● [THEIR STUDENTS MUST BE SUPER SMART.] The Brown Daily Herald has noticed some interesting data about grades at Brown University. Last year, for the first time, a majority of all grades given to undergraduates were A’s. In 2007-8, 50.6 percent of grades were A’s. A decade earlier, the percentage was 42.5 percent.Animal Rights Video Shows Turkey Abuse in W.Va.:
● [SEW?] The British design world is aghast at the quality of fashion and design graduates from universities and art colleges, The Guardian reported. The key problem: They can’t sew.
● A video released by an animal rights group on Tuesday claims to show horrific abuse of turkeys at West Virginia farms operated by major global poultry grower Aviagen Inc.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the video, which includes workers stomping on turkeys' heads and twisting their necks to kill them, was shot by an undercover investigator who worked on the companies' farms for more than two months…. (New York Times)
9 comments:
Thanks for the turkey story, Chunk. Always, when these abuses are revealed (which, of course, are typical and routine and massive), the industry will blame and fire just a few workers (themselves often pretty powerless) and swear that it's an anomaly. No one should be fooled by this tactic. Dozens of undercover films shot by many other groups (groups often more respected and moderate than PETA) and individuals always show flagrant abuse of animals in factory farms as just a routine business practice.
And: turkeys, being birds, are completely exempted from the Human Slaughter Act and other federal animal welfare regulations. The legal definition of "animal" most often specifically excludes birds. Clever, eh?
I hope your readers will keep this in mind next week. I'm a major Tofurkey fan, myself. It always seems a strange custom to celebrate one's good fortune by inflicting pain and slaughter on beings who aren't so lucky.
It's the stories like this that remind me that I should become a vegetarian; eating other animals is a nasty thing (if I think about it). Honestly, I can't even tell if my arguments against vegetarianism are rational anymore, I cite things like practicality, cost, health, etc... getting in the way, but am I kidding myself?
Commonly I argue it is natural to eat animals as I'm definitely one to look at nature, and do as it does. But this is poor code to live by usually (e.g. I am not one to piss on my stuff to claim it). So with regards to defending against vegetarianism this is usually unconvincing if I think about it too much.
I guess I still remain unconvinced for now... I don't know if it is stubbornness or what though, but I am mindful of my position.
I appreciate your honesty and self-reflection, Bohrstein.
As you note, arguments appealing to the "natural" don't go anywhere in ethics, since much (to us) appalling and unfortunate behavior in the wild is natural, including gang-rape (ducks), bullying (dogs, some nonhuman primates), violence and killing (again, some nonhuman primates), cannibalism of newborns (many species under certain conditions), and so on.
The other response is that most of nature is devoid of moral agency: the ability to reflect on and deliberately choose what one does. Ironically, this is often the trait appealed to to argue that humans are superior to other animals and thus may exploit them however we may choose (an invalid argument even if the factual premise is true).
As for the cost and practicality arguments, these have some force when it comes to people in remote parts of the world, and also those stuck in inner-city neighborhoods with nothing but fast-food outlets and 7-11 stores nearby. But for most reading this blog, they don't do anything. A basic, Asian-style vegetarian diet (vegetables, legumes, rice and other grains, fruit) is cheaper than a meat-based diet, and vastly more healthful. Even the U.S. government, not a bastion of radicalism, makes clear in its nutritional guidelines that the less animal fat in one's diet, the better off one is likely to remain in avoiding cancer, atherosclerosis, and heart disease, the three biggest killers of North Americans.
I think the best arguments for moral vegetarianism simply appeal to basic convictions that most of us share in other contexts: it's wrong to inflict severe suffering (or pay others to do so) on innocent beings for products that we do not need, but simply desire. That's pretty uncontroversial when stated baldly----but harder to accept when the consequences make us uncomfortable.
Please keep thinking about it!
I prefer the Zen and Now UnTurkey to the Tofurkey but this year will be making acorn squash stuffed with mushroom and pecan stuffing, a roasted vegetable deep dish pie and potatoes with green chiles.
Yummmm! You might have to start posting recipes along with poetry, RG.
Anther favorite of mine: seventeen-bean soup loaded up with vegetables of multiple kinds until it's big-time thick and hearty.
Rebel Girl -
Could you post your recipe for the stuffed acorn squash? (or at least the stuffing ingredients). My husband loves squash and pecans, so I'd love to try this.
Hell, I'd like the recipe for the deep-dish vegetable pie, myself, if it isn't too much trouble. (I know it's sort of a pain to write out recipes.)
Another request for the pie here!
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