Food Ins. Essay

1. If animals should have certain rights, do you think those rights also apply to animals we raise for food, like chickens or pigs? Are there any rights that these farm animals should have? If so, what are they? One animal does not have greater importance over another, such as one human is not more life worthy than another. In this case to say certain animals should have rights whereas others should not is wrong. So yes a dog and a chicken should have rights and the same rights. The more difficult question is what exactly these rights should be. It is reasonable to try to prevent the most obvious cases of gratuitous suffering or torture of animals, but beyond that, non-human animals yes deserve to be given â€Å"rights†, but cannot simply be granted. The animals are treated like scum, kept in the dark with no concept of an outside world. Some rights they should be graced with are the right to the outdoors, and the right to roam. 2. How do you think farm animals should be treated? How do your ideas compare to what you saw in the film? It seems as if each industry in the film has the power to define cruelty. This is as ridiculous as giving a burglar the power to determine their punishment. Why these industries are not charged with aggravated cruelty to animals is something I cannot understand. Is it not the same to kick a dog or kick a chicken with the same anger? 3. Richard Lobb of the National Chicken Council says in the film, â€Å"In a way, we’re not producing chickens, we’re producing food. † What does this statement mean? Do you agree or disagree with it? How might this perspective affect the way that chickens are raised? 4. Many of us were surprised to learn that corn is so prevalent in our foods. Why do you think we were so surprised? Of course people are surprised to find out corn is so prevalent because the problem is it’s not even just in foods! When there is some kind of soy or corn in batteries, diapers, Motrin, charcoal, etc. you know there is a big problem. 5. Do you think the government and food producers have kept it a secret? Why don’t more people know this fact? This unfortunately is not something you can blame on the food producers; it’s simply the consumers fault for not looking at the ingredients on a food label. I believe people do not know the facts due to ignorance and laziness. Bottom line is if people realize what is in their food they will have to make a change which is usually not cost effective and more time consuming which these days is very undesirable. 6. Food labels actually do list corn-based ingredients, but not always in a recognizable way. How do you feel about ingredients being included in your diet without your knowledge? If you have a question about something, isn’t it common knowledge to ask about it. Google these days tells you everything you want to know and more so people can easily read the ingredients and research a word unknown to them.