Don’t Imagine Big Open Spaces

This post is from a series of blogs related to Matthew Scully’s book, Dominion.*
 
According to Scully, the U.S. is consuming meat in increasing quantities.

Translation? WE EAT HUGE AMOUNTS OF MEAT.

For example, someone living in 2007 ate 78 lbs. more than a person living in 1950.

Because we eat so much meat, we have to figure out ways to produce tons of it. To produce this meat, more land and resources must be set aside for this purpose. 85% of our original American topsoil is now devoted to livestock population, according to Ardeth Baxter.

But, according to Baxter, don’t imagine big open spaces where animals live full lives roaming about, grazing in the sunshine.

Of the 10 million biogenetically engineered dairy cows in the U.S., at least half spend their entire lives in crowded milking pens or barns with concrete floors.

Almost 10 billion chickens, turkeys and ducks are slaughtered each year for their meat. An additional four hundred million egg-laying hens live a hellish life, five to a cage only 18 inches in width (a chicken’s wingspan is 32 inches).

Using similar statistics and anecdotes, Scully’s book poses the question: Is this sort of practice–where animals are sped to adulthood with hormones and spend their entire lives warehoused without the chance to walk on grass—what God had in mind when he gave Adam and Eve “dominion” (the title of Scully’s book)?

Reflect on the question for yourself. Do you have an internal sense that our nation’s current practices align with God’s intentions or not? To check out the next blog in this series, click here for a few observations on the Biblical word “dominion”.


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