Farewell to breakfast?

Farewell to breakfast?

The Cutting Edge: Fast Food in the Food Chain

Screening on SBS Television, Tuesday May 18, 8.30 p.m. (8 p.m. in Adelaide)

With press reports just a few weeks ago announcing Australia's first patent granted for a fast-growing pig, SBS is to screen a BBC documentary that questions such scientific developments in animal production for food.

The program presents scientific evidence, for example, that suggests that broiler chickens, fast-growing pigs and battery hens may be in chronic pain. Dairy cows are shown to be exhausted and emaciated. Terrible new animal diseases have developed. Do the benefits for humanity (mostly restricted to the already well-fed West) justify this cruelty? To what lengths will capitalism go to make a profit from farm animals? Should animal welfare be a consideration?

Chickens bred for meat now grow twice as fast as they did in the '50s. Their cardiovascular systems struggle to keep up with this mutant-like muscular growth, resulting in constant agony relieved only by their demise after a 42-day life.

Fast-growing pigs and commercial turkeys have had their shapes so altered that they cannot breed naturally. Overmilked dairy cows suffer a range of diseases, while the dramatic increase in egg output in battery hens severely affects their calcium levels, causing osteoporosis and broken bones.

After watching this thought-provoking program, it may be difficult to face a guilt-free breakfast of bacon and eggs again.

From GLW issue 99