MLA Citation blog: Article

The Corps said it was cooperating with investigators and working with Army officials to suspend those involved and "to ensure appropriate contracting and other safeguards are in place."( p13-13, 1/3p, )

In text Citation :

Life is about benefits, the corporations “suffer” for the profit which is way larger than the punishment. The Corps said it was cooperating with investigators and working with Army officials to suspend those involved and "to ensure appropriate contracting and other safeguards are in place."(
$28 million For David Besse" 02/6/2006: 13-13, Print

discussion on What Life Is & how it affects CAFOS

Kadeshia

words are happiness and manipulation.  Everybody wants to be happy so the companies manipulate the truth of the words. Programmed in us for a young age for,  young age  things are impressionable. Easily intrigued. Ex McDonalds a happy child makes a happy mother. “

Benefit:  profit over punishment! Connection to worker

Workers prefer to do whatever it takes to make profit. If the coop makes profit they make profit- paycheck! Coops do whatever it takes to eliminate competition for profit.  Eating Animals – factory farming eliminates competition by eliminating its main resources. A company needs it resources and if they don’t have it companies would deteriorate.   Punishment is less than they would make without the fine: violations) make ten times more than fine no matter punishment. Customers would rather be happy and forget environment. Customers made to think that their happiness matters more than the environment.

Chris! Section here!

Organized chaos; cafo looks organized but destroy everything around them; humans people who consume products. Basically they try to make and destroy it at the same time; (rapidly) can relate to holocaust, wars, and genocides and apocalypse for the animals and the environment.pg 12 Organized in a way that they are being FUELED by our own tax payer’s money without us even knowing. We are inadvertently destroying our environment, degrading people, materializing animals; making them seem disposable. In addition, we are advocating this with our own money.

A correlation between the increase of violence towards humans and the connection to cruelty towards animals.PG4

Javed Najhafeez

Pages 131 the first two paragraphs and page 135 the first three paragraphs.

The first page gives a untrue statement about a cow the age of 17. However in reality and modern day LIFE PRODUCTION of animals, no cow lives to see the age of 17, not even half the age, especially the DAIRY COWS. The main purpose of these cows are for the production of milk, and as a result suffer the worst when being killed. While the second portion of the reading connect to this by explaining the GENETIC MANIPULATION aspect of production. The reading explains some key terms that are very important. The connection between these two passages is that the constant feeding of GENETICALLY MANIULATED foods to the animals being grown at these factories causes the life of an animal to be manipulated and altered aswell. Cows are no longer HEALTHY, in any way because they are constantly being fed CONCENTRATED also known as HIGH ENERGY FEEDS. These include foods for the animals such as cows, that are unfit for the cows stomache.

Draft Essay Assignment 3

Kadeshia Shirley

Human and animal life to a CAFO only means a chance on faster ways to develop ecologically because more money, obviously, equals more power.  The system organizes life by taking control of both the workers and the animals.  There is and was a better way to raise and kill these animals for the people who chose to eat meat the old-fashioned way.  The system controls the minds of the customers and workers to have a huge disconnection from the animals so that it feels like that is the way things should be, the true definition of a "species-ist".  The animals are controlled to grow faster beyond their nature or what they can handle physically just for the benefit of these corporations.  The way these CAFOs organize life is so that we have less regard for animal life to the point where we barely have any regard for own life, despite the damages it causes the ecosystem, we make happiness our number one priority.  It becomes as if it is OK to kill just as long as we're happy doing so. As a result, our culture is divided further and killed from heart disease or poisoned by poorly-produced or handled meat, animals are shackled for their entire lives being tortured and locked up without a glimpse of sunlight and pollution grows larger than ever.

Consequently, as humans, I believe we are mainly driven by illusions.  The CAFO system is the exact epitome of an illusion the American culture. The illusion that the method of husbandry is still currently in effect because of the casual depiction of the barn and the farmers create the perception that meat is made the old-fashioned way.  This way, when we see our food, we think quality, care, and healthy.  This is what our minds want to think, the American culture is a very sensitive culture when it comes to food, so getting a good feeling about a meat brand or any brand for that matter, extends the desire to continually shop for that brand.  This is the CAFO’s way of leading Americans to believe that we are the only species that matter or overpower the others because they are supposedly less intelligent than we are. This fact surely conflicts with the ethical judgment of all mankind, who deem it illegal for the less intelligent infant to be slaughtered and eaten for breakfast, but yet it matters not what kind of pain the upside down pic had to endure without anesthesia or any medication, it’s life stripped from it to be turned into a bacon strip for our children’s pleasure. “The question is not can they reason? Nor can they talk?  But, can they suffer?” (p.5, The CAFO Reader, Daniel Imhoff).  We are led to believe the entire time that the basis of our Human Rights is the ability to feel pain, yet we cancel out the cries and writhing of a mother sow, as just simple reflexes.  What makes their pain different from ours?  CAFOs manage to create this mindset in a lot of Americans that, "Without a cheap and abundant food supply, many would go hungry.  Why should we care about the welfare of an animal that is going to be slaughtered regardless?" (p.3, The CAFO Reader, Daniel Imhoff) Our essential relationship with the animals we eat is not one similar to predator and prey, meaning, we don't need to eat meat to survive, so this is a false justification for the ill treatment of these animals.    We have deteriated ethically

Blog 5: The CAFO System

      Human and animal life only means a chance to experiment on faster ways to develop ecologically because more money, obviously, equals more power.  The system organizes life by taking control of both the workers and the animals.  They manage to create this mindset in a lot of Americans that, "Without a cheap and abundant food supply, many would go hungry.  Why should we care about the welfare of an animal that is going to be slaughtered regardless?"  Our essential relationship with the animals we eat is not predator and prey, meaning, we don't need to eat meat to survive, so this is a false justification for the ill treatment of these animals.  There is and was a better way to raise and kill these animals for the people who chose to eat meat the old-fashioned way.  The system controls the minds of the customers and workers to have a huge disconnection from the animals so that it feels like that is the way things are, the true definition of a "species-ist".  We are led to believe that we are the only species that matter or overpower the others because they are supposedly less intelligent than we are, yet it is illegal for the less intelligent infant to be slaughtered and eaten for breakfast.  The animals are controlled to grow faster beyond their nature or what they can handle physically just for the benefit of these corporations.  The way these CAFOs organize life is so that we have less regard for animal life to the point where we barely have regard for own life, regardless of the damages it causes the ecosystem, we make happiness our number one priority.  It becomes as if it is OK to kill just as long as we're happy doing so. As a result, our culture is divided further and killed from heart disease or poisoned by poorly-produced or handled meat, animals are shackled for their entire lives being tortured and locked up without a glimpse of sunlight and poluution grows larger than ever.

Blog 4: "Farm to Fridge" Summary

     This blog is about a small video I watched called "Farm to Fridge" by Mercy For Animals.  This video uncovers the gruesome world of the meat market.  The mystery behind the meat, so to speak.  Initially, the goal seemed to be to show us the "journey" these animals go through on the way to our plates.  It shows that before these animals were pork, poultry, beef, and seafood, they were sows, chickens, turkey, and cattle with families to raise and peaceful lives to live, just like we humans do.
      The video revealed what happened to 4 month pregnant sows.  These animals are locked up in small stalls barely bigger than their bodies and they develop open sores and other injuries due to this lack of space.  Many other brutalities faced it not only by the conditioning itself but by the workers.  Workers of these factory farms hit, yell, and kick the sows to move, while piglets get their testicles ripped out of their bodies and tails chopped off without anesthesia.  These mutilations often cause fatal deaths.  The video also revealed that sows who weren't growing fast enough were slammed into the ground, gassed and strangled.  What's even more interesting is that these acts of killing were defended by the pork industry.  Market weight pigs are then sent to slaughterhouses after being knocked in the heads with steal rods and hung upside down awaiting their throats to be slit; sometimes the animals were fully conscious.  Some were scolded alive, again, some fully conscious.
       Coincidentally the egg market deemed similar acts of mutilation and cruel acts of killing "Standard" and "acceptable". When chickens are first hatched they are sorted male from female.  The males are "unprofitable" and are killed within hours after hatching. The video reveals male chicks being thrown into grinding machines while still alive.  Some are thrown into trash bags to suffocate .  According to the video more than 200 million unwanted male chicks are killed on their first day of life each year in the United States.  While the male chicks are killed, the female chicks are in for a lifetime of endurance of cruelties and horrors of the slaughterhouse.  Females undergo the mutilations of hot blades and lasers to remove their beaks to reduce pecking influenced by overcrowded living space.  These mutilations cause acute as well as chronic pain.  Based on the video 95% of egg-laying hens spend their lives confined in a cage with no sunlight or fresh air.  These former  mothers, or hens, cannot walk, turn around, or even spread their wings without pushing other birds aside.  The devastation of this confinement include feather loss, open wounds, birds trapped in cage wire and premature death cause by overbearing stress.  Undercover investigations show hens being stepped on, tossed into dead piles while still alive or violently tossed in trash cans.  Both chickens and turkeys being raised for food are grown so large that they suffer crippling leg disorders, chronic pain, and fatal heart attacks.  Their necks are broken or they are clubbed to death if they are "no good".
      The treatment of these animals have a lot to do with my group's project in inspecting the traditional meat-eater" and how well they know what goes on behind the production of their foods, and if they are aware of such horrors in the food factories what their reasons are for continuing consumption.  It helps to point out the continuing question of the rights of animals?  When it comes to our food, why are their no emotions linked to are food choices?  Is it because our food choices are already being made for us by a secretive government run by the corporations?
      Seeing factory farms, rather than reading about them certainly clarified the level of cruelty all non-meat-eaters and vegans are up against.  It shows that food choices go way deeper than just deciding to do something, but knowing why you're doing it and what difference it will make in our nation ethically.  I certainly want to do something about my diet now after viewing the horror rather than just hearing.  It's like you never really know until you witness.

Blog 3: The End Of Overeating

    This blog is about a passage I read called "The End of overeating" by David A. Kessler, MD.  In chapter 6 Sugar, Fat, and Salt  Are Reinforcing, I was awakened by the startling fact that food places target consumers by highlighting what our body's desire and make their foods based on that. Our body's naturally like sugar, fat, and salt depending on an individual's tolerance for these ingredients.  According to the passage, studies have shown that we work harder for what we desire more than what we need.  These food places reinforce, or make people want even more, the consumption of these ingredients by first establishing a strong sense of desire for these foods.  The feeling we get during and after consumption of these foods cause the illusion of reward to our emotions, when in reality our body's don;t receive the reward where health is concerned at all. As I read more, Kessler discusses further discusses how these addictive ingredients then tend to attach to our emotions, preferably feelings of happiness and associate the setting with the food that initially caused this feeling.  This is another crafty way food companies target for the consumption of salty, sugary , and fatty goods. "Cues associated with the pleasure response demand our attention, motivate our behavior, and stimulate the urge we call "wanting"(pg.32, "The End of overeating"). If we immediately associate happiness and joy with a certain location which we have consumed something of fat and sugar, it becomes a desirable place to go because of previous experiences at the location. In the end, an example of what the finished product of a fast food joint like McDonald's works like this: When child is rewarded with a juicy, fatty burger with a sugary Coca-cola or see a McDonald's Ronald McDonald advertisement, the emotion of happiness cues them to have the urge of wanting this particular food again.  They know it will be heading back to Mickey D's with mom for more reward of happiness like before.

Blog 2:Explaining Contadictions

A good argument isn't complete without a great breakdown of a contradiction.  Contradictions are two clashing arguments that together equal a negative argument, or one that cannot be completely true.  In the text Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, a sense of irony is sprinkled throughout the text in different point of views.  In the text a character Kenny Dobbins is a worker at Monfort slaughterhouse where he loyal to his employers and even his workers as further shown in the text.  The company over the years had seemed really good to Kenny because he figured that with his lack of skill and knowledge, Monfort didn't have to give him a job but they did anyways, or so he thought.  One day Kenny was working with the pre-beaker machine in the factory when he noticed one of his co-workers had just turned off the machine and was trying to stick his head into the machine which he'd known to have taken fifteen minutes to shut down completely.  He ran and saved his co-worker and his employer gave him an award for"Outstanding Achievement in concern for fellow Workers."  The care shown in acknowledging the worker's heroism contadicts with the later situation after Kenny suffered major injuries because of his dedication to his work, that was then neglected by Monfort.  The irony lies within the idea that the companies will give an award for workers caring about each other but won't care about the workers themselves. Their award is the sparing of the worker rather than taking personal care of the worker.  As proven with Kenny, once the worker becomes useless to them, they are no longer needed and replaced.

My Twitter ID

BinaShirley

Blog 1:Summary of How Corporations Target Children

           In the book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, there is a widely looked upon topic that is discussed in relations to gaining loyal customers starting at younger ages. The idea of this method is referred to as brand essence.  In order to create a life long bond with their customers, large corporations such as McDonald's and Disneyland, target the younger generation.  The main idea is that McDonald's believes that advertising works in a psychological sense because loyalty begins with the child.
         Examples from the book included the McDonald's campaign, which initially addressed the issue of the corporation's lack of customer loyalty.  The corporations believe that this occurs when the customers feel like the corporation does not care about them.  The customers that seem to stray are reeled back in by McDonald's trying to make a personal connection with them, making McDonald's apart of a family ritual or connect back to children.  In the chapter Schlosser described the connection between corporations such as McDonald's and Disneyland that push towards making parents feel like they are being good parents by taking their children to these places that are associated with being happy and caring environments.
        Corporations pay visits to schools and talk to the kids about why McDonald's is such a great place and the children feel cared about because the corporation pretends to listen to what the children have to say.  In turn, the child reports back to the parent telling the parent , who as a result of feeling guilty or insecure about the welfare of their child then takes their child to McDonald's to make them happy so they feel good about themselves. Many of this corporations commercials consist of this scenario, which also attracts the children in the sense where they automatically connect McDonald's with happiness and fun and a place their parents will always take them to, and eventually they will go there forever.

ethics of food:comments please

Kadeshia Shirley




The separation of workers and their employees is gapped with a
surprisingly very large amount of unequal power. Workers from many
countries are being shipped around to work in large production
corporation to factories and farms such as Strawberry fields and
McDonald’s manufacturing factories.  The employer severely overpowers
the employee as a simple reaction to the worker’s vulnerability and
very few options. As a result, who are given low wages, forced to work
under poor conditions, and are repeatedly abused and exploited. The
focus of the food industry is merely on the benefits of the employer
rather than its employees.
A significant trait of a worker of large corporations such as fast
food company’s and production fields is low wages.  In an interview
with Eric Schlosser, he mentioned his recognition of the strawberry
production system and how tedious of a job it seems to be. He later
found out in an investigation of the food industry that illegal
immigrants from California were being imported into these fields to
pick strawberries under horrible back-breaking hours and paid under
minimum wages.  “Each supervisor is like a little dictator in his or
her section of the plant, largely free to boss, fire, berate, or
reassign workers”.  Along with this behavior, most of corporate
employers are supporters of anti-union, preferably to avoid rebellion
and unwanted attention to treatment of workers. to ultimately put a
hault to the employee’s limit of power. According to Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser, the production supervisor is of close relation to a
dictator, which enforces that the power of the employer blatantly
dominates the workers.
The abuse of immigrant laborers is also a historically known trait of
large corporations.  Workers in a field or factory usually have very
few choices in work hours.  These vulnerable laborers are forced to
work long hours no matter how low the wages, females are taken
advantage of sexually as well as unequally.  According to Fast Food
Nation, the vulnerability of these women who worked in corporate
factories was unimaginable.  They would often sleep with their
employers, seeing it as “a way to gain a secure place in American
society, a green card, a husband – or at the very least transfer to an
easier job at the plant. “  .