Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Feeding a Monster: The Unholy Alliance Between the Military-Industrial-Complex and Animal Agribusiness

Feeding a Monster: The Unholy Alliance Between the Military-Industrial-Complex and Animal Agribusiness


Stop the War$ on Mother Earth!


"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." - Henry David Thoreau



Animal agribusiness is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases such as methane. Not only is animal agribusiness causing deforestation, water pollution (helping to kill coral reefs), ocean depletion of biodiversity (fish caught to be ground up and fed to livestock) but it is water/land use intensive.

Big animal fishing/agribusiness and the military-industrial-violence-complex are inseparable (with an understanding that massive violent extractive energy industries fuel the demands of both).
These two toxic unsustainable industries of death and violence are killing off biodiversity and polluting the entire planet.

We must starve this monster hybrid of profit and domination.

To understand the destruction, I suggest these short videos on animal fishing/agribusiness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLgkrQSRy9E

Links to facts, here:

It's very important that we understand and inform others of the intersectionality or linkage between the animal fishing/agribusiness and military-industrial-complex connections, as well as, their combined consequences on animals and the planet; the agenda or goal being to raise awareness, reduce suffering and build coalitions between different peace and justice movements. Together, we will have more leverage and power against this level of unsustainable malevolence.

An important aspect in understanding about this 'unholy alliance' or connection is to see that it is rooted in the culture of accepted violence, immoral human behavior and otherizing.
Both the military and animal agribusiness have conditioned and indoctrinated people into accepting subjugation, harm and the killing of other sentient beings not for subsistence, but for control, domination and profit.
It stems from human entitlement or essentialism, also called speciesism.


This then is the beginning of selective compassion and immoral cognitive dissonance, resulting in a young human mind experiencing their first moral injury. Speciesism within human culture informs developing minds that it is acceptable to subjugate, torture, harm and kill certain animals but not others. Thus begins the otherizing of nonhuman animals and their use as a resource to be bred, raised, killed, controlled or kept as property. This later manifests as racism, sexism and all forms of negative discrimination between humans, leading to hatred, violence and war.

The military-industrial-violence-complex uses this speciesist - otherizing empathy/compassion conscience compartmentalization as part of their desensitization boot camp programs (soldierizing - sailorization) of recruits in preparing them to kill the 'enemy.'
And with that, the cycle of direct or indirect/complicity in harm and violence is continued causing internal moral conflict resulting in terrible psychic wounds for people, as well as, military veterans suffering with PTSD and moral injury. (Approx. 22 US military veteran suicides each day).

Since ancient herding cultures began this destructive harmful otherizing has lead humanity to continue to propagate this culture-of-death for profit and dominance that is the military-industrial-violence-complex and animal fishing/agribusiness; Together, they are killing individual humans, nonhuman animals and the living systems of our planet.

As we face the current climate crisis, it's imperative for the survival of life on Earth to undo the damage of our crisis of conscience and begin to promote values that align with ethical peace-making and justice for all.
Moral consistency and ethical coherence in all that we do and support will begin to change the patterns of speciesism, patriarchal colonialzation and human violent destructive behavior.
It will help to heal the psychic wounds of veterans, our collective human conscience and the planet.

Let us learn to be peaceful, to teach peace and reject all forms of violence so that the Monster of the Military-Industrial-Violence-Complex and animal agribusiness dies of starvation and neglect. Let's grow instead, a new culture that supports and sustains life and fairness for all. - Jeff

Informative resources provided, below:

Videos on moral injury:



Jonathan Shay established the term, Moral Injury:

Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD psychiatrist retired from a career in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts, and author of the acclaimed Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (Shay, 1994) New York, NY: Scribner.

Shay, J. (2014). Moral injury. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 31, 182–191. doi:10.1037/a0036090 Sherman

Pentagon's Massive Carbon Foot(boot)print... And, not factored are GHGs from Carbon to Methane released from the whole of the infrastructure of animal agribusiness to get animal flesh/secretion 'food' to the warfighters:




USDA partnership with DOD to mitigate climate change (cough!):


"In the most recent marketing year (2014 – 2015), about 59 percent of total U.S. soybean production was exported to international markets – that’s a total of more than 2.3 billion bushels with an astounding value of more than $24 billion.  The products included whole soybeans, soybean meal (primarily used for livestock and poultry feed), and edible soybean oil." - http://blogs.usda.gov/2016/06/21/u-s-soybeans-help-feed-the-world/

The Department of Defense annually purchases about:
194 million pounds of beef (estimated cost $212.2 million)
164 million pounds of pork ($98.5 million)
1500,000 pounds of lamb ($4.3 million)

Monsanto Connections - Military/Ag History:



U.S. Government's War on Animals and the planet:


Senator: Meatless Mondays have no place in military:



Department of Defense - DOD meat / meal procurement acquisitions and relationships with agribusiness:





How the US army shapes the way we eat:


MREs:


USDA program for veterans - Agribusiness Development Teams:



Military Animal Research and Testing:




Definitions:

Speciesism:



Moral Injury:
"Like psychological trauma, moral injury is a construct that describes extreme and unprecedented life experience including the harmful aftermath of exposure to such events. Events are considered morally injurious if they "transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations" (1). Thus, the key precondition for moral injury is an act of transgression, which shatters moral and ethical expectations that are rooted in religious or spiritual beliefs, or culture-based, organizational, and group-based rules about fairness, the value of life, and so forth."

"Moral injury is the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress their own moral and ethical values or codes of conduct."



How to have an immediate impact and take direct action against the violent 'Monster' of the Military-Industrial-Complex-AnimalAgribusiness: http://www.howdoigovegan.com  http://www.vegankit.com/

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