I am seriously thinking of becoming a vegetarian!

I can't understand why some of you believe that animal cruelty is okay. That is in essense what you are saying when you point out that animals are not humans - so who cares etc. I eat meat, but still feel that an animal should be treated humanely during it's course of life. Yes, the animal will eventually die to be processed for human consumption. Why is it ridiculous to not want an animal (any of them - chickens, cows, pigs, etc.) to suffer while they are alive? I see that some people just act as if the abuse does not exist and continue to buy from places that buy from the abusers. And to be honest - it is difficult to determine what meats to buy etc. I can't seem to find much info on places that do treat animals humanely in which to purchase at the grocery store, etc.(I don't eat at KFC!). But for some of you to honestly feel that it doesn't matter sickens my stomach! You don't have to be a vegan or vegetarian to feel for these animals!! Have you ever looked at any of the information on any of it (if you don't like PETA - look on another site)?? I have looked and it is BAD! I have also been outside of a cow slaughterhouse and a pig slaughterhouse and heard the cries. IT IS AWFUL! Basically - I just wish that there was a way to make humane treatment of animals all the way INTO the slaughterhouse a normal everyday occurance. And I will never understand the people that claim it is just not that important or that do not care in the least bit. I guess those are the people that will never allow this to happen in any way, shape or form. These are prob also the people that buy dogs from "puppy farms". IT IS JUST SOOO SAD!

is there any other medium to use? Some other place to convine? I was searching the internet to see where the bright followers of Fast Food Nation may be and no matter how many distinct searches or times I clicked "back" after landing on "Foxsearchlight.com" I still landed here! Does that say anything people? All your comments and thoughts are so quaintfully reviewed and made null by the Republican, and not only that, but Bush-owned media powerhouse! Why are you even having such topic discussions on a site called "foxsearchlight"? Are the 2004 elections so easily forgotten? Like in the movie, (although with a little more forethought hopefully), what do we really do? Complain on a Big Brother site? Let's make a plan b here, and I'm no talking day after pill!

What is the difference? Raising beef for food or vegetables for food. We are still creating a life to be ended early. The same is done for wild animals, they are born only to be killed by a preditor, only the lucky one's make it to old age. As human's we don't want to consider ourselves as wild, but just the same we are preditor's. Only we have the ability to control our hunts. We have become too accustomed to larger and larger grocery stores and processed foods. We live in tight communities with small yards so we no longer grow our own food, be it vegetable or animal. Some of us human's have learned how to capitalize on this concept. The food production companies (both vegetable and animal) have started to creat products that are so genetically engineered that soon they hope we will only have the choice of purchasing their products. We as a whole really need to look closely at this. Either we continue down the path, unfortunately our predicessors and we all started, or we create smaller co-ops to help support the smaller ranchers and farmers. We need to start seed saving and then sharing those seeds before we are forced to purchase genetically engineered seeds. We as a nation need to stop purchasing growth hormoned food. What is injected into our feed animals will eventually end up in us. Which means injecting cattle with chemicals that will force them to grow larger faster will then be injested by humans which will in turn grow larger from the same chemicals.
It goes back to the old saying: You are what you eat!

One time at band camp we ate beef and we put it in our...

Is this movie just a 90 minute commercial for Ranch Foods Direct? He seems like he is using scare tactics to get you to buy his product.

In response to the "Debate is pointless" post:
I believe Socrates once said: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
We must question things or we become useless vegetables (no play on words intended). As a vegetarian, I agree with some of the thoughts posted but also find it hard to make up for lack of nutrients. I will not force others to choose the same lifestyle. This is my choice and I respect others who choose to eat factory meat. For people to deny the cruel treatment of animals is quite sad, however. I realize not all animals are abused by factory workers before their death, but I still must agree with others in saying death is death. Does it matter how we kill them? Are we still not creating a life for the sole purpose of intentionally killing that life. Wild animals are created and are able to live until they experience a natural death or become prey of another. With factory farms, however, we create these lives and never give them this chance at freedom. They are born on the farm, shipped from the farm, and slaughtered for our consumption. I see this as a disgusting and depressing concept. Once again, this is how I feel and I will not force these ideas on others. This being said, I'm not writing this to witness the backlash either. I'm stating my opinions on the issue and willing to hear others' personal beliefs on the same topic. Peace to all... And happy eating, whatever this consists of.

you don't just eat the food. you eat the quality of the energies that went into it to prepare it. for example: someone at a mcjob isn't gonna care if the burger hit the floor. then i get it with the burger just looking like no one cared in preparing it...an in turn you pay for it with your health.

Cows Cows Cows

Even if the they are treated "humanely" the cow is still going to die. If anything these companies are just giving you a reason to pay more money for this kind of meat. I don't think I will feel any better knowing that my hamburger meat was fed in a field full of yellow flowers. Even then who defines "humanely" we can't even treat each other in a humane fashion.

I have to watch this movie to take my own opinion,but I'm already a vegetarian.

Interesting, although my question is always how well do these alternative production methods compete with the big boys? Don't get me wrong, the focus should be on quality, both the quality of the product and the quality of life of the workers involved. But if speed isn't a priority, it certainly has an impact on production, and a smaller operation can't hope to produce as much and as cheaply as a huge factory. And because of that, how easily can these guys find their place in the retail and restoration industries? You can't blame Joe Regular for selecting the cheapest piece of meat in his grocery store, unless he makes a conscious decision of paying for the better method. I guess my point is that alternatives to corporate meat production go a long way, but the problem will only ever be solved when the entire chain, from cattle to costumer, will embrace those alternatives.

"Everyone and everything living dies. Live how you want, do what you want. Be a vegetarian, a meant eater, or an omnivore. Who gives a fuck?"

Apparently not you.

Why is everyone complaining about vegetarians? The whole issue ISN'T about vegetarianism, it's about animal cruelty. I eat meat, but that doesn't mean I automatically accept treating animals like they don't actually feel pain.

"does he or she consider a slaughterhouse death any more gruesome than the death imposed by a natural predator that would chase an animal and kill it with its teeth and claws?"

Yes. A predator kills out of need, and most of the time we can't prevent those deaths. We could prevent this form of unnecessary cruelty. No need to be a vegetarian, just change the way the animals are treated. If a cow lives a good life before dying, I won't have any problems with the industry that kills them, since, well, we still need to eat.

There are those whos' outlook can be summed by this quote:

"screw it everything is gonna go to hell in the end... why continue fighting this? "

Well, sure, why not just give up on work, and just rob for a living? After all, we are all gonna die and go to hell, why not just murder for fun, ignore the law, screw the conseguences. I wholehearteadly agree.

Also, PETA? FAKE. How do I know this? Well, some guy told me on the internet, so it MUST be true.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated!"
-- M. K. Gandhi, 1869-1948, India.

Viva La Revolución!

screw it everything is gonna go to hell in the end... why continue fighting this? there is so much everday that we are being lied too... this video is just another one of them lies. in the end the human race will eat each other due to the fact that there probably wont be any animals left to kill. So it will turn out to be 'every man for himself' type of ordeal... either that or the world is just gonna end with nukes blasting all over the place. read up on it pple this world isnt doing to well, at any moment there will be another massive world war that will end the human race. so whats the point of making a video about meat? like someone said on here...we got more things to worry about.

As someone who volunteered to take in about 100 hens from a commercial egg facility, which had been offered to an animal welfare group by the property owner, I was horrified at their condition. It was worse than the pictures sent out by the animal rights groups. They were covered in feces, half of their feathers were missing, some of the eggs they laid were covered in blood, they had nails 1.5" long that bled profusely if they broke, and they had injuries and didn't walk like a normal chicken. And the stench was overwhelming. Now, a year later, most have gotten their feathers back and you'd never recognize them as the same birds. They are some of the most active chickens I have ever had -- and these are the breed that they shove into tiny cages.

I know it's easy to believe that those accounts are false, because they are so terrible and they won't let you see those places. But when I talked to the state poultry vets about how to treat these hens, they weren't surprised at their condition and told me how much more humane it was! So, it was clear that it wasn't an isolated case.

I can't eat eggs when I'm dining out anymore. It's a gut reaction to what I saw. If you saw them, you couldn't eat it either.

Many of our dreaded food chain diseases are a direct result of inhumane intensive livestock practices. Mad Cow resulted from feeding cows cow parts; there was a link between mad cow and poultry production because they fed cow parts to chickens, and then fed the chicken litter back to the cows! Dangerous E coli resulted from feeding cows grain instead of their natural diet of pasture; it grows in the colon when they eat the grain and then the large cesspools from feedlots infect water sources used to irrigate vegetable crops, like spinach (as recently happened in California). Bird flu resulted from cramming birds, and pigs, together in filthy crowded environments and then let the "super-virus" evolve unchecked by jumping from animal to animal; this can happen quickly when you have thousands of animals to infect at once and the dose of pathogen is high due to filthy conditions. Do you know that in China they actually will make workers sleep in hammocks in with the chickens? Now there is massive protein malnutrition in poorer Asian countries where they killed off the chickens of poverty-stricken peoples, and that was their only source of protein. Did you hear any of that on the news?

In a society with abundant food, we can afford to treat our animals with compassion. And while eating meat at one time might have been a matter of survival, for us lucky ones, it is no longer the case. I want no part of that cruelty.

I have nothing against living a healthy lifestyle. I think everyone should practice better eating habits, but how can you argue that a plant is any less alive then an animal. Just because it doesn't speak doesn't mean it isn't alive. It is a double standard vegetarians will never admit to, but I'm okay with that since most of society is ignorant toward their hypocritical ways.

Everyone and everything living dies. Live how you want, do what you want. Be a vegetarian, a meant eater, or an omnivore. Who gives a fuck? You only live once, so stop whining. The world isn't going to change for you. We have more important things to worry about then food.

Ok, to all the people that are spilling out their PETA "save the whales" rhetoric- We've heard it all before.

I was vegetarian, then vegan for over five years. I was a donating member to PETA.

PETA IS FAKE. The videos they make are typically staged. I don't supposed anyone else has noticed that their are thousands of animals rights groups and PETA happens to be the only one that has so many videos of factory farmers and slaughterhouse workers acting so heartlessly.

I honestly cannot listen to someone gripe about the environment on the internet of all places. Where do you think the water came from to make the plastic of your computer? Who do you think works in the facotries to create every single component of the keyboard you type on? Who do you think assembled the computer?
And while you eat your vegan bagel with your "smart meat" think about the number of animals that die in wheat shredders every year. Think about the number of under payed illegal immigrants that work in those fields. If the grain is from overseas- think about the people who are being payed EVEN LESS to work in a grain field.
The couch you sit on, the shoes you wear, the showers you take, the tv you watch, the political action movie you go to see, the computer you type on, the car you drive, even simple things like the tissue you use to blow your nose- all these things play some part in making someone else's life terrible.

There will always be a person, and animal, a piece of land- that is taken advantage of, and there will always be someone who benefits from that. Right now, anyone who is commenting on this is obviously one of those who benefits.

So leave all your self righteous BS at the door, you are just as bad as everyone else.

I am fat because I eat breakfast,lunch and dinner at fast food places. I am addicted !

For a word to all you animal rights lovers out there:

Many of the harsh, cruel, and gruesome slaughterhouses that you have claimed to bear witness to via Internet, were probably on PETA sights, correct?

Which means that they were more than likely untruthful because PETA records for controversy, not really for truth.

Slaughterhouses are humane, sanitary, and safe.

Besides, as a note of sarcasm, as my granddaddy always told me.

"God made a place for every animal....right next to the mashed potatoes"

"we care about the animals" "we care about the environment" "we care about the people" hmmmmm is that why ur taking youg calfs from their mothers at a too young of a age, feeding them antibiotics and fattening steriods to beef them up,, then taking the so-sick they are barely alive young animals,,hang them on hooks,,then continue to stab them in the throat uintil they lose enough blood that they finally die?? hmmmmm sounds like u care a whole heck of alot. and believe me, I've seen a whole lot of animals being killed and skinned,,I too ate the life of other beings at one time,,It is just SO easy to block this information out,,and just think about the "juicy yummyness"" of a hamburger or tenderloin,, just because "its the way things have always been" doesnt mean its right.

they're just cows they're not people?? How is that justified? so because an "animal" isn't classified as human, that automatically means it doesn't have feelings? does a dog not yelp when someone steps on its paw or become depressed when its owner leaves for work? yes cows are not considered to be as intelligent (or cute and cuddly) as a dog but that does not mean that they do not feel or experience pain.

This isn't an argument for or against being vegetarian/vegan. I don't care what anyone else does with their life(and animals eat other animals, its a fact of nature) but people need to realize that just because we as humans put ourselves above other beings, does not mean that other living things do not have the same fundamental elements and that we should simply just not care about these things. We are animals too and we should not forget that.

Just because a few people do not educate themselves enough to be healthy on a vegetarian/vegan diet, does not give them the professional expertise to condemn the lifestyle as a whole.

I believe that since we are human beings, we have the capacity to be compassionate and merciful towards all beings. I don't find mass slaughter and abuse of animals just so we can eat them at all compassionate or merciful.
Lets not support big Factory Farms and their profit. Say no with you dollars. Shop for cruelty free products.

My parents had nothing to eat as kids sometimes. When I told them I was a vegetarian they laughed at my face with good reason.
Cheap labor means survival for thousands of people. Who will tell them in their face that who they are working for is corrupt. They know more about corruption than we ever will.
My parents never eat fast food. Not because of some moral imperative but because they know it tastes fake and it makes you fat. Smart thinking right?

This is not a battle between a vegetarian diet and eating meat. This is a battle of doing the job right by natural processes and not mass producing for the love of money. Mankind was given permission by God to eat meat after the flood. But of course men have corrupted it by loving money, which is the root of all evil.

Vegetarianism interupts health! I no longer believe in vegetarianism! I, too used to be a vegetarian, and swore by it...until my health began to decline. No surprise, I was not gettting enough PROTEIN!! Soy is dangerous, full of toxins and the health food craze over soy is completely false. (check www.westonaprice.org or www.realmilk.com) As a vegetarian I gained a considerable amount of weight eating too many carbs/grains in place of protein. Keep in mind that the method used by the agricultural industry to fatten cows is with low fat GRAINS!! In addition, the toxic effect of soy ruined my thyroid gland, and I am now hypothyroid. Since I do not believe in pharmacuedicals, I have been searching for natural ways to restore myself to the health I once enjoyed BEFORE I decided to become a vegetarian! It has not been an easy road. Dont make the vegetarian mistake. Best to eat grass fed organic beef without hormones or antibiotics along with organic fruits and veggies. Stay clear of proceessed foods, both in the grocery store AND fast food restaurants! Vegetarianism may be an alternative for some, but it certainly is not a healthy way of life for all.

Sounds like a liberal spin , Remeber people who feeds you. The american farmer. If it wasnt for them you all would starve. Eat beef (lots of it) rare, eat pork, chicken, sheep, fish enjoy it all it came from the heartland of america with pride.

Hormones, antibiotics, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, etc. It really is easy to avoid all that crap if you pay attention to what you buy in the supermarket, cook your own food, or eat at local restaurants. Honestly, why does the United States have such higher rates of cancer and extra LARGE obesity?

I was raised on only home-grown organic beef. I have eaten at McDonald's only once in over 30 years, that was not by choice and it was breakfast. I do not eat fast food, eat very little beef and if I do I usually cook it at home. I do not trust the system...
We are hooked on fast food as a Nation, just like cigarettes, and soda pops. That is why there is so much adult on-set diabetes. You are what you eat - SICK and overweight! Hello America, convenience does not spell good health!
Sunny Healthy Girl

I have not eaten in a fast food place of any kind in the last 2 months and I have never felt better. The smell of any of them makes me sick to my stomach. I have had to stop shopping in wal-mart because of the stench of Mickey D's. My husband works with some Canadians who call to Rotten Ronnie's that is the best description yet.

It was interesting to read the "Regarding the previous" post.
As a vegetarian of 15+ years, I've never experienced the decline in health or gastroenterological problems he or she describes. I'm sorry that the author of that post feels persecuted by vegetarians/vegans. I haven't met a single one of these "tofu warrior" types, but my archconservative meat-eater friends assure me that they exist.
May I suggest that any interested party try researching the correlation between colorectal cancer (2nd leading cause of death in the US) and animal fat/protein consumption.

Debate is pointless. Live your own life, live it well, live it as an example to those who are living poorly, and change will happen. That is the only way.

Some will choose to be vegetarian, some to cut down on meat, but all of us have to recognize that it takes more of earth's reources to raise meat than it does to raise grains and veggies. Therefore, we are talking about humas too, starving humans humans, many dying of that starvation and many of them children. There is a balance in nature that does not exist in the corporate for profit food business. The key to taking any life - animal or vegetable - is respect. When we pollute the environment, act with uncaring cruelty, and forget that we are only part of Creation, then the problems will surely come back to us. Whether animal is hunted or raised for food, all should be done with respect. Nature lover

they're just cows. they're not people.

my question is which tastes better? stressed beef, or non stressed beef? I want whichever tastes best.

Regarding the previous comment by "Anonymous," does he or she consider a slaughterhouse death any more gruesome than the death imposed by a natural predator that would chase an animal and kill it with its teeth and claws? I know the counter-argument: no humans NEED meat, while wolves, lions, etc. do. This is not a valid argument, because it is simply untrue. Some people do indeed need meat. I bought into the anti-meat rhetoric for a time, and was vegetarian for three years. My health declined. I thought I needed to push it further, so I became almost completely vegan. My gastroenterological problems became even worse. I tried naturopathic, homeopathic, chiropractic, ayurvedic and other approaches to no avail. In desperation, I finally adopted a protien-heavy diet with lots of meat, fruit and vegetables (almost no grains), and I've never been healthier. Since this experience, I've seen testimony that thousands of others have had a similar experience. What are people like us supposed to do to assuage the moral qualms of people like you? Live miserably and die young? Given the option, I'll choose to endure the holier-than-thou attitude of hard-core vegetarians while I eat a tenderloin, over living in constant pain simply to fit into your preferred worldview.

Yet even organic, pasture-fed cows will end up in the same slaughterhouses as the intensely confined and stressed animals of factory farms. They will still die an early, gruesome death, whether they are raised "humanely" or not.