1. Deceptive Animal
Welfare Labels
You may see “cage-free, “free-range, and other so-called
humane labels on meat, dairy, and eggs, but don’t get it twisted. All animals
raised for food will meet the same violent and unnecessary death: having their
throats slit.
Additionally, hatcheries that supply all sorts of “happy
egg farms still grind up male chicks alive or suffocate them in garbage bags.
And cows on organic dairies have their babies ripped away from them only to be
sold for veal. Sound humane to you? We didn’t think so.
2. Idyllic Portrayal
of Farmed Animals
You know all those cute, cartoony images of smiling farmed
animals being raised outdoors in open pastures? Don’t believe it for a minute.
The vast majority of farmed animals raised for food in the United States endure
a life of misery and pain on factory farms. These poor animals will never see
sunlight or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded in overcrowded
transport trucks and shipped to slaughter.
3. Misleading
Language
When the meat industry describes what it does with its
animals to the public, it gets really crafty. Instead of using words like “killing
and “slaughtering, the industry goes for gentler-sounding words such as “harvesting
or “processing. We’ve heard of harvesting crops or processing a payment, but
hanging someone upside down and cutting their throat open doesn’t sound like
harvesting or processing to us.
4. Bogus Sustainability Claims
We can’t even. If someone tries to tell you that animal
products are “sustainable or “environmentally friendly, tell them to check
themselves. No matter what it says on the package, animal agriculture is one of
the leading contributors to climate change. It also wastes valuable resources
and has a major hand in deforestation and species extinction.
But what about grass-fed beef? Forget about it. According to
Gidon Eshel, professor of environmental science at Bard College, “The only
sustainable beef is beef that was never produced or consumed. Beef and
sustainability are about as compatible as war and goodness.