Why the factory farming of animals (and animal lab experimentation) is an obscenity

 https://tamerlaine.org/factory-farming-in-pictures

1.  Family farms, shrinking in number, still outnumber factory or "industrial" farms by far.  BUT, the total number of animals on factory farms is greater than the total on family farms.  A single factory dairy farm can have anywhere from 700 to 25,000 milk cows...on ONE "farm".  Dairy cattle!  These cows are never on pasture.  They live in giant warehouses and/or crowded feedlots.  There are about 9.4 million milk cows in the USA; the majority of them are never grazing on pasture their entire lives.  [NOTE:  in China & a few other countries, there are factory dairy farms with up to 100,000 milk cows on each one.]

2.  Hogs on factory farms live their entire lives indoors, most of them in steel bar crates, not roaming around in a big indoor arena.  Sows live in gestating crates barely longer and taller than the animal...their entire lives (which usually is only a few years).  [See the photo at the link above.  Not counting dogs, hogs are the most intelligent of all farm animals.  In general, they can do simple math better than a 3-yr-old human.  Like all livestock, they are social creatures, & have emotions.]

3.  Poultry on factory farms are never outdoors anymore.  They're raised in crowded crates in giant sheds, several packed into each crate, & crates stacked upon each other.

4.  Lab animals--- I can't even go there--- many of the experiments are cruel beyond belief, done in universities with full Government funding.  Mice, cats, dogs, primates, and a few other mammals are subjected to inordinate suffering.  Sentient beings treated like nonliving objects.  There are a few corporations which do nothing but raise "crops" of these creatures, thousands of future victims for sale.  It seems many humans pretend all animals except us are too dumb to be aware of their own suffering.  I guess such thinking soothes their consciences.

In most of these factory operations, cleaning of animal wastes is done automatically, which means it's incomplete.  Because of the massive numbers of animals, infected/sick ones often get overlooked and die without medical treatment.

The philosopher, Kant, once wrote (paraphrased):  we can judge the character of people by their treatment of animals.

Factory farming (especially of animals) is an obscenity.  It's a gross insult to civil society, sentient beings, and Nature.  We are capable of far better behavior.  Studies have shown that "small farms can feed the world".  Google it.  [You'll find arguments and studies supporting both sides of the question.  The disagreement largely revolves around the definition of the term, "small farm".]

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Quote: "...whether God-given, biologically endowed, or just taken for granted."

This masterfully written essay clearly shows aggregate humanity is on a most destructive path re nonhuman animals.  [ https://greattransition.org/gti-forum/solidarity-animals-crist ]  Despite that bad news, the author inspires to the Nth degree.  At least read the first three paragraphs.  Judith Crist is a wordsmith of the highest order.  Reading her article is well worth the time.

Crist goes on to unravel/unpack the paradox of our love of animals existing simultaneously with the structural violence we impose upon them.  Then, too, she brilliantly recounts the history and heritage of John Rodman's "Differential

Imperative" - how we, in order to soothe our conscience, assign inordinate value to the difference between us and other animals.  [I say "other animals" because we're part of the biological Animal Kingdom; obviously, we aren't plants or microorganisms:]

Next, Crist relays how indigenous societies have (in general) treated nonhuman animals with respect, compassion, and the dignity they deserve while using them for human purposes.  A much needed lesson for us all.

Finally, she explains how mistreatment and misuse of animals has spilled over to include human-to-human interaction, and our degradation of the ecosphere.  Someday we'll all learn:  "everything is connected to everything else" ~ Barry Commoner, 1971 (another masterful wordsmith).

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care

A.I. is Ecology Blind, and the Coming Cell Phone "Winter"

 The A.I. portion of the title above is a line from the short video below by the ecologist, Dr. Nate Hagens---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY29LjWYHIo&list=WL&index=69&t=17s

Ecology essentially is the study of ecosystems.  The complexity of ecosystems is greater than that of anything ever constructed by humans.  Anything.

To address the many aspects of ecosystems requires the sentient minds of humans.  The so-called Artificial Intelligence of today does not possess sentience, and according to some industry experts, probably won't for another sixty to seventy years, if ever.

"Sentience" means a living being (or a machine) is aware of itself as a separate being.  The A.I. industry isn't anywhere near having a machine with that characteristic.  The problems with quantum computing seem to suggest A.I. never will be near it.

The physicist, Sabine Hossenfelder, explains the problems here:

[Some will appreciate her dry humor, some won't.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLVtCYHVO8

I imagine "A.I." has many useful applications, but such does not necessarily mean it has any use at all in, for example, navigating society through the Climate Crisis, or the Sixth Mass Extinction, or the Soil Crisis, or the Groundwater Aquifer Problem, or the Food Crisis, etc.  Listen to the living ecologists, rather than the sometimes faulty algorithms of High Tech.

Dr. Hossenfelder talks about the coming "Quantum Winter" (due to lack of financial investment).  Within ten years, it's probable there also will be a general High Tech "Winter".  Such will not be due to a lack of investment, but rather a shortage of required minerals and materials.  [See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0pt3ioQuNc&list=WL&index=70&t=11s  previously posted on this venue as "Minerals and Materials Blindness".  It's a must-see.]

Instead of the next whiz-bang iPhone, most of those minerals (which are becoming more difficult and costly to extract from the geosphere) will be used for something much more important - electricity.  Then perhaps, finally, people will realize:  no, I don't really need a new cell phone every year or two; but I do need electricity.  [It takes 500 pounds of raw materials to make ONE cell phone.  Over one billion are manufactured every year.]  As they usually do, priorities will shift.

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care

Companies Claim to Have Gizmos With Artificial Intelligence

IBM (and a few other companies) claim to have created AI.  That's unadulterated hogwash.  AI does not presently exist...unless it has been created secretly (probably by the Fed Gov't, perhaps DARPA) and is known only to a select few.  To be an AI creation, a gizmo would have to be aware of itself as a separate being.  In other words, it would have to be a sentient being.  A machine that can memorize data is not an AI being...not even close.

Those false claims by IBM and others are illustrations or examples of how Orwellian our society has become.  Cognitive dissonance often stresses us because of the way in which words are used today.  Newspeak, oldspeak, doublethink, crimestop, thoughtcrime, facecrime, etc.---or similar ideas--- seem to be fast becoming accepted concepts.  Lies, propaganda, and with Trump, gaslighting, all have become commonplace with many politicians and many people in Big Biz.

Whether purposely or inadvertently, the State-Military-Corporate Complex makes use of Orwellian methods to manipulate the public.  Those methods, plus Bread & Circuses, enable the Plutocrats to confuse and distract those of us on Main Street.  For our own good, we need to recognize such things and whenever possible, shun the perpetrators.  We are many; they are few.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well