Pandemic is Perfect Moment to Reexamine Our Food System
Published by the Minnesota Reformer
More than two million euthanized chickens in Maryland, Delaware, and Minnesota recently joined the growing list of COVID-19 victims. Decreased demand for fresh food and workforce shortages caused by the pandemic are sending industrial food waste skyrocketing. Every day across the nation, farmers are dumping millions of gallons of cows’ milk and smashing hundreds of thousands of unhatched eggs.
The spike in food waste has devastating consequences for farmers and their animals. The economic and emotional costs of euthanized livestock and dumped product are taking a heavy toll on many farm owners and food workers across the country. Farm animals are suffering, too. The miserable lives of millions of birds were cut uncommonly short. Dumped milk represents countless mothers pointlessly separated from their babies at birth. When this separation and commodification is entirely in vain, it becomes even more heartbreaking. Behind the headlines, the increased food waste is causing immense suffering for humans and other animals alike.
