The Slaughterhouse

The biggest connection that I noticed was between Pollan’s “an Animal’s Place and the info graphic by cook.  Both articles address similar traces and production of food and poultry.  A major issue that I noticed which certainly compared the two was the lack of concern in the general population. What really shocked me was the small piece in Cook’s info graphic about the production of these chickens. He explains, “Amid clouds of ammonia and fecal matter carrying salmonella and other harmful bacteria, workers called "catchers" wade into ten-degree holding pens crowded with angry fowl. Braving sharp beaks and claws, they grasp the birds by their feet and hurl them into containers bound on trucks for the processing plant” (Cook, 1). What I find most interesting was Pollan’s point on page two about the slaughtering and production of these animals. This includes the idea that we has American citizens don’t even realize where most of our food products truly come from. Pollan says “We tolerate this disconnect because the life of the pig has moved out of view. Except for our pets, real animals -- animals living and dying -- no longer figure in our everyday lives. Meat comes from the grocery store, where it is cut and packaged to look as little like parts of animals as possible. The disappearance of animals from our lives has opened a space in which there's no reality check, either on the sentiment or the brutality (Pollan, 2).