P7: Read Pollan’s “An Animal’s Place,” the introduction to
Estabrook’s Tomatoland, and the infographic by
Cook. In what ways do these pieces trace the history and
production of our food? How do they compare in their methodologies and
findings?
Estabrook
begins his novel with a funny story of how he was avoiding flying tomatoes off
a truck. and then about "The Tomato That Would Not Die." This set up
explaining the production of the tomatoes and how they are bred them to be
tough and are picked when they are green. The red color comes with the addition
of ethylene gas. He talks about how Peru is home of the first tomatoes and how
counterintuitive it is to grow tomatoes in Florida where the environment is
unsuitable for tomato growth, and businesses are struggling. Moreover, the
working conditions are terrible with exposure to chemicals and cheap salaries.
Michael
Pollan starts off with a story of "cognitive dissonance" as he reads
Singer's "Animal Liberation" whilst eating steak. He details how the
group has become more inclusive of other demographics and that animal
liberation is the next logical step. This was the beginning of a series of
ethical arguments that Singer provide and how our treatment of animals could be
seen as "speciesist." The overarching idea is that animals and humans
share an aversion to feeling pain, and the history of food production has shown
that there is unnecessary pain being perpetuated onto these animals because our
dietary needs. Consider the CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) example
where chickens are force-molted, and pigs experience numbing psychological pain
even at the cost of their own tails being bitten off. Salatin's Polyface farm
provides a complication to traditional slaughtering because he lets the animals
live as they would, and try to act as humanely as possible to the animals.
Cook's
infographic introduces a shocking statistic about the history of poultry food.
The amount of "birds per minute" is not based on how quickly workers
can safely do their job but on how quickly the carcasses are examined. So what
does that mean about prioritizing the working conditions and the treatment of
the chickens? The workers are surrounded in chemicals, much like the tomato
pickers in Estabrook's novel. Ammonia, fecal matters, uric acid, salmonella and
other bacteria are abundant in these companies where the chickens are hung
feet-up so that the heads may be "easily lopped off." The infographic
gets more bleak as many companies automate the processing of the chickens
whereas others opt for workers to do it manually, increasing the risk of carpal
tunnel and tendonitis because of lack of other jobs available. In
labor-intensive processes like deboning, workers frequently cut themselves and
yet research on studies "have been on hold." The production of food
is now mostly manned by immigrants, who have no choice, and welfare recipients
in areas where programs require them to work or lose benefits.
Estabrook
and Cook are the most similar in their methodologies because they focus on the
ethical tragedies that occur in food production in both agricultural and meat
businesses. Pollan takes a more philosophical approach as he basically argues
with Singer in his work, as he so put it "being on the defensive."
Pollan and Cook both acknowledge the lack of regard to animal treatment as a
sacrifice to human needs. Most importantly, all three sources discuss how these
acts continue to thrive in society. For Estabrook, the prevailing problem was
the regulation which interfere and even threaten farmers that plant their own tomatoes.
For Pollan, it was "cognitive dissonance" -- this awareness that in
order to survive, humans must eat, even though it is at the cost of animal
lives. And for Cook, it was the fact desperation breeds cheap labor. As long as
there are resources that these companies can take advantage of, like a surplus
of immigrant workers, boycotting the cruel working conditions will not faze
them as workers can be easily replaced.
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