Slaughterhouse

Since 2017 I've been on a journey to educate myself and others about where food comes from. Naturally, what I find interesting and relevant, I share. This exploration hit hard after watching such documentaries as;

*What the Health

*Cowspiracy

*Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

*Food, INC

After binge watching all of these for days at a time, I went grocery shopping and purchased on vegan foods. From there I went full-on vegan for a year, that is until my hair started falling out, my teeth - which I had never had issues with before - suddenly became sensitive, and I had absolutely no energy. I kept up on my supplemets and took advice from other vegans who seemed to be doing well. After my son was born he was failing to thrive. I wasn't producing the calories he needed with my diet. I gave up on veganism after not seeing an improvement in my baby after 3 months postpartum. My food infomation journey was pushed aside until I again began digging into the world of slaughterhouses. This new endeavor lead me to, "The Jungle" by Upson Sinclair, which I have also reviewed on this site. I was disgusted by how the workers were treated and used by their employers. I also wondered how much had changed in the last 100 years of slaughterhouse work. This is when I came across, "Slaughterhouse" by Gail A. Eisnitz. This book is stomach turning. The pages contain everything that undercover footage shows that no one wants to discuss, as well as the lawsuits filed by grieving parents who had lost children to E. coli 0157:H7 and so much more. What the undercover footage doesn't show you are the flies, maggots, and roaches that can be found on the meat at any given time, the employees urinating on the floor due to not being allowed to leave the line, ten-inch long fecal smears on meat, rust, black oil, pus, worms and metal shavings all being ground together or sprayed off and packaged to be sold to you and I. The fact of the matter is, all I've mentioned thus far is common practive and signed off on by the USDA so the plants don't lose money on production. As with everything else, it does all come down to the almighty dollar. There are plenty of testimonies within this book that come from the factory workers themselves as well as the veterinarians and inspectors who go into detail explaining their inability to do their jobs thoroughly due to slaughterhouse regulations and prohibitions. Don't plan on eating while reading this book, and I highly recommend that you do read it. Knowing where your food comes from is one of the most important pieces of information you can have in regards to your health. I for one, will not be eating meat from this point on. I simply can't do it after what I've read. I will not go back to being vegan as I have found it to be unsustainable for the long run, but I will be returning to vegetarianism. Though this book was originally published in 1997 and re-released in 2006 with a new afterword by the author, I can guarantee nothing has changed. Everything listed in this book was not only going on 100 years ago during the time of The Jungle, but the undercover videos that have come out in recent years and are still coming out currently remain the same as what's writtin on these pages. I don't think these slaughterhouses will ever change, not while people are still willing to turn a blind eye and open their wallets.

10/10