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Jose Torres

Judith McCann

English 1302.213

22 March 2023

Life Beyond the Grocery Isle

What you consume is not what you always think it is. Many companies commit acts that

is not widely known to the public. While you may believe that the products that you consume are

ethical, they might be a product of something much more cynical. Under the veil of

advertisement filled with bright sunshine there is a much more darker truth that is present within

the agricultural and animal farming industry. There is a world full of lies, cruelty, and unjust

actions. These industries spend millions on cutting corners and silencing the truth. These

companies should be transparent with their consumers and expose themselves by showing the

extent they go to cut corners, the mistreatment of animals, and the blatant disregard for workers

and farmers.

While you may not believe it, many companies prefer to cut corners in order to make

more profit. They will resort to any means necessary in order to produce the most appetizing

products for their consumers. This means a heavy amount of genetic modification. Genetic

modification is not anything new to the public eye and has been talked about for years. In recent

years the outrage on GMOs has dwindled drastically. Many companies have begun to add labels

such as “No GMOs” but that doesn’t get rid of the fact that GMO products are practically

everywhere. One of the big reasons GMOs were so heavily criticized is the amounts of pesticides

present in these products. “Toxic, allergenic, or less nutritious…”, is how specific experts

describe GMOs.(CITE THIS ANTI GMO) Plants are now and are still being sprayed with
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multiple pesticides in order to ensure their growth. Instead of planting crops that are native to

certain regions, they decide to bend a certain cash crop's genetic structure in order to make it

invulnerable. Many anti GMO groups have stated than certain companies care more about the

profit than the product itself. “Innovated products are benefiting corporations at the the expense

of the people and planet”, are one of the many quotes said by these groups. (CITE ANTI GMO)

Many of these foods are genetically modified in order to meet a certain need in the market.

“Products can be adapted on the basis of consumer satisfaction”, is something stated on an article

on how the public sees GMO’s, this sort of mindset is what drives big agricultural companies.

Rather than focusing on whats right for the environment, the consumers body, and local farmers,

they instead focus on creating a perfect species of plant or animal immune to everything. These

products are made to create the most appetizing appearance and create the most profit. All of this

is done in order to cut cost and produce more profits.

Cutting cost also means underfunding when it comes to actually taking care of the

animals. Many cases has come out that meat repeatedly violating animals rights while

transporting them. In a particular study it was stated that 10 transports did not have the right

equipment to feed the animals during their trip and the transporters were not following any sort

of regulations. (Budzik) On a separate study it found that in one certain case calves were being

abused and killed on their way to a farm.(cite fiber ostrow) There is a lack of morality and strong

sense cruelty within all of these studies. This sort of unwarranted cruelty is always disguised

within the media. When the consumer and the product are separated, it makes it easy for big

companies to push out a certain image of their product. When consumers go to a meat section of

a grocery store they see the product as meat not as flesh that was butchered from a cow.
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Individuals do not care for the process in which the product is made more of how cheap and

plentiful it is.

If a company is willing to cut cost in its own product, imagine how they treat their

workers and other farmers.

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Work Cited

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House, Hans R., et al. “Agricultural Workers in Meatpacking Plants Presenting to an Emergency

Department with Suspected COVID‐19 Infection Are Disproportionately Black and

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Exploring Consumers’ Attitudes Toward GMOs, Insects and Cultured Meat.” Applied

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Budzik, Anna. “The Need of Supervision and Control over Transport of Slaughter Animals as

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Scientific Papers of Silesian University of Technology. Organization & Management /

Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Slaskiej. Seria Organizacji i Zarzadzanie, no. 158, July

2022, pp. 95–119. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.29119/1641-3466.2022.158.7.

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Fiber-Ostrow, Pamela, and Jarret S. Lovell. “Behind a Veil of Secrecy: Animal Abuse, Factory

Farms, and Ag-Gag Legislation.” Contemporary justice review : CJR 19.2 (2016):

230–249. Web.