(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Moral Evil and the U.S. Meat Industry

 

            In Jeffrey Burton Russell's Prince of Darkness, moral evil is described as "when an intelligent being knowingly and deliberately inflicts suffering upon another sentient being." Throughout the semester, the plays we've read have applied this concept to a more literal sense of evil. With characters such as Magus in David Mamet's Faust, Jack in David Aguirre-Sacasa's Say You Love Satan, and Lucy in Qui Nguyen and Robert Parker's A Beginner's Guide To Deicide whose objectives are to collect a character's soul, kill pure innocent youth to preserve their own, and destroy humanity to ultimately kill God himself, it is easy to label them as evil. But in life it is not as simple to point out evil as it is in theatre. Sometimes our "Satan" is more abstract. In my essay I am choosing to discuss the United States agribusiness, specifically the meat industry, and how it is difficult to classify it as evil because of its benefits to society.
             We live in a world in which meat, a product which requires the death of living beings, is extremely accessible ; with the price of beef costs 30% less than it did in 1970 ("Modern Meat"). On the surface this seems great; cheaper food that is easily accessible is good for our society; however, there are many problems with how the U.S. is currently attaining inexpensive meat. The United States meat industry has become extremely centralized, as a few giant corporations have slowly made their way to total dominance of the business. This new system of industrialized farming may have led to low-cost meat but it has also introduced many new risks. The United States agroindustry focuses solely on maximizing production and profit. For the sake of humans, animals, and the environment, the U.S. should remove itself from industrialized farming and revert to a more modest, diverse style of farming.
             One of the key elements in the radical change of the United States meat industry was the influence of corn, which in turn has created severe problems for the people, animals, and the environment.


Essays Related to Moral Evil and the U.S. Meat Industry

1. The U.S. Meat Industry

The New U.S. Meat Industry The new U.S. meat industry of food retailers, meat processors, and farms and ranches coalesce into fewer and larger businesses are emerging. ... With this new structure the number of meat processing firms has dwindled rapidly, boosting the market share held by the industry's largest players while the number of slaughter plants have plunged. Food demand and technology are the two forces of the meat industry's transformation to a more compact structure. ... Meat is the single largest expenditure item in the consumer grocery cart, and livestock represents...

  • Word Count: 284
  • Approx Pages: 1

2. The American Meat Industry

America's meat production has always been a large industry met with demands from those both inside and outside of the United States, which is why it is important that we ensure its' stability and success. ... Roosevelt worked alongside "muckracking" journalists, which was a first for a president, to inform the public of the corruption in the meat packing industry. ... The meat industry today is surprisingly and not surprisingly any better than it was in the early 1900's. After the Meat Inspection Act was passed, the industry was supposed to improve as a whole all arou...

  • Word Count: 950
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Meat Inspection Act

Meat Inspection Act of 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act on June 30, 1906. ... The Meat Inspection Act brought the following reforms to the processing of cattle, sheep, horses, swine and goats destined for human consumption: • All animals were required to pass an inspection by the U.S. ... Why did state governments begin to regulate the food industry in the 20th Century? ... If the regulations were in fact to help monopolize the industry and help the existing capitalists prices would have increased but historic data proves that that was not the case. ....

  • Word Count: 525
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Has Bibliography

4. My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki

The book documents how meat is perceived by people of different class, race and gender, as well as going behind the scenes of the American meat industry. ... " as well as the politics behind the U.S. and Japan's relationship over the import of American meat to Japan. ... " to "foster among Japanese housewives a proper understanding of the wholesomeness of U.S. meats" (Ozeki 10). BEEF-EX has, in the past, been exporting meat to Europe, but the import of U.S. meat was banned in 1989 because of the use of hormones injected into the animals. ... It also pushes forth the ...

  • Word Count: 1294
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Meat Packing

Rights and responsibilities in the meatpacking industry In the early twentieth century, at the height of the progressive movement, "Muckrakers" had uncovered many scandals and wrong doings in America, but none as big the scandals of Americas meatpacking industry. Rights and responsibilities were blatantly ignored by the industry in an attempt to turn out as much profit as possible. ... The following paper will discuss the many ways that rights and responsibilities were not being fulfilled by the meat packing industry. ... "# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for produc...

  • Word Count: 971
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Meat Contamination

The meat packing industry. ... Clearly the massive meat industry can't be trusted to regulate itself! ... The impact the FDA has had on the meat industry. ... Clearly the massive meat industry can't manage its own resources. ... Only recently has the meat industry been made to put expiration dates on their meat. ...

  • Word Count: 1309
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Meat is Murder

This disease basically destroys your brain so that within a few months you are completely a vegetable, yes it has been found in the U.S. Testing doesn't do much good considering the U.S.D.A. only tested 20,000 cows out of our millions in just the U.S. alone. Speaking of bacteria and disease, the U.S. ... As a matter of fact, breast milk of a meat-eating mother versus a non meat-eating mother is 35 times more likely to contaminate milk due to pesticides found in meat. ... This is because many cattle eaten in the U.S. have been fattened up and raised in former rainforest that was converted ...

  • Word Count: 937
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

8. USDA Research Paper

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln created the U.S. ... In 1884, Congress created the Bureau of Animal Industries the forerunner to the food safety and inspection service, which is located in the U.S. ... This lead to foreign markets putting restrictions on U.S. food markets. The 1890 Food Inspection Act came from these restrictions to prevent and detect bad meat imports as we as poor quality meat in the U.S. 1905, a book was published that had a major effect on the meat packaging industries. ... Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotions is another part of the U.S. ...

  • Word Count: 1715
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Progressive Era

Wilson, an anti-imperialist, had a moral approach to the nation's foreign affairs. ... In 1906, his administration passed two laws, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the Meat Inspection Act. ... Roosevelt's policy toward industry was his "Square Deal" policy. ... He attacked U.S. ... The amendment authorized the U.S. government to collect an income tax. ...

  • Word Count: 555
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School