Super Happy Unfun Thread!

[RedskinRat]

Breaking America’s meat monopoly

In the past 60 years, the United States has fallen deeply in love with meat. What was once a treat is now expected at every meal to the point where we can get it in a tube. The demand for meat has increased dramatically, and the largest meat companies have found ways to fulfill that demand cheaply. It’s not a surprise that the path to the six cent Chicken McNugget was built at the expense of not only the chickens themselves, but farmers and smaller meat plants. The quest for cheap meat has resulted in a ruthless market that has left 85 percent of supply in the hands of five companies.

This oligopoly has driven the meat industry to do some very impressive and terrifying things. We raise nine billion animals for the slaughter a year. To do that responsibly in a way that respects the animal, the consumer, and the farmer just isn’t possible. The old clip from Sesame Street is still the image many Americans think of when they imagine a farm. It has an understated beauty, a pastoral ideal that romanticizes the American farmer. But the meat industry lost respect for the farmer a long time ago.

I'm a vegetarian and I consider meat-eaters to be selfish and short-sighted.

Discuss.