Life Is A Feast For The Fittest

now, grandpa he managed the business
the crops, the bulls and the cows
grass they were fed until they were dead
he reaped all that he plowed

but farmers and ranchers have limits
and cannot stave off large combines
when the big grinder starts in to turning
sure as shit we're next in line

(chorus)
life is a feast for the fittest
we dine on the sick and the lame
put them in crates, zap them, it's fate
for laughs we'll feed them their brains
ho, ho, to the market we'll go
wielding the prod and the flog
pump 'em with steroids, slice off their ass 'roids
they'll taste great in junior's hot dogs, boys
they'll taste great in junior's hot dogs

oh, give me that corporate slaughter
a killing floor ripe with fresh blood
lets cut a steer from ear to dumb ear
lets slice the tongue off at the bud

industrial cruelty is funny
the panic, the shocking, the fear
to squeeze out the profits we lust for
we'll maximize terror and tears

(repeat chorus)

vegetables lack the mouth organ
to give sound to pain that they feel
but if agribusiness could do it
they would beat them and make them all squeal

we solder the beaks of the chickens
whose breasts we've engineered large
if we did that to you it would make you turn blue
and turn your ass as big as a barge, boys
turn your ass as big as a barge

(chorus)

vegetarians, do they have humor?
do they concentrate too much on pain?
industrial slaughter turns us into fodder
and torture's the course that is main

all life is suffering, said Buddha
compassion is immanent love
we are what we eat, don't eat tortured meat
give me carrots when push comes to shove, boys
give me carrots when push comes to shove

(repeat chorus, eat something that hasn't been tortured)

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The above lyrics were inspired by this posting at Pandagon.

The video (a humorous song about "saving the vegetables") at Pandagon is a fairly gentle teasing (at least that's my take) of vegetarians, but it doesn't address a very large reason many of us choose to not eat meat: the industrialization of slaughter, the torture of animals that goes with that fact, the genetic tinkering with our food (both meat and vegetable, now that I think about it), the injecting of steroids and anti-biotics into cows and pigs and chickens et al, the feeding of rendered animal parts to the animals that will ultimately be consumed by an uninformed public--these are the issues that strike me as relevant to a political response to what is happening to our food in our country.

All life consumes life, that is a given, but I'm really not into eating something that has been tortured, slaughtered and subsequently rendered, all played out on killing floors covered in excrement and cauterized tumors while underpaid workers risk life and limb to slice and dice as fast as possible to increase profit margins. Read Fast Food Nation for an appetizer. We are the Food Chain, silly.

Eat what you will, but know what you eat.

I guess I feel about food the same way I do about religion. Eh, a subject for another day...

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Image from here.

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