The Production of Our Food

Based on Pollan’s “An Animal’s Place,” the infographic by Cook, and the introduction to Estabrook’s Tomatoland, we can trace the history and production of our food, including meats, chicken, and tomato. In Pollan’s article “An Animal’s Place,” he discusses the notions and values behind killing and eating animals. He proposes the question that whether animals should be treated the same as human beings and gets a conclusion that it is logical to eat meat. Pollan thinks that human beings should respect the process of eating meant and improve the production process of meat become more sustainable and healthy. In Christopher Cook’s infographic, he describes the production of chicken meat through the eyes of employees. He points out that nearly eight billion chickens will be sacrificed to people’s desire for cheap, versatile meals and slimmer hips. However, counterproductive effects will be happened in humans, such as disorders and severe injures. He lists the different jobs of employees, including “catchers” and “hangers,” “evisc,” “offal room attendants,” “inedibles” and “deboner.” These jobs may cause severe injuries to workers. Cook emphasizes, “Today 50 percent of the nation's 245,000 poultry workers are immigrants.” However, if they injure their hands, they will not enjoy the benefits of welfare and disability. They are “seeking a better life on the killing line.” Similarly, in Barry Eastbrook’s article, the introduction of Tomatoland, he also states the bad and unfair working conditions of workers. For instance, in Florida’s tomato’s industry, the harvest of tomatoes is based on the exploitation of workers and lowering the standards of production. Despites the lack of nutritional value and tastes of tomatoes, there may also have some carcinogens in tomatoes.

What I find the common in these three articles is that they all expose the exploitation of capitalism. From the production process of meats and tomatoes, I see capitalists exploit to workers in order to make more profits. From different methodologies, I find capitalists ignore the working conditions of workers and decrease their moral to maximize their profits. Moreover, Cook's viewpoint is similar to Pollan's piece because both of them discuss the ethics of eating meant and treat animals. Personally, I am a meat lover; however, I cannot endure to see cruelty to animals. I respect the natural chain and the law of the jungle. I also believe that animals should be treated equally as human beings. There is a famous ancient poetry named Wedding the Young Cereal, it describes the hard working of farmers. “Scorched under the midday sun weeds the young cereal a farmer wet; ticking into the soil beads of sweat. Who knows that in your plate, every grain costs a bead of sweat.” I really love this poetry because it can always remind me to respect famers and workers, as well as to respect the food we eat.