“Most thought provoking in our thought provoking time is that we are still not thinking” (Martin Heidegger, What is Called Thinking [1954], p.3)
But doesn’t the saying go innocence is bliss? What is dangerous about not thinking is that we fail to be responsive to that which calls us to think. By ignoring increasingly prominent issues such as global warming, industrialized agriculture, and foreign oil we are ignoring our future. Through the use of different mediums our experience in this class broadened our horizons and caused us to think. The amount of information we have gathered in this class by reading articles and Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, has allowed us to gather information and come to our own conclusions about what we want to put into our bodies. One of Pollan’s main points is the relationship between how we treat the animals that we eat. On the physiological level, we over feed the animals with corn when their bodies are not adapted to a diet of solely corn. Therefore, it is has effects on their biological nature as well as on the environment (excessive amounts of waste). As a result, it has an effect on our personal health because we subconsciously are eating a gigantic amount of corn daily. This is not a good thing because we have not evolved to eat only corn. That is a face value issue. But there are deeper, moral issues. For example, the treatment of animals within industrialized agriculture. In class we watched a short clip called the “Meatrix”. In which it shows the horrors of industrial agriculture through the eyes of a free-range pig. Animals are cramped into incredibly tight spaces where they stand in their own feces since it can’t be cleaned fast enough. This leads to a festering of diseases and bacteria; therefore, animals are pumped with antibiotics so that they can remain alive. In certain cases, like that of chickens, their beaks are broken off so that they can’t fight. The animals are used as machines, food producers. There is not an ounce of humanity in the way they are treated. In fact, in a lot of cases we are devaluing specific species by disallowing them to express their own species nature. We are taking things for granted and caught up in the efficiency of mass production. However, we are at risk of losing natural species. Lastly, if we are so easily able to devalue the life of animals, are we not also in peril of devaluing human life as well? Where is the line drawn?