Right now I am two weeks away from finishing my main summer course: The Semester in Dialogue, topic: Sustainable Food Systems. I have been very sad and frustrated lately engaging so frequently with what is happening to animals. We have to write a weekly reflection so last week I wrote this vindictive and annotated rap. Enjoy.
With what feeds us
There is no feedback loop
Hundred of boys and girls are raised on slop:
Oliver, J. (2010). Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food [TED Talk]. TED. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html
and stoop down
Five people drowned in poop:
Foer, J. (2009). Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 177
Pig soup, 100,000 feet wide
or more
and what’s in store?
Not just stool in a pool but stillborns and drool
And blood and hair and piss is in there
But please, don’t mention that to me
I don’t want to know where the body I eat could be from
Or where it goes
Nobody knows
how many million lives are taken
And for what?
Our health is at stake and
Fulkerson, L [dir.]. (2011). Forks Over Knives [Film]. USA: Monica Beach Media.
For steak we make such sacrifice
Workers injured and jarred on the line
Foer, J. (2009). Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 132
That never stops
As the slaughterers never stop
To think
Or if they do
they keep on buying in
To stories about protein and taurine
Making them strong
So many sing along
With the sad songs of
Charbroiled or tin foiled
Milk is spoiled
Cows are coiled and branded
Castrated after birth
Balls chopped off
Tails ripped, horns merc-i-o-s-ly
Ronald McDonald you can come at me
Please leave the kids alone
They have a right to know
The taste of fresh
A burger is not the best
Way to educate a generation
About food
To teach them
Respect, now don’t be rude
Eat your dinner
Sing a song for the winners
But don’t mourn the deaths of
Animals in the depths
Of the factory that they call a farm
They facility where they shit and are born
Baby chicks ground up at birth
Mercy for animals. (2009). Undercover Investigation at Hy-Line Hatchery [Video Footage]. Retrieved via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JJ–faib7to
The cost off eggs might bankrupt your purse
If we value life like we value what we like
If it “tastes good” that doesn’t make it right
And I vow to stop it with all my might
These babies being taken on their first night
Michael Ableman, Personal communication, May 11, 2012.
Boys in the grinder
Mercy for animals. (2009). Undercover Investigation at Hy-Line Hatchery [Video Footage]. Retrieved via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JJ–faib7to
Girls stay behind and lay eggs for a few years
Then we’ll chop of your head and eat you with a beer
After we bleed you out
Boil you down
Pump you with water, salt and
Foer, J. (2009). Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 131
Ship you round
Wish I knew how it started
Wish I knew why
The whole thing
Makes me cry
I pray at night
For the souls who can’t fight
For those who “don’t know what they do”
Luke 23:34, New American Standard Bible, 1995
In that respect Jesus knew a thing or two
Father give us forgiveness
Mother please don’t grieve for us
Escape! It may be the only way
For us to leave this place
And have our space
To roam free
The animals and me
If we escape through a fence or a rope in a tree
The Peace Abby. (2011). Emily the Sacred Cow. Massachusetts: The Peace Abby. Retrieved from: http://www.peaceabbey.org/tour-guide/emily-the-cow/
We’ll go perhaps to a kinder place
No guarantee but at least we can be
How, and Who we want to
Bees, give us your honey from your hive
It can infect our babies but keeps adults alive
Lewis, N. (2010). Why Honey is Not Vegan. Vegetus. Retrieved from: http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm
Right?
Spoonful every night
It’s digested and spit up fifty times
Lewis, N. (2010). Why Honey is Not Vegan. Vegetus. Retrieved from: http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm
And to make your home we’ll ship you a pound at a time
Mark Winston, personal communication, June 1, 2012.
Mr.honey bee
Who came from overseas
Lewis, N. (2010). Why Honey is Not Vegan. Vegetus. Retrieved from: http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm
All for that tasty treat for me
So I ask
who are the animals?
The ones we force to be cannibals
Eating ground flesh and bone from other mammals
PETA. (2010). Drowning, Cannibalization, and Other Reasons Not to Dissect
. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Retrieved from: http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2010/10/11/drowning-cannibalization-and-other-reasons-not-to-dissect.aspx
born in crates
Sherrow, M. (2011). Pigs suffer while Smithfield takes its time. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Retrieved from: http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2011/12/09/pigs-suffer-while-smithfield-takes-its-sweet-time.aspx
beat with a cane
bred together
as we chose
and they lose
their ability to
copulate
Foer, J. (2009). Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 113
the turkeys I mean
but not the humans consuming
meet your meat
instead choose something sweet
that doesn’t cost a life
with a slip or a knife
or a baby
or give diabetes to some old lady
Fulkerson, L [dir.]. (2011). Forks Over Knives [Film]. USA: Monica Beach Media.
make a choice
use your voice
cause the producers tell me
it’s supply and demand
Mark Robbins, personal communication, May 31, 2012.
but i’m not asking
so I want to know what can
I do
other than refuse
and ask you
to join me to
to stop this war
this holocaust
by beasts
who want something to wear or eat
don’t be one more
make a choice at the store
please don’t tell me
that you’re an omnivore
and that this is the only way
‘cause its sick
with a twist
and if you’d look at the pics
PETA. (2012). Graphic. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Retrieved from: http://www.peta.org/tv/videos/graphic/default.aspx
I bet you’d agree
that this policy
is better left in the past
if we want the Earth to last
before it’s filled up with smoke
and greenhouse gas
passed
by cows and pigs by hundred thousands
millions
Foer, J. (2009). Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 43
each year
multiplied by artificial insemination dear
DeJarnette, M. and Nebel, R. (n.d.) A.I. Technique in Cattle. Select Reproductive Solutions. Retrieved from: http://www.selectsires.com/resources/fertilitydocs/ai_technique_cattle.pdf
if I put my hand up your rear
would you say that nature’s right is here?
and lets be clear
grass fed saves no steer
just open the door
and you think that’s enough for
a life given in exchange
hung upside down on a rack
deranged
kicking and screaming
after a bolt to the brain
Foer, J. (2009). Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 226
it might miss the skull and leave him in pain
but that’s okay
that’s just the way
we feed the world today
the price we pay
for some bacon and a burger, kay?
it’s easy, hey
fast food
for the mood
of the high school brood
come on dude
you can choose your food
pick your fate
make your name
live in honor and stop the pain.
