Sendo
24th August 2010, 19:19
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/24/david_kirby_on_the_looming_threat
David Kirby speaks on Democracy Now! about industrial farming, feeding arsenic to chickens, cancer rates, and his new book "Animal Factory".
Perfect discussion of the commodification of everything. Even if he isn't explicitly Marxist, he formulates an analysis that is essentially Marxist. This isn't just about environmental contradictions with capitalist farming, but the human-capital antagonisms as well.
For example, beef scraps are fed to chickens. The chickens poop out great fertilizer, but with industrial egg production, too much of this happens. Since chicken poop is a commodity, it must be exchanged somehow. It is sold to cattle farmers as food for cattle. Mad Cow may be far more rampant than thought (he also mentions how emasculated the FDA has become). Interestingly enough, cattle recycling can also be seen in that baby cattle are fed formula and blood since their mothers' milk is a commodity that must be sold and not used.
This presents a great opportunity for us as leftists to give a materialist critique of not just bad company "X" but an attack on the capitalist mode of production beyond simply weeping for the failed petty-bourgeoisie, and beyond lifestylism, and beyond "animal rights".
David Kirby speaks on Democracy Now! about industrial farming, feeding arsenic to chickens, cancer rates, and his new book "Animal Factory".
Perfect discussion of the commodification of everything. Even if he isn't explicitly Marxist, he formulates an analysis that is essentially Marxist. This isn't just about environmental contradictions with capitalist farming, but the human-capital antagonisms as well.
For example, beef scraps are fed to chickens. The chickens poop out great fertilizer, but with industrial egg production, too much of this happens. Since chicken poop is a commodity, it must be exchanged somehow. It is sold to cattle farmers as food for cattle. Mad Cow may be far more rampant than thought (he also mentions how emasculated the FDA has become). Interestingly enough, cattle recycling can also be seen in that baby cattle are fed formula and blood since their mothers' milk is a commodity that must be sold and not used.
This presents a great opportunity for us as leftists to give a materialist critique of not just bad company "X" but an attack on the capitalist mode of production beyond simply weeping for the failed petty-bourgeoisie, and beyond lifestylism, and beyond "animal rights".