We look back now at history and simply cannot believe certain things were accepted ideas in the past. For instance, that there is‘inferiority’ attached to a particular gender or that the dark colour of our skin meant that we were ‘unclean’. It seems absurd to think in that mindset in our days. Humanity has come a long way from our past. However, one day, today will become the past too. What do we think about what we accept as normal right now?
Is it acceptable to see farmers living off one meal of rice per day because the money they earn from their produce is not enough? Is it acceptable that merchants buy produce from these farmers at the minimal price because the farmers have no other option but to sell to who ever takes it?
Is it acceptable to inject chickens with hormones that will make a fluffy, yellow chick grow to the size of a full hen within 6 weeks, growing so fast and fat that they would break their own legs by trying to stand up? Is it acceptable to batter a calf on the head with a club in order to make sure the meat stays tender for the consumer? Is it acceptable that we treat living, breathing, loving animals like emotionless vegetables just because we personally do not have to see the fear in their dying eyes?
Is it acceptable that we use a car and burn petrol in order to pick up a cake instead of walking 15 minutes? We do not think about the consequences of these little actions often because we simply have not been taught by anyone. Educate yourself on the consequences of your day-to-day actions. Are the vegetables you buy from a small group of farmers who sustain themselves in a small community or are they forced to sell on a mass-market scale? Worse yet, are they imported vegetables which could easily have been sourced from a local farmer?
Don’t grow up and look back at your youthful actions with the disgust that previous generations have. Change what you can, however you can.
This column was written by a Stitch volunteer, to find out more visit www.stitchmovement.com |
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