Nanotechnology joins GM in fucking up the food chain, while the RSPCA rubber-stamps animal cruelty for supermarkets
The chicken meme is riding high across the planet. On the same day I discovered, courtesy of a friend pointing me to this video, that the RSPCA fails miserably in its duty of care towards the nation’s animals by providing Freedom Food certification for chickens that are far from being free-range and healthy, I also found this story about how, in the US, nanotechnology is to be employed to deal with the nasty diseases battery and broiler hens carry due to their unsanitary and overcrowded living conditions.
So, rather than address the cause, and in so doing end the suffering of these poor birds, scientists go for even more technological solutions while ignoring the welfare issues. We first of all create the environments in which disease can grow rapidly, by acting inhumanely towards animals in employing intensive farming practices that are at war with nature, and then we seek to destroy the bugs rather than avoid them through adherence to time-honoured and sound animal husbandry principles. What’s more, nanotechnology is totally unproven in much the same way as genetic modification of plants and animals, and nobody is even prepared to pause and wonder just how the bugs will respond to nano-attacks. We could, of course, see something not dissimilar to the overuse of antibiotics—namely resistance and adaptation, with the added bonus of effects as yet unknown on the people who eat the nano-engineered chickens.
But then, the biggest testing ground in the world is the US, where most Americans already regularly consume genetically-modified food without ever knowing, because there aren’t the same requirements on labelling over there as in the EU. So next time someone tries to tell you GM food is perfectly safe, point to a fat Yankee who can’t even walk and rides from fast food outlet to hypermarket, and back again, on a little mobility scooter. Whatever else GM food might or might not be, it certainly doesn’t make you any slimmer…
As for the RSPCA, I will never give money to that charity again after the disgraceful revelations by an undercover reporter working for Channel 5 News. The only way anyone can be assured they are getting untainted eggs and meat from birds that have lived natural lives is to either keep their own hens, or make purchase enquiries of their friends, family, and neighbours who do. Not only will our household never again buy eggs from a supermarket—not that we do since getting the hens, but they may not produce many eggs in winter, and the possibility of purchases in that one season did exist until yesterday—but we already don’t buy anything containing battery eggs, and will be expanding our ban to all supermarket products containing even eggs peddled as coming from free-range hens. Because supermarkets are liars, too many though certainly not a majority of poultry farms are run by liars with scant regard for animal welfare, and because the RSPCA Freedom Food label means jack shit.
I know I’m a vegetarian, but I ask you meat-eaters out there: do you really want to eat birds that lived such hideous lives, in appalling conditions with terrible health issues and diseases? If you didn’t see before, do you see now that cheap chicken is a con? It’s not healthy for you or your family, let alone the chicken. Eat less chicken, spend more on it when you do. That’s the answer (well, that, or giving up meat entirely, of course).
What’s more, observe the RSPCA spokeswoman in the video clip when confronted with the horrific evidence. Her weasel words are unacceptable from anyone in a position from which they claim responsibility for maintaining animal welfare standards.
Right now, the RSPCA disgusts me. There are far better animal welfare charities to give your money to, organisations that match their words with their actions, and don’t ever rubber-stamp animal cruelty and neglect in collusion with supermarkets to hoodwink the British public. Continue to buy supermarket free range eggs if you really can’t find a local supplier in your own neighbourhood, but please, please, please—ask difficult questions until you get the answers and proof you need to buy without guilt and without inadvertently supporting the cruel bastards who torture, or condone the torture of, hens to make the eggs for your breakfast.
tags: animal cruelty, antibiotics, battery hens, broiler hens, chickens, free range, Freedom Food, GM food, lies, nanotechnology, public deception, RSPCA, supermarkets
5 comments on “Nanotechnology joins GM in fucking up the food chain, while the RSPCA rubber-stamps animal cruelty for supermarkets”
June 25th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I think you would really like My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki. A stunning debut novel (though some years old now and you have probably read it). Really shows what’s happening in the meat industry, most particularly in the US. X
June 25th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
From that article ~ ‘After all, if they can help replace antibiotics in chickens safely, then one day nanoparticles might just replace our antibiotics as well. It’s a long road paved with a lot more testing, but according to Tzeng, “poultry is just the platform we chose to test out. Humans are the final goal.” ‘
So not looking forward to that!!!
But back to the main point of your blog … I too am disgusted with the RSPCA. I don’t buy eggs that often, going for the more expensive free range when I do. However I think I’m going to get off my tush and explore the local farms, see which sell eggs, hoping that they are free range and not cooped up like battery hens
June 25th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Beautifu1 » Checking out local farms is a really great idea, and of course more and more people are keeping hens in their gardens and would probably have no issue with people asking if they’re willing to sell eggs. I know AmethystDragon and myself intend to sell eggs to our neighbourhood once we have sufficient production (though our current lot have only laid one egg between them in five days owing to the appalling June weather!). x
June 25th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
TLJ » I’ll have to look that one up! I loved ‘Junk Food Nation’ and my Ecologist subscription often has revelatory articles, indeed it always does, every issue. Eyes once opened are hard to close. x
June 26th, 2008 at 9:52 am
It is fiction, but heavily based on factual evidence of gm meat in America, and is horrifying in the results. X
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