Factory Farming...Death to all that is good.

Is the statement "factory farming is evil" dramatic? Is it over the line? Absurd? Absolutely not. Factory farming is synanomous with the torturous and inhumane deaths of millions of animals annually, thousands of acres of deforestation, and more green house gas emissions then are produced by all modes of transportation(including jet planes) combined per year. It means blatant abuse and misuse of animals, destruction of nature, and devestation to small farms all over this country. What's worse, what's terrifyingly worse, is that in every individual meat industry (cattle, pig, chicken, etc.) more than 50% of the industry production comes from about four companies. FOUR COMPANIES. These companies, based on their power and clout, are vertically integrated. Meaning they own the grazing land, the feed, the feed lots, barns, slaughterhouses, and transportation that delivers their "product." All this means, they are in an alarming amount of control, and can easily bypass laws (not that there are many) pertaining to healthy and humane conditions for animals, and meat quality.
Information on the mistreatment of animals is available in so many places. I would suggest the Peta2 website, the book Why Animals Matter by Erin E. Williams and Margo DeMello, as well as any article pertaining to the subject published by The New York Times. You can fucking Google it, and find more information then you'd ever need. So, I'm not going to tell you about the inhumanity of animal cruelty on factory farms, because there are many sources more versed and reliable than me. What I will say is that there are so many more reasons than animal rights activism to become vegan. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), the organization we trust to ensure meat grade quality, organic food quality, and free-range meat reliability is totally fucked. They are sleeping with every major meat producing industry, the dairy industry and god knows who the fuck else. Probably Satan, most likely Hitler, and absolutely George Bush.
The USDA temporarily banned the use of "downed" cattle for human consumption because of the last break out of mad cow disease in the US. For those of you who don't know, downed cattle (pictured above) are cattle that fall so ill in the horrific conditions of transportation to slaughter that they can no longer walk, are either so exhausted, ill, or infected that they can only lie on the ground. Up until the last break out of mad cow in this country, farmers could drag those animals to slaughter, and you could buy pieces of them in your super market labeled "Grade A USDA meat." The USDA does not care about you, or me, or cattle, or anything, other than money, and probably some closeted, disgusting sexual tendencies. Until the USDA can be held accountable for putting the health of the nation at risk, being vegan is a proactive stance against the kind of ridiculous "governance" they think they have.
I know this is disturbing, physically and mentally jarring, and all around upsetting, but it is the truth. The line "Don't ruin my dinner" (in reference to having to hear about animal mistreatment) doesn't cut it here. Your dinner has already been ruined, because the people we as a nation trust to control healthy conditions of consumable meat products is a sham. I really hope that changes. But maybe the only way to do it is to shut down factory farming by voting with our dollars, and being a vegan nation, at least for a while.