Trigger warning: animal cruelty
It is every consumer’s right to know what they are buying and how it’s made. Accordingly, people must be made aware about where their meat, eggs, and dairy come from. These animal-based foods usually come from large-scale, factory farms.
Focusing on maximising their output and revenue, factory farms keep animals tethered or tightly packed in cages or enclosures, in extremely unhygienic conditions before they are transported to the slaughterhouse.
Consumers who source their eggs, meat, or dairy from organic, natural, or free-range farms, are often misled to believe that the animals there are treated with care and that their animal products are better. However, these are labels to make consumers feel better about using these products.
The animals on free range farms also endure cruelty and live miserable lives, until they are sent to the same slaughterhouses that factory farms do. And, the meat, eggs, and dairy products from these sources are as harmful as those from factory farms.
How Animals Are Killed For Food
Animals lead miserable lives on factory farms and undergo immense torture before they reach a consumer’s table. The animals are often given very little space to move. They can barely turn or lie down.
Cows, hens, chickens and pigs are separated from their young ones and kept in filthy, crowded cages and sheds. This makes the animals more susceptible to infections and diseases. The animals are mutilated and tortured through dehorning, castrating, or de-beaking without any pain relief medicines.
Farmed animals are also genetically modified and injected with hormones or fed antibiotics to grow bigger and produce more meat, milk or eggs than usual.
Some animals like chickens are made to grow unnaturally fast and their legs cannot support the weight. They are unable to reach food or water and often die of hunger or thirst.
Once the animals can no longer produce milk or eggs, they are loaded onto trucks and transported to meat markets or slaughterhouses over long distances through extreme weather, without any food or water.
While many animals don’t survive the journey, the remaining animals are then slaughtered by slitting their throats when they are still conscious.
How Animal Products Affect Consumers
Meat and dairy products are rich in saturated fat, cholesterol, hormones like estrogen, and pathogens. Besides, animals in factory farms are often riddled with infections and disease which can pass on to consumers of these animal products.
The animals are also given antibiotics, which can lead to antibiotic resistance in humans. Furthermore, many studies have shown that the long-term consumption of red meat and processed meat can increase the risk of mortality, obesity, hypertension, heart problems, colorectal cancer, and diabetes in consumers.
This is why more and more consumers are opting for better dietary choices and are switching to plant-based proteins.
The Power Of Consumers
Currently, there are several plant-based products like mock meat and plant-based dairy, which can easily replace animal-based proteins from the diet. Eating a wholesome plant-based diet can reduce the risk of chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.
Furthermore, going plant-based can also help reverse the environmental damage done by animal farming, and end animal cruelty.
With the number of options increasing, enthusiasts of plant-based eating will find it easier to replace them with animal products. It is important to remember that as a consumer, you have the right and power to choose better products for yourself.
This piece was originally published here.