
How the Meat Industry Thinks About Non-Meat-Eaters - sergeant3
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/08/meat-industry-meatingplace/538077/?single_page=true
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grecy
> _" they're in the business because they see what they’re doing as something
> more than just making meat products. They see themselves as feeding people,
> feeding the world, feeding their community"_

Ahhh, except there are multiple states in the US where it's illegal to film
inside an industrial meat-farm. Even if the video shows illegal acts, the
person taking the video will be charged, not the doers of the crime.

When it's come to that, I think it's pretty obvious the people involved know
they are not "feeding their community" like it gives them warm fuzzies or
something.

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newscracker
> "But fundamentally, one thing about people in the meat industry is that
> they’re not going to be in the meat industry by accident. It’s a self-
> selecting group. People who work in the meat industry, whether it is on the
> line or in the small butcher shop, or on the ranches, or in the big
> processing plants with all kinds of robots and things, they're in the
> business because they see what they’re doing as something more than just
> making meat products. They see themselves as feeding people, feeding the
> world, feeding their community."

This is highly presumptuous of him to imagine all the people in the industry
as a self-selecting group, and ignores how the poorer classes usually get into
it, because they aren't able to get anything else, for long hours of highly
repetitive work in an environment that poses various kinds of risks, physical
and emotional.

> "And the other thing is that people in the industry know the science.
> They’re in the barns with the birds, or with the animals, and they know how
> the birds wind up on the shackles, on the production line. They’ve got
> degrees in this, and they know what the meat science is, and they know what
> antibiotics are for, and why they’re used. So a lot of people in the
> industry wonder why they have to defend themselves when people who do not
> know as much as they do about the science of meat processing are telling
> them they’re wrong."

Again, generalization does not help. Claiming that they're all experts and
know what they're doing, as if to allude that it isn't harmful in different
ways (it affects all other people due to the relatively higher environmental
destruction too).

> "Have you ever seen the eyelashes on a cow? I mean, they’re just adorable.
> Big eyes, and these long lashes—how can you do anything to harm this little
> creature? I get it. Even people who really love meat don’t want to talk
> about how it gets to their plate."

This ending is probably the most honest part of the entire interview. And this
attitude applies to many other ills that humans create for humankind.

~~~
tyrw
*Her

~~~
newscracker
Thanks for pointing that out. My comment is past the edit window now, and so I
can't change it. I'm embarrassed to have used the masculine pronoun without
paying attention because I wouldn't want to assume or make incorrect
inferences. I skimmed through the article and didn't pay as much attention to
the introduction and names of the interviewer and interviewee. Lesson learned!
Thanks again!

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osrec
I thought the article would be about how the meat industry feels about
vegetarians. Instead, it was a general overview of the meat industry, it's
declining employment, and a description of of the working environment... I
would be interested to know what meat producers really think of non-meat
eaters. Do they look down on them? I'm a vegetarian and take an "each to their
own" approach to other people's eating habits. Yet, every so often, I'm made
to feel a bit awkward at social gatherings when the host has prepared mostly
non veg food, or if my friends have picked a mostly non veg restaurant. They
take it almost as an insult that I won't eat the food, or sometimes I get the
impression they think I'm just trying to be difficult!

~~~
zzalpha
Eh, that's normal human behaviour.

I've found that if you're engaging in a behaviour that has a positive value
judgement associated with it (dieting or eating healthier, exercise, etc), if
people find out and do not share that behaviour, it often puts them on the
defensive (they're not doing it, too, therefore they are somehow lacking).

This is exacerbated by the fact that a vocal subset of people engaging in
those behaviours talk about it in order to either virtue signal or brag to
others those who don't.

After that it's all about protecting the ego. The vegetarian is seen as an
inconvenience. The dieter is teased for not eating desert with everyone else.
The people who don't go to the gym start explaining all the reasons why they
hate gyms and the people in them.

And I'm hardly immune. One of my friends is extremely fit and I caught myself
teasing him about it as a consequence of my own envy and insecurities. I hope
I've since stopped but it's a pretty basic human behaviour as far as I can
tell.

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emptybits
The article shares little-to-nothing about its headline claim.

~~~
482794793792894
Yeah, it's an interview with the editor of a magazine that's targeted at the
higher-ups in the meat industry. They talk about the state of the meat
industry, risks, developments etc.

The only statement in regards to non-meat-eaters is that the "anti-meat-folks"
are better at marketing than the meat industry, because the meat industry
never really had to do advertising.

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dpflan
_NB_ : This is part of a new series on trade publications that the author is
ramping up:

"The conversation that follows is the first installment of “Tricks of the
Trade,” a series of interviews with the editors of trade publications, and it
has been edited for length and clarity."

It could be a good series to follow depending upon the publications.

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interfixus
I would like to assume, but can only hope, that this kind of article in a not
too distant future will be read by all with the same kind of shuddering
disgust which it already provokes in some of us - a horrifying reminder of an
asshole era. "They killed on a hyper-industrial scale, without mercy, without
refinement, but with high tech, and they were proud of it".

~~~
newscracker
I've recommended this one before - the mockumentary "Carnage: Swallowing the
past" [1] is a good take on such a future. Those in the UK can watch it on
BBC. [2]

[1]:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6667360/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6667360/)

[2]:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sh6zg](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sh6zg)

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enugu
Wish the interview talked about how the meat industry can make the slaughter
process as pain free as possible. We are talking about billions of animals,
and any improvement in the process could reduce a lot of suffering.

~~~
1123581321
It's a big topic and a business line for manufacturers. CO2 stunning, for
example: [http://m.meatpoultry.com/Writers/Other-Contributors/CAS-
syst...](http://m.meatpoultry.com/Writers/Other-Contributors/CAS-system.aspx)

~~~
enugu
That was a good article. I've come across Temple Grandin before. She seems to
have a positive opinion of CAS with the important proviso that induction is
done right.

If such efforts at reducing suffering become the industry standard, with the
standards backed by legislation requiring pain free death, it would be a very,
very big deal.

Even for humans, many people fear the pain associated with death more than the
death itself.

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qubex
Ad-blocker hostile.

~~~
detaro
works fine here with uBlock.

