Why do we defile what gives life?

ABC News reported abuse, deemed necessary for the safety of farm workers. Cows, had tails cut off and horns burned off, without anesthetic. Destined to never see the outside of a barn, stand shoulder to shoulder in their own excrement, they might gore each other or gnaw tails hanging in their faces.

It was rationalized as practicing common animal husbandry. The animal quivered, fell to its knees, writhing, with its head tightly tied to a fence post. The owner thinks this is the time-honored tradition of animal husbandry, but such mutilation, and abuse, is far removed from the time when man and beast worked together for mutual benefit.

The industry and USDA, promote increased consumption with "Got Milk" and "Happy Cows" advertisements. Thus, continually pressed to increase production, abuse is rationalized to accomplish unrealistic quotas. Disconnected from these cruel scenes, consumers demand unrealistic abundance of cheap food and become partners in the abusive process.

Consumers encourage such production methodology by mindlessly believing images of "happy cows," appearing to live "happy lives," in green pastures, with white fences. Clever marketers, and the government, ignore public health, food content, or abusive processes, concentrating on making money and convincing consumers to consume, beyond their needs, at ever-increasing levels.

Americans are fatter, sicker, and more disconnected from processes that support their existence on earth, than necessary. In 1977 Wendell Berry wrote, "We lose our health and create profitable diseases and dependencies by failing to see the direct connections between living and eating, eating and working, working and loving."

What do we become when, for gluttony or greed, when we ignore our responsibility and defile that which gives us life?

Gail Talbot

Huntley