceration rate of African American inmates. “between 1985 and 1995, the number of black state prison inmates sentenced for drug offenses rose by more than 700 percent” (Currie 13). Some of these offenders were sentenced to more than ten years without parole, which releases prisoners before the completion of their sentences.

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration Essay

    2012 Words  | 5 Pages

    The United States of America has the world’s highest incarceration rates, for several reasons. The United States of America doesn’t necessarily possess any unique strict laws in comparison to other countries of the world, yet we still have the highest incarceration rate in the world. More federal level and state level prisons are built in order to control and hold more prisoners because most are reaching its full capacity. The United States of America’s “crime rates” increased about 40 years ago when there became a new focus in the areas of crime. The President of the United States of America at the time Richard Nixon used the term “a war on drugs” in order to shed light on public health due to substance abuse. Initially, these policies created

    Read More

  • Essay On Factory Farming

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    In today’s traditional factory farms, beef cattle are being raised in cruel living environments. In an article written by Berry Estabrook titled Feedlots vs Pastures: Two Very Different Ways to Fatten Beef Cattle, published in “The Atlantic” written December 28th, 2011 says that most of Americas beef comes from factory farms. They are crammed by the thousands into crowded, confined dirt lots. The cattle have hardly any room to move around and are forced to live in piles of their own excrement. Due to the many cows, they are deprived from ve...

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemma Analysis

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our current system of corporate-dominated, industrial-style farming might not resemble the old-fashioned farms of yore, but the modern method of raising food has been a surprisingly long time in the making. That's one of the astonishing revelations found in Christopher D. Cook's "Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis" (2004, 2006, The New Press), which explores in great detail the often unappealing, yet largely unseen, underbelly of today's food production and processing machine. While some of the material will be familiar to those who've read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or Eric Schlosser's "Fast-Food Nation," Cook's work provides many new insights for anyone who's concerned about how and what we eat,

    Read More

  • Factory Farm Cause And Effect Essay

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    Animals trapped in factory farms are severely abused and tortured from birth to death. Chickens sometimes will be starved for up to 2 weeks and given no water to shock their bodies into moulting, chickens and hens will have their beaks removed to prevent fighting between other animals. Pigs will get their tails cut off to stop other pigs biting them off. These cruel procedures are done to minimise as few of animals dying as possible so more product can be created by the farmer. Within factory farms, animals are abused with overuse of antibiotics to prevent disease and maximise their body growth to create a higher yield of product. According to Animal Rights Action, 2 out of 3 farms are now factory farmed worldwide and factory farming is only increasing this is leading to more animals being raised for slaughter, abused and tortured, mentally and physically. This is not fair. How would you feel losing your child minutes after it's born? As within factory farms, female cows get their calves are taken away from them within minutes they are born never to be seen again. This leaves these poor female cows depressed which causes them to lose weight and because of this are slaughtered as farmers want to maximise their yield of

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration Essay

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the Oxford Index, “whether called mass incarceration, mass imprisonment, the prison boom, or hyper incarceration, this phenomenon refers to the current American experiment in incarceration, which is defined by comparatively and historically extreme rates of imprisonment and by the concentration of imprisonment among young, African American men living in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage.” It should be noted that there is much ambiguity in the scholarly definition of the newly controversial social welfare issue as well as a specific determination in regards to the causes and consequences to American society. While some pro arguments cry act as a crime prevention technique, especially in the scope of the “war on drugs’.

    Read More

  • Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author talks about, not only vegetarianism, but reveals to us what actually occurs in the factory farming system. The issue circulating in this book is whether to eat meat or not to eat meat. Foer, however, never tries to convert his reader to become vegetarians but rather to inform them with information so they can respond with better judgment. Eating meat has been a thing that majority of us engage in without question. Which is why among other reasons Foer feels compelled to share his findings about where our meat come from. Throughout the book, he gives vivid accounts of the dreadful conditions factory farmed animals endure on a daily basis. For this reason Foer urges us to take a stand against factory farming, and if we must eat meat then we must adapt humane agricultural methods for meat production.

    Read More

  • Factory Farming

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    Like many other industries, the farming industry has evolved into big business, “Animals on factory farms are regarded as commodities to be exploited for profit.” In each industry from clothing to instruments, the bosses want to make a profit. The more they can supply with the least amount of waste, the more profit they make. The same goes for factory farming. However instead of humans being the ones directly affected by big bosses, the animals are. They don’t have a voice, and can’t stand up for what is right or wrong. These animals are manipulated in every way to make a better profit. Factory farms mass produce animals for ...

    Read More

  • Essay On Factory Farming

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    Factory farms have portrayed cruelty to animals in a way that is horrific; unfortunately the public often does not see what really goes on inside these “farms.” In order to understand the conditions present in these factory farms, it must first be examined what the animals in these factory farms are eating. Some of the ingredients commonly used in feeding the animals inside factory farms include the following: animal byproducts, plastic, drugs and chemicals, excessive grains, and meat from members of the same species. (Adams, 2007) These animals are tortured and used for purely slaughter in order to be fed on. Typically large numbers of animals are kept in closed and tight confinements, having only little room to move around, if even that. These confinements can lead to suffocation and death and is not rare. Evidence fr...

    Read More

  • Problems of the Food System

    2097 Words  | 5 Pages

    And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper in quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers. Farmers are essentially the backbone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production (CSS statistics).

    Read More

  • The Environmental Effects Of Eating Meat

    1335 Words  | 3 Pages

    The animals that are raised in factory farms, and the farms are ran just like any other business. According to the article Factory Framing, Misery of Animals, the factory farming industry strives to maximize output while minimizing cost, always at the animal’s expense. “The giant corporations that run most factory farms have found that they can make more money by squeezing as many animals as possible into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals die from disease or infection” (Factory Farming). This is actually quit disgusting that we eat food that walks around in each other’s feces and can attract disease. These animals live a life of abuse, but we sit back and say it’s okay because we will eventually eat them. “Antibiotics are used to make animals grow faster and to keep them alive in the unsanitary conditions. Research shows that factory farms widespread use of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threatens human health” (Factory Farming). These animals aren’t treated with proper care and we act as if they are machines. Chickens for example, become so big and distorted that their legs can longer support them. Eventually they die because they can longer walk to get food or water. According to Factory Farming, most of these animals have been genetically manipulated to grow larger and to produce more eggs and milk than they naturally

    Read More

More about Mass Incarceration Vs Factory Farming Essay

Open Document