Beyond Boundaries

Industrial productions seem to be working out fairly well, allowing machines to do all the hard labor and feeding millions efficiently. But this was before I read an article called, Beyond Boundaries by Barbara Noske. Not only do the animals suffer, the workers are affected as well. Just like the one type of cauliflower engineered to withstand long distances and periods of traveling from factories to stores, animals nowadays are going through the same thing. They are being engineered for one specific task, whether it is for the chickens to lay eggs, the cows to produce milk, or various others to grow fur. Is this really natural? To force animals away from the way they originally were, to becoming in a way, a device to hand out eggs like a vending machine. I never gave my omelet much thought, thinking chickens really do produce eggs in such large quantities and in that short of a time.

Aside from generic alterations, their new habitats are not any better. Animals are confined in such small places that they easily become bored. Due to boredom, they find ways to entertain themselves. As with pigs, they end up biting each other’s tails and chickens often peck each other to death because they can’t establish a pecking order while eating. I’ve always had the idea that the animals were confined, but not to the extent where they would be a threat to each other. Being pecked to death, no living creature deserves to die that way.

Animals are not the only ones that are affected in a negative way; workers spend most of their day working in manmade buildings and being surrounded by again, manmade items. Technology has made a big impact in the world we live in today, but people often forget to get back to the basics; natural substances. Most of these workers are trained for one action, as though they were a part of the machines that surround them, causing them to be less creative.

Because the production plants are so focused on machines, one mistake would end up killing a large group of animals, not very efficient anymore. Animals have health problems, why? Because they are not in their natural habitat or being fed foods they would naturally eat. The sad thing about their artificial homes is that in some cases, pigs die instantly due to stress when they first see sunlight.

It’s almost as if the animals spend their lives in a prison and die there as well. They are continually being altered to better meet our needs, but do we care or think about their well being? I certainly hope that we will change our ways and realize that the animals we consume are living creatures just like ourselves.