Garrett Middleton

Humanities
5/16/20

The Cost of Eating Cheap

For as long as I can remember, my family have been avid believers in the idea of
shopping locally. Ranging from the smallest of necessities to the most vital tools in life,
we always choose to buy it from local sources if possible. This, of course, includes food.
Whether it’s fruits, vegetables, spices, desserts, or meat, local is always the way to go,
and for good reason. While there’s no guarantee that every local farm treats their
animals with respect and compassion, it’s also no secret that the very idea of local
farming places immense value on the experience and care of said animals. I have gone
to quite a few local farms in this town, such as James Ranch, and it’s always clear to
me that the owners care about giving their animals a good life before they become
sustenance. Animals are treated with care, given an adequate amount of space for their
sizes, and when the time eventually comes, killing is quick and painless. I remember
watching a few videos about local farms, and oftentimes the owners would tear up
whenever a specific animal they’ve known so long gets their turn on the chopping block.
The food is usually higher quality too! It’s a system that I am quite fond of, and whatever
gripes you may have with it, at least an agreement can be made that it is far preferable
to another, far more popular means of meat production.

The industrial food system has been in place for about 100 years now, and
continues to be the most dominant method of agriculture by a long shot. That’s not to
say it doesn’t have it’s benefits, either. Because of its massive scale, food is able to be
produced and shipped at a mass rate, ensuring that there is enough of it to go around to
every county in North America. However, with this efficiency comes a cost, and as you
can probably guess, that cost is the animals. It’s no secret that the industrial food
system treats animals with virtually no care, but the extent at which this sometimes
happens can be pretty disheartening. I have seen many videos of what goes on inside
slaughterhouses and the sort; one video I remember showing a couple workers
laughing to each other after failing to properly slit the throat of a pig, leaving it to slowly
die whilst carried along a suspended rail. While this may seem like a one-off event, it
actually turns out to happen quite frequently. Slaughterhouses kill about 1,100 pigs
every hour in addition to other animals, and many are still alive by the time they reach
the scalding tank, which removes hair and softens skin. Other videos I’ve seen show
dozens and dozens of male chicks on a conveyor belt leading straight into a grinder,
transported pigs being strapped down so tightly that parts of their intestines squeeze out
of one end of their body, or other failed executions resulting in slow deaths. The reason
the industrial system operates this way is because it prioritizes efficiency over anything
else, and it’s easy to understand why they would have to given it’s massive scale.
However, I do believe that it’s gone a little bit far when so many places blatantly do
exactly what the ​Humane Methods of Livestock ​Slaughter​ Act was put in place to
prevent. Not to mention, the food usually comes out worse, too.

Given all that information, the choice between local/sustainable and industrial
seems to be pretty obvious, so why do so many choose the arguably worse option?
Well, there is one massive factor that I have been deliberately avoiding until this very
moment, and it is: Money! One huge hurdle of buying local food is the extra cost it puts
between you and your meal, and that’s because of the smaller scale at which it’s
produced. Since industrial agriculture is of such a massive scale, there is significantly
more of the product than it’s local counterpart, causing its price to drop. Local farms are
forced to keep higher prices because of how much less of the product they have. It’s
because of this that many people are forced to stick to the industrial food system, for it’s
probably the only one they can actually afford. With the option only available to so many
people, less and less are going to even know about the alternative, which in my opinion
is an absolute tragedy. I am sure so many more people would switch over if they only
knew about and were given the chance to, but unless there are some serious changes
to the food an economical system that I’m not smart enough to come up with, we’ll just
continue down the same path. So I encourage anyone who reads this to look up some
of their local shops, farms, ranches, etc., analyze their business, prices, location, and
see if you’re in a position to make that change. Not everyone will be able to, but the
more, the better.