Mahatma Gandhi was right when he said, ‘There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed’. Has the West become gluttonous in its appetite for meat, factory farming being a consequence of this greed? Is it not unnatural and inhumane to cram livestock together to feed a population who eat far too much meat anyway?
Most of us abhor cruelty to animals, so why are we ostrich-like when it comes to factory farming where animals are denied their natural habitat; for example chicken, one of Britain’s favourite meats, live a short life intensively farmed in windowless sheds under bright light to encourage maximum activity, feeding and drinking for nearly 24 hours, not allowing rest: there is much evidence that sick birds are trampled to death in the crowded squalor and infections spread like wildfire, resulting in gross over-use of antibiotics. Ducks are farmed in the same way today and what is alarming about this practice is that they never see the light of day nor do they have access to water.
Speaking up
Philip Sampson pointed out in an article in EN a couple of years ago that the evangelicals of the past had a lot to say on the subject, so why are we not more outspoken? The over-consumption of meat is also a major contributing factor in the current environmental chaos and imbalance. Shouldn’t we, as Christians, be more responsible stewards of God’s creation? Aren’t we being selfish and greedy, aren’t we eating too much meat, couldn’t we all help to curb climate change if we ate less meat? I say selfish because we are betraying the world’s poor and starving. The International Food Policy Research Institute has calculated what the effect on the developing world would be if the industrial world reduced its meat consumption by half over a 15-year period. If we in the industrial world reduced our meat consumption by half, 33 million people would be saved from starvation, of whom 3.6 million would be children; and that is if we only reduced our consumption by half. The reason is that meat production in the West relies on the importation of grain and other foodstuffs from the developing world as animal feed. Wheat and soya are resources which could feed the poor, but are being fed to animals instead.
