Is the manner in which we produce food today ethical?
You might want to read this post that I wrote on my personal blog, about the world's biggest pig farmer.
Christo: The Floating Piers
7 years ago
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Starbucks coffee
ReplyDeleteWatching this video, my reaction ran parallel to Kahneman's theory. My initial reaction was based on a moral reaction- sadness, anger and despair. Sadness at the children who did not choose a life of starvation, but were born into it. Anger at the corporation trying to take advantage of low prices with no regard to the worker's health, happiness and conditions of the workplace. On further analysis, my reaction became more doubtful. I am not supporting Starbucks in any subjective way, but people shouldn’t be blaming them for buying cheap coffee. Who doesn't want to earn a profit by buying Lidl instead of Migros? The Ethiopians, in order not to starve should demand more money. Starbucks has many eyes on it right now and refusing this demand will not be swept under the rug.
Meat
My first emotional reaction was not at all influenced by reasoning. The reaction was horror, shock, and disgust. The unfairness in which animals are treated is blinding. Even though these clips are sugar-coated in comparison to those on YouTube, the clip does not attempt to distort the truth, it hits us over the head with it.
MEAT PRODUCTS
ReplyDeleteMy first response to this video is one of sickened thoughts. I now abhor the companies who provide our meat. I also feel a deep emotional response for the animals, but in particular, the cow. The cow was left alone in the slaughter house and is shocked to death. It makes me sick to think that the cow had to be punished to die, and couldn't die peacefully. I am also sad at the way the cows, pigs and chickens must live in such confined areas and cannot do anything before they die.
Now, using my reason, I will examine if this is ethical or not for slaugherhouses to do. Seeing as cows , pigs and chickens have no predators, it seems extremely wrong to kill them. It makes sense now why the slaughterhouses don't allow many visitors. I think it is wrong, not because people eat meat for the protein, but the slaugherhouses are at fault for choosing to do this to the animals. I would be willing to pay more money for meat if I knew it was produced responsibly.
STARBUCKS
My immediate reaction is that I am a little bit confused. However, when Mr. Doolan explained what the documentary was trying to say, I understood completely. I think it is absolutely awful that these families are provided with such little money that they cannot even eat properly. I feel sad for the families who feel like they don't get enough food, and are turned away because they aren't malnourished enough. I feel worried for these families, and am just very sad. I am appalled that Starbucks would employ so much propaganda to get people to not see the true side of them. I am disgusted by what Starbucks does: this is my heuristic respons.
When I apply my reason though, I see the same thing. I see Starbucks, as a big company, not truly looking into what they are doing but only looking out for themselves. I see the people, just trying to make money by selling a little coffee so they can get at least some food. When put together, I see lots of people who are malnourished for no reason; Starbucks makes plenty of money so why can't they help people? Unlike Kahneman who believes that our intiutional response is wrong, I still feel the same way. It would be fine if Starbucks were to provide money for the therapeutic hunger center, but the fact that it doesn't means that the company honestly doesn't care. I am still disgusted by Starbucks.
CONCLUSION
To answer the question, I don't think its necessarily ethical because we take the natural ways and pervert them, turning them into the cheapest way possible. I think we are taking what is convenient to us without really thinking it through.
STARBUCKS COFFEE PRODUCTION:
ReplyDeleteStarbucks purchases it's coffee beans from a region in the world where the prices are so low (Ethiopia), the people harvesting them don't have enough money to feed their children. I feel disgusting. I feel terribly guilty and I don't know what to do. Saying that you never want to purchase from Starbucks again so you don't support such an "unfair" organization is useless, because by doing so these people would have even less money than they do now. The fact that a malnourished child can't be helped because she's not malnourished "enough" is horrible. No child, especially a obviously malnourished one, should have to be rejected the help that it could have. I understand that there are obviously other children that are far worse off, but I feel so saddened that such difficult decisions must be made. Reflecting upon what I just saw, I understand that any firm is going to try to make as much profit as possible, and buying from a cheap country is the best option, but I still feel horrible about it and guilty because I know it's true.
SLAUTERHOUSE REACTION:
I've seen documentaries like this before, but I think the silence reflected in this one really brought out the reality of how it's really like. I thought about all the blood flooding the floor and the smell of death that consumes those places. I thought about how life would be like if I was in that situation. And while the meat-eater within me tried to reason how we humans do eat meat and it is normal for us to consume such products, I think that the way we get these products we consume is wrong. I feel disgusting, like a terrible person, and I think that that's also the reaction that is expected for anyone to get from watching this movie. I don't think I will stop eating meat, because like stated before, I don't think it's wrong to eat animals since it is part of our natural instinct, but I am concerned about the overconsumption of such products, and maybe if we consumed less it wouldn't have to happen this way. In either case, I do not think the way we are treating those animals is right.
Starbucks: I immediately reacted with sadness when I saw the hungry children in Ethiopia that are starving due to low coffee prices. I thought that Starbucks was the largest buyer of Fairtrade certified Coffee? While the women working at the Starbucks are saying that it is an honor to be touching lives, they are not touching lives, they are destroying them in a way.
ReplyDeleteMeat: My initial reaction was shock, disgust and sadness. I did not understand how they could treat the animals so inhumanely. Do the people simply clipping of the pig arms feel nothing? The process of killing and processing these animals are morally incorrect, as the animals are suffering in the process. Animals are in a sense conscious beings and feel pain just as humans do; therefore, it is not fair to simply justify their suffering as a means to our end.
Video 1:
ReplyDelete1. As we see from the film, Starbucks, a company that has created an image of being environmentally friendly and an advocate of fair trade, is not all that it hypes itself up to be. To get it's Ethiopan coffee, it buys the crop from the Sidama region of Ethiopa for an extremely low price. The price is so low, that the people of the region are not able to feed their children properly, and as a result numerous hunger camps have had to be established to nurse the children. Thus, in direct contradiction to what one caffeinated Starbucks customer said Starbucks is not all about positively affecting the lives of others.
2. You would have to take into account not only the actions that are taking place, but also to what extent the suffering of the people there is larger than the benefit gained. Also, is this one of many examples, or just a single one?
Video 2:
1. After having seen animals being slaughtered and processed after being held in horrible conditions for weeks on end, we are shown how the tasty Big Mac we have when we go to McDonalds is produced, and how the animals are treated. The video is without commentary, so the ice-cold, mechanic nature of the proceedings taking place in these slaughterhouses is amplified further. This practice is of course very wrong, but personally I have no immense desire to stop it.
To make a moral judgement on this, you must know how much pain these animals are experiencing in order to understand whether or not it is immoral or not.
Starbucks Coffee Video:
ReplyDeleteStarbucks is purchasing its coffee from an area of the world where the coffee prices are so low that the people are in serious poverty and suffering from malnutrition. My initial reaction is how can Starbucks claim that it's 'positively affecting the lives of others' when it is actually the cause of these low prices. I think it is wrong for Starbucks to keep expanding, because this will weaken the price of coffee even further and increase the negative impact on Ethiopians. Although, consider the possibility that it is not so much Starbucks that is responsible for this impact, rather legislation that ensures that Starbucks has to sustain or increase its economic profits in order to pass on dividends to its shareholders. My heuristic function tells me to see this is ultimately Starbucks' activities harming people it is claiming to help, I feel as though Ethiopia would be better if it didn’t have large businesses like Starbucks forcing the price of coffee down, however if Ethiopia didn’t supply the coffee to these businesses then it would have very little in terms of industries to fall back on, so the situation is out of their control. My moral reasoning says that the consequences of Starbucks' activities in Ethiopia are predominantly bad. Therefore the consequentialist stance says that what they are doing is morally wrong.
Meat production Video:
The scene of the cow flinching and trying to avoid being electrocuted by the human was really difficult for me to watch, but the mere fact the cow was flinching and hopelessly shaking suggested that it had pre-determined its fate. This knowledge suggested that the cow had some intelligence to realize this. It makes me feel like they knew the purpose they were bred for, yet the showed a desire to live outside of this purpose. My heuristic function makes me want to pledge to be vegetarian and never consume this sort of meet again whereby suffering occurs. These meet factories claim that the animals are killed without suffering, hence the use of an electric current to knock the cow out, however the fact that the animals fought to escape the humans suggests the exact opposite, that suffering is involved. This is my moral reasoning as to why it was wrong.
Video 1: Starbucks Coffee
ReplyDeleteAt first glance the sight of children starving made me feel quilty for all those times I ordered something at Starbucks. In Ethiopa, the farmers which sell coffee beans to the starbucks company are suffering due to a famine. Starbucks uses this famine as perfect opportunity to lower cost in order to increase profits. While we consumers of developed countries enjoy big mugs of hot delicious coffee. Children starve, suffer and die for our pleasure. Here my moral judgement is sorted out, we should help or at least push starbucks to help them in any way possible.
Video 2: Meat
At first the sight of these pigs being pushed around like junk and eventually cut up was sick. For those few seconds I wanted to give up eating meat.
Eventually I realised the killing of animals in order to eat started happening since the beginning of humans. Just in order to feed everyone on the planet, we must efficiently and quickly produce enough meant, so harsh circumstanes had to be brought.
Starbucks Coffee Video:
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I was not surprised when I realized that Starbucks exploited Ethiopian people who provide them with their coffee. I think that it is far to normal nowadays that big companies go with the trends and make claims about being "eco-friendly" or as Mr. Doolan said in his article wanting to commit "environmental leadership". However, I am also slightly disappointed in Starbucks because they make a big deal out of using fair trade coffee beans and now seeing that there actually is not much fair trade in their purchase of coffee, I feel guilty that I have supported this unjust cooperation between supplier and buyer.
Meat Production Video:
I have seen similar videos before in Middle School when Mr. Hovey showed us a movie about animals being used for fur clothing. This was very different however, because when I was in seventh grade I was not actively involved in having a fur or leather jacket. Now however, I feel much more effected by this video since I eat meat almost everyday and I dont know where it comes from, or whether or not it is biologically produced in a fair way.
My first instinct is that it is wrong to kill animals in this mass production way, but then I think that there are not many other ways in which to satisfy the high demand for meat arounf the world. This question was also brought up in Peter Singers lecture that we watched last class. He thinks that we must all make the conscious decision to only eat meat that we know is from a good source and try to eat less meat. By doing this the demand for meat will go down therefore the problem of supplying for the high demand would decrease as well.
Video 1
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction was surprise. I was also horrified at what these poor children go through and how undernourished they all are. It was really sad to see how desperate the mothers are and how the therapeutic feeding centers are so understaffed and with minimal resources that they even have to turn people away.
However, when I began to think about the video I came to the conclusion that it plays on an emotional response and deliberately poses a contrast between the two scenarios: a chirpy Starbucks manager and a poverty-stricken region. There were also several questions left unanswered which would have to be taken into account before make a moral judgment. For example, is Starbucks the reason that these people have such a low income or are there other factors involved such as droughts or bad harvest? Would other companies buy their coffee there if Starbucks didn’t or is the business that Starbucks brings providing an income to this region which would otherwise have none and thereby descend into worse poverty? Therefore, I think that because this video is obviously trying to make people come to a certain conclusion by using emotions, it is important to consider other information before coming to a judgment.
Video 2
Of course there is no doubt about the fact that the whole process of meat-production is cold and heartless. There is obviously barely any consideration to the feelings or well-being of the animals. The motivation of the meat industry is clearly to be as efficient as possible to make a profit.
Yet, in our world today there is no other way to sustain the lifestyle that people have become used to. Mass meat production is catering to the needs of too many people in our world all wanting and expecting affordable meat. At this point in time almost everyone has become used to eating meat with every meal, which wasn’t always the case. But the fact is that meat is expensive to produce and therefore companies have to make production as efficient as possible, not only to make a profit but also to cater to the demand. Furthermore, one has to remember that this video does not specifically say where these factories are and that meat production isn’t the same in every country.
At first: Wow the people are so friendly and open, the coffee looks like it tastes great
ReplyDeleteAt a second glance: the company takes advantage of the unbelievably poor, took away the plantations and the jobs of the Ethiopians who have nothing else… Starbucks buys its coffee beans in an area here the coffee price is so low that the families didnt get any profits and there for are starving to death.
Generally: VERY SHOCKING
I think that as consequentialists we would all stop eating at starbucks but reality is that we don’t care as long as it doesn’t involve us. Peter Singer would most likely not go there because when thinking anbout it supporting starbucks would mean supporting people who suffering which is morally unresponsible
I can't stop thinking about the slaughterhouse footage. It scared me so much that I dont ever want to eat non-organic meat ever again. I was aware of slaughter houses and that the way the animals are killed, nevertheless the images I saw haven't dissappeared from my mind. Especially the chickens, whose necks were slit open and then they were still struggling hanging from one leg and being defeathers. It was probably the most disgusting thing I have seen in my life.
Video 1:
ReplyDeleteStarbucks buying the coffee at such low prices, and the people in Ethiopia suffering severely as a result is instinctively horrific. From a consequentialist point of view, this is not ethically correct, as the consequences of Starbucks buying such cheap coffee mean that hundreds of children are starving where the coffee is produced because the people working at the coffee plantations on longer can afford to buy food for their families. Consequentially, the Ethiopian people are suffering due to Starbucks lowering the prices for which they buy their coffee, and yet still claiming to be a “fair trade” company, where the coffee is ethically produced. My response would at first thought be to stop consuming Starbucks, but at the same time, consuming less will not help, but rather harm the Ethiopian coffee farmers.
Video 2:
My immediate reaction is shock, horror, disgust. After having some time to process the film clips that were shown to us, I feel terrible that I eat meat, because the animals are suffering so intensely. Although they do not actually suffer from pain as they are being slaughtered, worse than the pain is the fear that is so completely evident in the animals’ faces as they are herded towards their death. They are trembling, and their suffering is so disturbing since I know that I am in part responsible for their deaths, their suffering. Somehow, I suppose that it is better that they at least do not suffer from a painful death most of the time, but at the same time they are still feeling so much fear, which can be worse than pain at times. However, I cannot think of an easy solution to the problem, because even if I only consume organically produced meat, the animals will still be slaughtered at some point and thus they will still suffer. At the same time though, converting to vegetarianism is not really a solution for me personally, although the footage we viewed in class certainly pushed me in that direction.
Video 1
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the video I was extremely surprised how few we actually know about where the food we eat comes from. The two women working for Starbucks were a very good example. They totally believed that Starbucks is a great company that does a lot for the people working on the coffee plantations by only buying fair trade products and were praising the company whenever they could. But then the documentary showed us the actual situation of the workers in Ethiopia working for Starbucks. They get barely paid anything and most of them are starving. I never really thought about this when buying coffee from Starbucks, but this documentary clearly showed that it is actually unethical to buy this coffee as people in Africa have to suffer from this.
Video 2
The second documentary we watched about the German and Austrian meat production turned out even more shocking. The animals in the slaughterhouses were treated as if they were already dead and you could see them suffer. This is clearly a result of the fact that we always try to produce goods with the lowest possible costs involved. Treating the animals better would probably increase the price of meat in the market which many companies are not interested in. But this situation has to change as treating animals like this is unethically and therefor buying this meat too, as you directly support these companies thn. I think in the longterm, we need to switch the whole meat production to an organic food industry, where the animals receive a treatment that they deserve and can live a good life.
Video 1: Child Starvation
ReplyDeleteI found it really sad to see these children being so undernourished and exhausted due to lack of food. However, I wasn’t terribly shocked, because it's commonly known that a lot of people die because of starvation. This doesn't mean that I'm in favor of it happening. I think that great worldwide companies such as Starbucks should take more responsibility for their actions and should somehow support the people in need. The centers that provide the children with food looked like they don't have the proper equipment let alone have enough food for all the children that are undernourished. I think that it would be a benefit if Starbucks for example would support these children because they are the next generation that will work for them. Therefore I think that great companies benefitting from the low costs of production in 3rd world countries should support the people in need more, because every human has the right to have proper nutrition.
Video 2: Meat Production
There is no discussion about as to whether the production of meat is cruel. While watching the video I had to look away a few times because it all seemed to barbaric. Before seeing the video I did know that life for an animal that's used for the production of meat isn't a very pleasant life, but I surely didn’t realize that it would be so scary and cruel. The way the people treat the animals as if they weren't living beings with actual feeling really devastates me. Seeing how scared these animals were really made me feel guilty, because together with millions of people, I eat the meat produced from this cruel way of meat production. After watching the video I was so astonished that nothing has been done about this way of producing meat. On the other hand I do believe that in order for the firms to meet the demand for meat they need to produce as efficient as possible. Unfortunately these animals will need to suffer.
Starbucks:
ReplyDeleteIt is ridiculous that we are overpriced at a coffeehouse when there are children having to live malnourished because the coffeehouse doesn't pay them their fair wage. This is worse than slavery back in the 1980's, at least the slaves were fed back then. Now we have people working hard for their money, even though their money can't buy them the food they need to live. Fair trade organizations have attacked starbucks because of this as they are directly responsible of the death of thousands and thousands of people living in africa.
Cow:
I thought this was an awful video to watch. It's really painful when the second cow walked in and realized what was going on, thus trying to escape. It is like torture to know that you will die in that very moment. It's awful to know how these cows have to suffer, it makes me feel bad myself as I take pleasure in enjoying meat. This seems though as it is the only way to produce the high amount of meat demanded in the meat market. Thus this is the guilt we have to live with when we enjoy meat.
Starbucks:
ReplyDeleteStarbucks prides itself on fair trade coffee. Is what they are doing fair? They are buying coffee from a place where the price is low, which is good for business and can help increase profit. Thought in return the people there are starving, the children are suffering. According to Peter Singer if there is suffering then what you are doing is morally wrong. Hence what Starbucks is doing is wrong. Letting the people starve just so they can buy low price coffee. They could charge more for the coffee make it just pricy enough to make a profit and have the children and adults well nourished. Which would cut a little bit more into Starbucks immense amounts of money
Animals:
My initial emptions; shock, disgust, empathy. Shock of how the people who work in those slaughter houses have no remorse on their face, killing these innocent animals with no hesitation. Disgust at the people who built these slaughter house and these inhuman ways of killing these animals. Empathy for the poor animals that are force to their death. Why would people do this. It is efficient and fast. Though not fast enough, the killing is fast but the life leading to the killing is slow and agonizing
Let's talk about organic meat as well as the comparison of wage earners with slavery.
ReplyDelete