KFC+-+Kaged+for+Consumption

Luke Becconsall Student number: n8872872 Tutor Judith Meiklejohn



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 * The Artefact (Video) **

The video explicitly shows the horror and excruciating conditions that Australian broiler chickens are forced through on a daily basis. The producer of the powerful and informative video is “makeitpossible” an organisation which strives to abolish the dreadful conditions in the factory farms. In these commercial slaughter sheds, there is almost no sign of animal rights, respectful living conditions or fair treatment for these thousands of innocent chickens. Just briefly, every year in Australia alone, over half a billion chickens are raised and slaughtered for meat. Only around 15% of chickens are raised ‘free range’ in Australia (and about half of that is also ‘organic’). (Voiceless, 2013). Humans build strong relationships with their pets and go to extreme lengths to ensure their animal lives a fulfilling and healthy life, so why don't the millions of suffering chickens in these degrading sheds deserve the same treatment and respect? in my opinion h umans and chickens are both life forms, both living organisms and equally deserve to live a satisfying life free of disease and poor treatment.


 * Public Health Issue/s **

Factory farming presents a number of critical public health issues due to its unnatural processes and dangerous lifestyle conditions of the animals and the farms itself. In terms of the effects of factory induced farming on the environment ** "Animal agriculture generates approximately 18 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, including about 37 percent of global methane emissions and 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions, which have over 20 and 300 times the global warming power of carbon dioxide, respectively (Humane Society International, 2013). ** This is a dangerous public health issue as farming is directly affecting the health of humans and the environments atmosphere, severely contributing to the fragile climate change issue. The transportation of animals, running of factory farms and deforestation of land to build and maintain the farms creates more global greenhouse gas emissions than all of the motor vehicles and public transport worldwide. The result of factory farming chickens and other agricultural animals results in other detrimental issues that affect human health such as:


 * Water pollution,
 * Epidemics (disease),
 * Air pollution
 * Use of pesticides
 * Increased rates of obesity (over-consumption of meat)

If nothing changes and factory farms continue to operate in the same way, then money is then going to be lost to support hospitals due to increases in chronic and infectious diseases. Obesity rates will continue to dramatically increase due to an over production and consumption of meat and the health of the environments atmosphere will deteriorate further affecting human health. Therefore it is critical that action is taken to abolish the public health issue and improve the farms which are currently deteriorating the environment and the health of the population.


 * Literature Review **

The impact that factory farming has on the environment, the people and animals is simply deteriorating and disgraceful. Put simply animals are legally classified as property under the Australian law and are rather treated like commodities on a production line than life forms with the right to live a fulfilling and lengthy life (Voiceless, 2013). Behind the closed doors of the industrial sheds are more than 500 million suffering chickens destined to be slaughtered from the day they were born into the world. Baby chickens suffer from chronic health problems such as heart disease, lameness, thirst, starvation and being trampled inside sheds that are packed with over 40,000 birds (MakeitPossible, 2013). Each year 20 million birds die each year from their debilitating health conditions. Factory farmed sheds lack any form of hygiene and are not cleaned during the duration of the chicken’s lives.

Interestingly enough when chickens are in their natural surroundings, not confined to factory farms, chickens form complex social hierarchies, also known as "pecking orders," and every chicken knows his or her place on the social ladder, remembering the faces and ranks of more than 100 other birds (PETA, 2013). But as the demand for chicken meat intensifies and the worlds population increases, the future prospects for these chickens looks certain to be confined to a dim and overfilled shed riddled with disease. It appears that there is no ethical or moral decision making behind the process that these lifeless chickens endure to become nothing but a meal for our own human consumption.

With over 1 billion people malnourished in the world it seems logical to stop the overfeeding of animals for the production of meat and use some of the worlds plant protein to feed the malnourished and starving in this unjust world where the divide between the rich and poor seems to be ever expanding. (Voiceless, 2013) stated that its research revealed that 83% of Australians support or strongly support laws to ensure food animals have access to the outdoors, companions, natural materials and enough space to carry out their instinctive behaviour, however we know that that close to all the chickens sold to the superior supermarkets in Australia are in fact factory farmed. The major distributing companies mislead their customers by using brands such as "cage free" and "free range" chickens when really up to 90% of the chickens that are sold to the public are slaughtered in a factory farm. Statistics reveal that chickens in factory farms are supplied with high doses of antibiotics with the primary purpose to fast rack the weight gaining process as chickens are said to grow up to 3 times the rate at which they are naturally meant to grow. (People for Ethical Meat Treatment, 2013)

With KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) being one of the major fast food producers worldwide, the practices and conditions in which they prepare and slaughter their chickens is significantly below average and inhumane. Roughly 1 billion chickens are killed each year for the fattening KFC buckets that are sold worldwide. Tens of thousands of innocent chickens are crammed into excrement filled sheds that stink of ammonia fumes and suffer in rotting conditions (KentuckyFriedCruelty, 2013). A chicken’s natural life span is between 5 - 10 years, however it is now taking a short and suffering 45 days to prepare and slaughter chickens for human meat consumption. Chickens used in KFC meals suffer from debilitating conditions and don't see the outdoors until their last day where they are inhumanly stuffed into crates and sent to be slaughtered. The bottom line is, society is blinded to the suffering conditions that broiler chickens endure, as there is no ethical or moral care for the millions of chickens killed every year. The following short videos aim to expose the suffering conditions that broiler chickens endure in KFC's factory farms. The author "PETA" successfully illustrates the underlying message of broiler chicken cruelty through combining a chicken and human to illustrate that debilitating conditions that occur in factory farms would never be legal to happen to humans, therefore chickens don't deserve the treatment either.

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 * Social and Cultural Analysis **

Australia is one of the world's largest and most efficient producers of commercial livestock and a leader in the export of red meat and livestock. The total value of Australia's off-farm beef and sheep meat industry is A$16 billion (MLA, 2011). Therefore it is difficult to just completely abolish factory farming without taking into careful consideration the thousands of Australians that are employed and contribute to the long-term successful meat industry. Humans are carnivores and throughout history, humans have always been at the top of the food chain, however there has been a dramatic spike in the demand for chicken meat in the past 20 years (see graph). “While meat consumption has increased greatly, the number of meat producers has significantly reduced. We now eat ten times more chicken than in 1960, but the number of chicken farms in Australia has plummeted and two corporations now produce the majority of our poultry” (MLA, 2011). Factory farming is unethical and immoral, however it will take a long time and a significant amount of money to educate the world to minimise meat consumption. As mentioned before humans build strong relationships with domesticated animals and go to great lengths to look after the wellbeing of their beloved pet, however when it comes to non-human animals we are oblivious to the torture and cruelty that happens behind closed doors of the factory farm sheds. (Franklin, 1999) said “Social systems inﬂuence and shape the lives of nonhuman animals as well as humans. This is especially true of domesticated animals. These animals serve important and diverse roles in society; however, some are given more attention than others. While pet animals receive much human attention and care, most people overlook or ignore the role of nonhuman animals in food production. Chickens in particular construct social hierarchies and are essential in dairy production. They are intelligent animals that deserve to live to their full potential. Franklin also stated “We agree with other scholars who recognise that much can be learned about society through investigating relationships with nonhuman animals and that in many ways these animals experience social and environmental change along with humans

Humans and chickens are both biological living organisms with a purpose to contribute to this world. Therefore both deserve to live a life full of potential and should be free of torture and disease. Changing the conditions in these factory farms needs to start locally, in order to have a national and potentially global effect. I believe that we can minimise our meat consumption with the right structures in place and plentiful amounts of awareness about the dangers of factory farming.


 * Analysis of the Artefact **

After thorough research and investigation into the treatment of broiler chicken both in Australia and worldwide, I am admittedly shocked and overly frustrated at the lack of care and attention that agriculture and in particular broiler chickens are receiving. The inhumane processes and the disgusting environments that chickens of factory farms are subjected to has influenced my personal decision to minimise eating factory farmed chicken. Chickens are highly intelligent animals that have every right as humans to live a fulfilling and healthy life free from disease, however if factory farms continue in the same manner, millions of more chickens will be subjected to a short life of pain and suffering, only to be slaughtered for human consumption. I stand alongside 83% of the Australian population in believing that broiler chickens deserve to live in healthy conditions, disease free and have enough space to expose their instinctive behaviour, but factory farms need to change dramatically in order for this freedom to occur.

A major contributing factor to the overpopulation of these factory farms is the demand for meat. Worldwide there is a severe food shortage where over 1 billion people are suffering from malnourishment. To the contrary, in countries such as America, UK and Australia there is an increasing demand for meat as the population grows. Therefore these developed countries need to be exposed to the debilitating conditions that these chickens endure and educated about the determinants of factory farming on human health and the environment. Below is a table illustrating the steady increase in the demand and production of meat:

The graph illustrates that there is an increasing demand and consumption of chicken from 1962 to 2010. Factory farms are nothing but industrial sheds that are economical and efficient in slaughtering millions of chickens a year for human consumption. It has been mentioned that the treatment of these broiler chickens is unethical and needs to be stopped. Education and awareness needs to be the first steps in preventing this unethical and poor treatment to continue to happen. Through minimising the amount of meat the nation consumes, the demand for meat will decrease and hopefully through the correct steps of precaution, we can eliminate factory farm conditions, but still have a thriving and successful Australian meat industry. Comment 1 http://healthcultureandsociety2013.wikispaces.com/share/view/64703206

Comment 2 http://healthcultureandsociety2013.wikispaces.com/share/view/64710878

Bibliography

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// Mla (2013). //Industry overview | Meat & Livestock Australia//. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.mla.com.au/Cattle-sheep-and-goat-industries/Industry-overview [Accessed: 2 Nov 2013].//

// PETA (2013). //The Chicken Industry//. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/chicken-industry.aspx [Accessed: 2 Nov 2013].//

// PETA (2013). //Other Health Risks of the Meat Industry//. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-Used-For-Food/Other-Health-Risks-of-the-Meat-Industry.aspx [Accessed: 2 Nov 2013].//

// Voiceless (2013). //Meat Chickens//. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.voiceless.org.au/the-issues/meat-chickens [Accessed: 2 Nov 2013].// // Weida, W. (2004). Considering the Rationales for Factory Farming. //Environmental Health Impacts of CAFOs: Anticipating Hazards - Searching for Solutions//, 1 (1), pp. 1-4.