Last night Steve and I watched Earthlings. Have you seen it? I didn’t really know too much about it other than it was intense. I like a good documentary and thought it would be informative. Well, it was. Too much so. It’s all about how humans regard animals and the ways they serve us: they feed, clothe and entertain us at ghastly expenses. I had never seen footage of slaughterhouses before and I feel like something has changed in me now that I have. The cruelty is appalling. I guess I thought that the meat I ate came from a happy cow whose time had come and he would have been quickly killed with a shot to the head. The gore that actually spills from the slaughterhouses is unbelievable. While I kind of miss my blissful ignorance, I feel like my eyes have finally been opened.
After watching the movie, Steve and I got into an hours-long conversation about everything that is wrong with this world of ours. Everything is so messed up. But how do we fix it? How can we turn the tide?
Should we join a commune where we grow our own organic cotton and sew our own clothes and harvest our own wheat to mill our own flour and get a kind cow to milk everyday and whittle our children’s toys from old apple branches? Oh, and we need to get an electric car, or better yet, we should just walk everywhere, in our pleather sandals.
How then shall we live?
We are inevitably going to leave our footprints on the earth, but I guess the goal is to tread as lightly as possible. We do some little things right now (we recycle and compost and use non-toxic cleaners in our home) but I feel the responsibility to do so much more than I ever have.
Are we going to become vegetarians? Perhaps. Vegans? Maybe. Dirty hippies on an organic commune? Who knows. I just realized how sadly disconnected I am from the sources of the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the things we consume.
I am one sad and disturbed earthling today.
24 Comments
I didn’t know you used non-toxic cleaners. Good girl. :)
You know how I feel about everything else you listed.
“Ignorance is bliss; knowledge is power” :
Mike watched The Human Footprint last night and he came to me and said, “We have to make a lot of changes.” He already wants to cloth diaper our kid, and I thought that was kind of charming. But, we need the kid first :)
There are other options – ethical meat production* does exist – you just have to do a little research and figure out what you can get in your area. Where you live, you might be able to buy directly from the farmer.
Check:
http://www.localharvest.org
http://www.certifiedhumane.com/where.asp
Becoming vegan or vegetarian is a way – it’s something that I looked into a while back. However, I like meat and I believe in voting with my wallet. By supporting and purchasing humanely raised meat, I am doing my part to show that there is a market for it. More people buy –> it becomes more common.
*some people would say that humane/ethical meat production can’t exist as in the end you kill the animal.
I don’t think I could watch that documentary precisely because I know exactly what goes on in slaughterhouses. It’s the sole reason I stopped eating grocery-store meat. If you do decide to go the vegetarian route, my only advice is to do your research WAY ahead of time. The first year, I went cold turkey on meat (pardon the pun), all high and mighty about my ethical choices, and I was sick for almost an entire year for the lack of vitamins and minerals I didn’t even know about. Make sure you get your nutrients from other sources, especially while your newest girl is still baking, and you’ll be fine.
Of course, the slackmistress makes a good point, too. Switching to more animal-friendly meats (if there is such a thing) is WAY more expensive, but decidedly less taxing on the animal and the world, and it’s tastier to boot.
I know the feeling well about being being a disturbed earthling. That’s good it shows you care. I don’t watch the news a lot because I find our world at times is very sad, Godless and disturbing and I get quite upset. I think I am going to look into buying meat from a private farmer who treats their animals better and feeds them less antibiotics. I’ve given up on becoming a vegetarian.
I read Fast Food nation (it’s nothing like the movie by the way) and that changed me. I don’t eat meat anymore at all. I’ve also learned a lot about sustainability from my job as I work on “green” buildings. So I tend to get a lot of information from my work place and co-workers. Here is a video you might be interested in about consumerism and how the choices we make with our wallet influence the world. http://www.storyofstuff.com and I have loads of web site links for shopping green and treading as lightly as possible. Email me if you’re interested.
Hey Kin,
I personally think we do what we can, they best we can and can’t obsess or fret about the world too much. Or else, as you said, we will have to join a wholistic, self-sufficiant commune! What fun is that?
God gave us animals to eat. Do they really recognize suffering the same way we do? In the wild they aren’t treated much better, so does it really matter? I’m not saying I necessarily believe this but I am asking. I can’t afford to eat primarily organic food or animal friendly meat from regular grocery stores. What options are there then. Maybe I need to look into it too.
Thanks for the thought provoking post. I don’t think I’m going to watch the documentary though!
Sorry, I’m not sure why I thought I was on another blog site – you are not ‘Kin’ as I saluted you! Hey ‘Amanda’, instead.
I don’t think I could stomach watching it, but it is exactly why we prefer to buy our meat from local farmers. I like to envision the cows frolicking and kicking up their heels before we, um, eat them. :)
I don’t think we could go meatless, which is why we (Like the slackmistress) choose to vote with our wallets.
It is also why we have grown a huge garden each year – so as to have tasty fruits and veggies, free from chemicals :)
It’s good to do what we can to help the earth and the environment. But really mankind has shown that we need a higher power to really fix the problems that we see in the earth. It’s only something that God can do. Jeremiah 10:23
I’ll have to watch it. Every documentary makes me realize how shitty our world really is. We watched some clips on the PETA website and couldn’t believe what we were watching (so so graphic…so so disturbing).
p.s. have you watched “Gone Baby Gone”? also a conversation starter…
I’m not a big meat fan as it is, but I think watching a documentary like that would turn me off of meat forever! I happened to see one clip on the news recently, that showed cows being mistreated and I was absolutely disgusted. Some people are so sick!
Amanda,
I hope you know that they only show the worst of the worst on those types of things. I agree that you could still eat meat but eat ethically raised meat.
I don’t think I could watch that documentary. I wholeheartedly agree with you about the whole factory farming thing. I don’t think I will ever be a vegetarian but I do believe in supporting ethical farming. Last fall we bought a cow that was a kid’s 4h project. They raise the cow and take very good care of it for 4h and then sell it at the end of the year for meat. Another option is SPCA certified meat. I believe that the name of one local farm is Vale Farms. The SPCA certification process makes sure that the animals are being raised healthfully and ethically.
I’d encourage you to explore vegetarianism! Or take it to the next level and go vegan! I’ve been a vegetarian for 15 years & my husband has been one for about a year. Many people seem to think that they “couldn’t” go without meat but I think a lot of that is a reflection of our meat-based culture rather than what our bodies really need. Neither of us has ever felt sick after going without meat. With a little planning, eating a vegetarian diet isn’t that hard, nor does it have to be expensive…plus it is healthy & good for the environment. Don’t be discouraged by some of the other posts if it is something you are interested in. It’s worth it to check it out.
I buy meat from farmers where I know the animals are well fed, healthy and not full of antibiotics and hormones.
We are going to majorly ‘overhaul’ our home soon. I am frightened by the HUGE amounts of chemicals we are bombarded with everyday.
Great post.
MK
I’ve just recently read a book called “Serve God,Save the Planet” andi felt exactly what you are feeling. I can agree with a whole bunch of previous commenters on their various points. It hurts to be aware, I think, but I’m so glad that I can work to make a difference.
i just read the 100 mile diet. it was inspiring and yet completely irrelevant to a mother with 2 small children. i’m trying though. local food is better. we’ve also cut meat down to 4 times a week. and the meat we do buy now is organic free range. i’ve been cooking with lentils, beans and eggs instead. there’s no way we are going to go veg but every bit helps.
I hear ya. There are no easy answers. I just try to make little changes on a regular basis.
Sometimes ignorance really is bliss because it seems SO HARD when you know all of this stuff. Something about being a parent pulls this into sharp focus while at the same time making me feel a bit helpless in the enormity of it all. You do what you can to make things a little better.
We try to buy most of our produce from the local farmers market so we are buying from the grower. In the summers we belong to a CSA to support local growers. In the grocery store we buy organic whenever we can, especially when it comes to meat. We’ve also increased our use of eggs and beans a ton since M was born.
Glad you posted on this topic. We have thought about vegetarianism, but, hubby, kids and I are all meat heads and I don’t see us every not eating meat. But, whenever possible, we buy organic, free range and antibiotic free meat. We also have a veggie garden and try to grow most of what we need for the summer.
What is also great, is that the city we live in has the regular and organic recycling program, which in many cases they sort of make you do. If you don’t put out your organic recycling, sometimes the garbage man won’t take your regular garbage! Not that we have ever experienced that, but my parents have.
Joyce, don’t be fooled by PETA. I thought they were all for animal rights, but apparently, it’s just minks, seals, pigs, horses, etc., not companion animals. Believe it or not, they KILL companion animals in the thousands under the guise of adoption because they don’t want to spend the money required to feed and care for them. Now that’s SICK!
Here is a link to some interesting articles regarding PETA that opened my eyes.
http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm
You can only do your best. The only thing that ticks me off is when people forget that someone’s livelihood is based on making that cow into steaks. As bad as it sounds, kids are being put through college because someone slaughters a cow. Without it, families go bankrupt. And you can’t just say get another job. That being said, we are told to be stewards of this world, not overlords.
[…] I watched the disturbing documentary, Earthlings, a few months back, it was the first step in a journey I didn’t know I was about to take. […]
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