Eating Animals

Water bellies! Soft beaks! Calf being raped! Pink lagoons of animal feces! Director Christopher Quinn’s putrid propaganda about American dietary habits certainly packs a punch – enough to turn my stomach and I haven’t eaten red meat in the last 40 years! Not since Georges Franju’s Blood of the Beasts shook the French slaughterhouses in 1949 has a film brought to light the horribly inhumane, oppressive conditions that lead to the short, miserable, cruel lives animals bred for food face – and even if only 5% of it were true, the process that’s been implemented to feed modern mankind since the 1970s needs to be corrected, which is a challenge when 30 states have passed laws preventing any photography in and around its slaughterhouses! Narrated by Natalie Portman, it’s pointed out that this procedure is NOT capitalism but closer to the Soviet styled politburo based on central planning, central ownership and centralized control, leaving the independent small farms unable to compete. As the American population burgeoned (and still is doing so), the need for cheap and convenient food meant we turned away from utility farming towards the factory farm, where steel, plastics, rotary wheels and the conveyor belt became an essential part of the food chain process leading to a snack bar visit! During the demonization, the film does include an excerpt from the TV game show What’s My Line? (which should be signified a national, historical, documented treasure for capturing so much of our mid-century pop culture and history) with Colonel Harlan Sanders!

[NR]