The Inhumanity of It All

The Issue of Over-Population has become Critical.

Planet Earth and its inhabitants are suffering from diverse ills caused singularly and exclusively by man himself. These already existing ills, however, will continue to proliferate until finally everything completely deteriorates. Source

I read a post today from a friend on Facebook that featured a PETA article on organic egg production.  It only took a momentary glimpse of one of the pictures for me to be reminded of what I already knew about the unspeakably, inhumane treatment of animals in the farming industry.  I was made quite aware of this kind of wickedness nearly a decade ago when I read "Slaughterhouse" by Eisnitz.  Eisnitz worked under cover in slaughterhouses to document their conditions. I was horrified to discover that sometimes, the butchering process begins even before the death of some animals.  The book further detailed how some pigs were often, literally, frozen stuck to the sides of trucks while in transit to slaughter during the winters in North Dakota. I became vegan for some years after reading the book and also became a PETA member. I later realized that animal protein is a necessary component of the human diet, despite what PETA would have us to believe.  I also discovered that the often used meat substitute, soy, that PETA promotes is not the panacea that it's made out to be.  In fact, soy can become a health hazard when consumed in quantities above twenty grams per week. Whereas I agree with PETA's efforts to educate people about and prevent animal cruelty, I don't always agree with their militant approach.  Unfortunately, a militant approach is often the only means of educating some people, especially when it comes down to the bottom line of profit.

People use any number of excuses to justify the mal-treatment of farm animals.  Some say we have Dominion over the Earth and animals and can act as we please. Others claim that animal's pain is limited and that they lack the same kinds of emotions as humans.  Both of these points can easily be proved wrong.  Animals of prey even appear to follow rules of compassion in their kills. But, even putting the animal abuse issue aside, the overwhelming fact is that no matter what, we cannot sustain these criminal farming practices and expect to survive as a species. We cannot continue to bite the hand that feeds us.  We already see some of the repercussions of factory farming with world-wide epidemics, food contamination and diseases such as Mad Cow.  We are experiencing the toxic effects of farm run-off, soil depletion and erosion. The shear numbers of livestock are adding significant levels of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere simply as a byproduct of living. These facts alone indicate that there is something inherently wrong. And, the underlying cause of all these issues is human overpopulation. Human population levels are beyond rational means of management. There are simply too many people in the world to feed sustainably. There is one positive prospect upon us which scientists are working on, the growing of meat as opposed to farming livestock.  However, this technology may take many years to perfect. Nonetheless, until population growth is contained and the overall human population levels are decreased, these crimes against the flora and fauna will increase to even more unspeakable levels. We must regain our humanity.  There is no other choice in this matter. Either we make the conscious effort to address this issue or Mother Nature will address this issue for us.  You can read more about the effects of human overpopulation and what we must do to ensure our survival as a species here.