Do No Harm

My Concern for Our Earth and Our ‘Karma’

Do no harm as an injunction against making products or testing that is harmful to humans as well as the environment or animals. I had to focus on animals, farming and excessive use of chemicals. I know some believe that animals don’t have the same rights as humans because they aren’t human and act on instinct, and do not fit into ‘rational freedom of self-determination’. When I asked my terrier, Isabella, she took issue with this. So, I will try to approach the subject and examine it from an ethical standpoint. I do have an issue with using animals to test products, too many chemicals in farming, inhumane treatment of farm animal and stock of any kind by meat producers, and have also thought that we should have a statue to honor the lowly chicken (and not a Kentucky Fried Chicken‰ bucket), whom has given more than anyone to this country in the form of meat, feathers, beaks (to make collagen!) eggs and chicken soup. I believe that we could act humanely on behalf of our furred and feathered friends, and do honor to all life.

I am unhappy about PETA, though. An article about a law citing that animals aren’t persons is reiterated at a website called AnimalRights.net about litigation on behalf of cows. It refers to the commercial about happy cows and that PETA litigated because they say cows aren’t happy on farms. It obviously lost and that is an issue I have with PETA. They seem to be such a radical protector of animals that they come off as anti-people. I believe in some of their themes but cannot promote it as what as the greatest good for everyone. http://www.animalrights.net/archives/year/2005/000246.html

My focus is that humane treatment of animals is good for everyone, including the animals, people and our environment. I believe in a more holist approach, and the Big Picture. We don’t have to raise animals in conditions that limit and hurt them so severely. I believe that they can be even killed humanely, with less fear and suffering. My conscience says that I should be vegetarian, but I’m not. When I put myself to the moral test on this subject I am inconsistent, and feel guilty. I am nowhere near a farm, but care about the American Farmer for themselves and as part of our heritage that is being edged out due to greed. I also care about what happens to the animals on mega-farms, that are raised in tiny cages so that all the animals can be contained, and more the profit in a smaller space. I feel that it is demoralizing and insidiously corrupting to everyone. We all put up with it and the most consumers that are perpetuating this are nowhere near the starting point of a hamburger. I can’t even get it through all the theories about how this happened but did it start out that way? If everyone had the opportunity to sit together in the slaughterhouses and observe directly, the day in and day out violent ending of so much life, would it be allowed to continue?

So, you would wonder why I am still eating meat? Because when I see it, it is in a little package, processed and does not look anything like where it comes from. I think that we are the same with products we come in contact with everyday. In the short run, we are getting what we want, to get the effect we want, distanced from the initial pain of it all. In the long run, we are seeing that improper feeding of animals, excessive use of chemicals of all kinds, has resulted in mad cow and other diseases passed on to humans. This is altering us in unknown ways, and pollution of our food system with chemicals and more chemicals. In our rampant and wholesale production for more products, the faster and the cheaper is the better, we have polluted our world with toxic bi-products that will be with us, well, forever. It was a non-issue when everyone raised their own animals or traded, the same with produce, nothing but natural ingredients. There were no far-reaching ethical problems, as people raised what they needed or traded for what they needed, and most had a direct relationship with the animals, and hopefully cared about them, and used the bi-product to enrich the land. Now, the world is small and the problem, bigger. We have outgrown the small farmer. Everything is really more out of control than we realize. The largest chemical company in the United States now also controls 25% of the food product. Guess who the chemical company is? Our old friend Dow, (I haven't begun to say enough about them, the producers of Agent Orange, I'll put all that in another post) who has their hand in, well, I guess everything on the planet now. Dow has caused so much pain and has caused so much damage it is incalculable and it isn’t over yet.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14907115&;BRD=1918&;PAG=740&;dept_id=226959&;rfi=6

Our farmers and farmers worldwide are committing suicide (Many American farmers by ‘accident’ so that their families can get the insurance, this was spoken of by a crisis worker at a center that was created because so many farmers are depressed that a hotline specifically for farmers was founded. I was watching a PBS story on the subject of global farming, I found the article but the American reference was omitted.) in unprecedented numbers because they are losing farms that have been in the family for generations. Unfortunately, farmers in India are using the farming chemicals bought from the United States to commit suicide. The world cannot compete with us, we appear greedy and self-serving and no wonder many in the world are so angry with us. We appear to think globally but it seems to be for new markets and proliferating certain company’s growth, rather than caring for the world. As Americans we are great givers. Does the exploitation of our own and the world’s resources pull us all together? No. I believe that is immoral. Does it serve the most people with the greatest good? No. All the wealth is still in the hands of a relatively small amount of people. The huge chemical companies I am writing about may give to certain causes for charitable reasons. That giving does not outweigh the harm done. Especially if they are paying off those they have harmed for whatever reason, and wouldn’t have been harmed if not for industry accidents, overflows, fires, chemical dumping and exposures. Human workers are not an ends but a means to produce more and more stuff. Companies are called out legally over and over, but overcome, not because they are moral, but because of deep pockets. Animals are way down the line somewhere. I believe what we do to the least of us, reflects who we are. http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/07/seeds_of_suicid.html
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/shiva121499.html

We cannot ignore the treatment of animals because ultimately we are all in this together, man and beast. I found an excellent site teaching us about just what I am writing about. Joyce D’Silva, CEO of Compassion in World Farming Trust explained that ethical farming can be achieved and she uses what she calls the Ethical Matrix. I am grateful that there is a worldwide movement for better management of land and animals. http://www.animalsentience.com/features/ethical_matrix.htm

An example of farming gone wild is hog farming is North Carolina. Starting in 1980, hog farms in”… N.C. range between 10,000 and 25,000. In 1991, US Senator Wendell Murphy co-sponsors legislation that exempts farms from zoning laws. 1992, Smithfield Foods, Inc. opened the world’s largest meat processing plant in Bladen, NC. 1994, hog population triples to 10 million, compared to 5% increase nationally.” 1995, NC passes a bill requiring new swine swills to be 1500 ft. from the community at large. 1996, president Clinton signs Freedom to Farm Act trying to cut farm subsidies. “1997, the Clean Water Responsibility Act tries to put a moratorium on new and expanding hog farms in NC. 1999, hurricane Floyd hits NC, flooding the hog waste lagoons and contaminated water supply. 2003, Gov. Easley gets a 4-year extension of the hog moratorium.” http://www.duke.edu/web/mms190/hogfarming/index.html NC is still 2nd in the nation for hog production and continues to be a major polluter. To quote the same site, “…During the past decade, the Tar Heel State has become the unwitting site of a giant explosion. North Carolina's hog population has grown faster than any state in the nation, swelling from 2.6 million to 10 million hogs since 1987. That's a 285% increase in hogs, compared to only a 14% increase in people. North Carolina's hogs produce a mind-boggling amount of waste: 19 million tons of feces and urine a year, or over 50,000 tons every single day, that's more waste in one year than the entire human population of Charlotte, North Carolina produces in 58 years!” This risk was taken (unchecked growth, pollution and poor planning) and it was unacceptable but few of us know about it, so it continues. I guess it matters to those within 1500 feet. http://www.duke.edu/web/mms190/hogfarming/environmental.html

In closing, the Dow Chemical Company, many farmers who are operating as a large corporation (edging out the small and middle size farms) and the hog farmers in North Carolina, any meat producers that continue to abuse live animals unnecessarily, are violating the ‘Do No Harm’ injunction are ethically and morally ‘challenged’ to say the least. Laws may be passed but lots of money and a different spin (the tobacco industry for instance) will allow us to continue to slowly kill ourselves. How ‘products are produced’ do matter to us, but if we don’t see it, it appears less harmful. So, lets keep it real. We do not eat dogs, cats or our pet parakeet because they are part of the American family and it would be abhorrent to us. We really know they are sentient, as any person with a pet will tell you. We wouldn’t even let anyone hit our dog, or kick our cat without putting up a fight. Not so with animals on farms far, far way away from us, so they aren’t really real. What we don’t know is hurting us. The problem is overwhelming, has many tentacles, more at stake than we realize. How do we lasso a chemical tornado? Our environment is changed forever and I fear, there is no going back.