Mistreating farm animals hurts humans too

15 July 2022 – Several animal activist films have pointed out the physical and psychological harm factory farms and food processing plants have on the animals – standing in their own and others’ feces, contracting infections and diseases from the unsanitary conditions, bred with hormones so they can barely walk, mutilated to prevent aggressiveness, suffering brutality from frustrated farm workers and living shorter lifespans.

I liken the abuse to slavery. During the Middle Passage, sick slaves were also confined and sat in filth. I recall the court case of the Zong Massacre in 1781: the decision did not prosecute the ship owners who threw 132 slaves they couldn’t feed into the ocean so that insurance benefits would improve the ship owner’s bottom lines. Like the politicians of long ago, some in farm states today turn a blind eye to inhumane treatment that favors bottom lines: they represent the people in power who give them under the table benefits, not the helpless creatures who cannot speak for themselves.

I also think about the inhumane treatment Nazi doctors used to conduct experiments on Jewish women. I recall the lack of treatment southern doctors provided to black men who participated in the Tuskegee Project for syphilitics. So I can understand how animal activists refer to animals as individuals: my examples show the flip side – how humans were treated as animals.

My original problem with the animal activist view was my personal encounters with people who showered more affection on animals than humans. But then I read Nathan Runkle’s Mercy for Animals, which included humans in the numbers damaged by factory farms and animal processing.

Physically, farm workers suffered from infections and diseases from working in the unsanitary environment; customers became ill from polluted animal products. Personally, I can attest to how my athletic sons, who because they ate animals treated with hormones, initially suffered knee problems because their legs didn’t grow as fast as their leg bones. However, their vegetarian teammates did not suffer that way.

Psychologically, those working in animal processing plants suffered from nightmares about the animals’ screams they heard; undercover investigators sometimes never regained the compassion they had prior to assignments. In 1997 Gail Eisnitz’s Slaughterhouse, revealed that for many low paid farm workers, the only way to continue working was to desensitize their sense of empathy. In 2002 psychologist Rachel MacNair, who included factory farm and slaughterhouse workers as victims of perpetration-induced stress (PITS), cited substance abuse, panic paranoia, dissociation, anxiety and depression as possible symptoms.

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in 1906 and sociologists Amy Fitzgerald, Linda Kaloff and Thomas Dietz in 2009 suggested that the desensitized empathy of the workers led to higher rates of crime or unemployment in their nearby neighborhoods. In my personal experience, people who abuse animals tend to abuse other people either singly or as a group.

Did you realize that animal abuse hurts humans physically and psychologically?

What additional suggestions do you have for promoting the vegetarian lifestyle?

To attract eaters of animals to veganism, Runkle suggests creating palatable, reasonably-priced transitional foods – plant-based or induced from stem cells or DNA strands. He lists brands Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, Memphis Meats, Geltor, Perfect Day Foods, and Clara Foods as innovators in the 1990s; today brand Sweet Earth continues to provide both transitional and original plant-based meals. The problem for some of us is that none of the innovations are cheap, even before COVID; until prices decrease, we’ll have to improve our culinary skills and set aside time to make our own plant-based dishes.

Ever the optimist, Runkle believes that increased demand will render lower prices. Until that happens, he lists three options for becoming a vegetarian and eventually a vegan:

• Pick one day a week. When you become comfortable with that, add a second and so on until all your days are vegetarian.
• Eliminate first the most suffering of the animals you eat. When you become comfortable not eating that, add the second most suffering animal and so on until all your days are vegetarian.
• Stop eating animals all at once. Either include all animal products, including broths, eggs and dairy or drop them one at a time after you’ve gotten comfortable with no animals.

Whether you are eliminating one animal at a time or animals en masse, Runkle suggests strengthening your resolve with these four steps:

• Eat daily from the five food groups – whole grains, beans and lentils, vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts. Strive for the least processed members of each food group. For example, eat nuts more than nut butter; fruit more than fruit juice or fruit spread; raw vegetables more than cooked; cooked grains more than puffed.
• Remember that all the food groups provide protein. Seeds and nuts, beans and lentils are powerhouses of it; vegetables are ¼ to ½ protein; grains 12 percent; fruits 5 percent.
• Vary the colors of your fruits and vegetables. Each color indicates different nutrients that your body’s good microbes need.
• Assure adequate vitamins B12 and D. According to Lorian Willis, who taught nursing clinicals before she retired, vigorously swishing water inside your mouth first thing in the morning and then swallowing the water will provide the methylcobalamin form of B12 already built up in your body when you wake up. Otherwise, Thomas Campbell, who coauthored The China Study, suggests 100 micrograms for healthy adults and children; more for others per their doctor’s advice. Going outdoors daily to expose yourself to 5-30 minutes(20 for babies) of midday sunlight will provide D; otherwise, Campbell suggests a daily dose of 400 IU to babies; 600 IU for nuns; 800 IU for institutionalized seniors; 1000-2000 IU for adults in extremely cold climates– especially those obese or having dark skin.

What ways did you employ to become a vegetarian? Which suggestions didn’t work for you?

Once you become vegan, Runkle suggests that you decide how to to promote your lifestyle. Options include:

1. Setting an example and learning the facts to deal with myths about your lifestyle;
2. Starting up a plant-based company;
3. Funding startups for plant-based companies;
4. Donating to or volunteering with animal activist organizations;
5. Speaking to groups or on social media;
6. Contacting legislators– in person, by phone, email or petition;
7. Joining, reviving or starting vegetarian meetups that provide learning or eating.

Are you ready to take the next step?