Farmed Out

I am appalled by Wes Jackson’s assertion that avoiding McDonald’s makes no difference in the quest for sustainability [“Farmed Out,” interview by Fred Bahnson, October 2010].

Fast-food corporations obtain the flesh they serve from factory farms where animals are tortured and workers are nearly indentured to commit soul-deadening acts under dangerous conditions. Factory farms destroy local and global ecosystems. Most of the grain grown in the U.S. goes to feed animals that humans will slaughter. Thus, the human hankering for flesh is very much implicated in the problem of erosion that Jackson is trying to combat.

In order to participate in slaughter even from the safety of our seats in a restaurant or car, humans must objectify other sentient beings, pretending that a cow or a chicken is merely a “resource” that can be inconsequentially mined for its parts. In other words, we treat it as if it were less alive than we are. That’s close to Jackson’s description of how our culture views the ecosphere.

Jackson justifies eating at McDonald’s by suggesting that small choices don’t matter if we’re all participating in the larger system. But doesn’t every little bit count as we are on our way to solving systemic problems? Why not find a restaurant you can walk away from without blood on your hands? It might help, and it certainly won’t harm — as long as we don’t think that’s all we have to do.