October26,2000
The Blue Banner
Pdge3
Opinions
Find out where your chicken sandwich originated
On enuironmental viewpoint
Candice Carr
Environmental Columnist
Meat eaters seem more likely to
eat a burger from McDonald’s than
sustainably-raised and humanely-
killed local beef. It worries some
that there is not a larger demand for
good meat like Warren Wilson beef
It seems that there are those that
believe that eating animals is wrong
and those who feel that it is okay to
eat meat but they just don’t want to
know about how the “dirty work”
is done. What is missing is more of
the conscious and aware meat-eat-
ers.
A bunch of vegetarians are not
going to create the demand for
healthy, well-raised animals. A poll
conducted by the Opinion Research
Corporation of Princeton, N. J.
shows that 93 percent of Americans
are opposed to the suffering of ani
mals raised to be our food and 90
percent specifically disapprove of
the of the extreme confinement of
animals on the massive factory
“farms” that produce most of
America’s meat.
But they are still buying the same
old tortured, antibiotic-fed, sad and
abused flesh in the supermarket.
Increasingly, there are alternatives
like Earth Fare, but that is not
going to be enough to change the
way things are in the industry.
I write this article now because of
the newly opened Chick-fil-A on
campus. This chain, like all fast
food joints, is clearly for people
who do not care what they eat, or
have no idea and do not want to
have an idea of how the animal they
are eating lived or died.
Chick-fil-A doesn’t have any veg
etarian options. Their fries even
have beef fat in them. The con
scious consumer could not spend
money there, given the current re
alities of the poultry industry. I
myself am not opposed to eating
meat, although I used to be vegetar
ian. It is the methods and mass
production of the factory farms and
slaughterhouses that are so terribly
disgusting and sad.
A typical complex consists of three
to five long metal warehouses side
by side, each packed with birds
from floor to ceiling, in cages many
tiers high, so that they become cov
ered with one another’s fecal mat
ter. A broiler chicken house holds
20.000 birds, while a hen house for
egg production holds 80,000-
125.000 hens.
Each 16-inch-high cage holds
three to nine hens. They do not
have room to spread their wings,
and spend their very short lives on
wire mesh surrounded by cages of
other chickens on all sides, with
the lights on in the warehouse 23
hours a day.
Most are in chronic pain for at
least the last part of their lives due
to extreme genetic selection for
weight gain, which gives them bad
joints. The extreme confinement
is also a factor. All birds are de-
beaked to prevent them from peck
ing at one another. Their feed is
laced with antibiotics and pesti
cides to lessen the flies and conse
quences of the horrible overcrowd-
ing.
Often their own waste is recycled
backinto their feed, too. The poorly
ventilated warehouses often result
in deaths, especially if the fans stop
working. In a classic example from
Union County, N.C., over half a
million chickens died in a heat
wave.
Sick birds are often either beaten
to death with a piece of pipe or just
left to suffer and die. Weaker hens
are often crushed by larger ones.
An operation with 100,000 broiler
chickens kills 250 birds a day. The
Letters to the Editor
Practice tolerance
Dear Editor,
My name is Molly de Mattos. I am
a junior full of shame directed to
ward the actions of my peers. I arn
an athlete and a lesbian, and I am
having trouble understanding both
sides.
As a thrower for our incredible
team, I want to make it clear that I
have never felt threatened by my
coaches or teammates, and I don’t
think that will ever change. I have
never felt uncomfortable around
my fellow athletes as a whole until
the incidents that have occurred
this year.
Being an athlete at a school with
students that don’t support sports
as much as they should, I try to
attend all athletic events to stand
behind my colleagues. This year
might be different. How can I sup
port a basketball team that has play
ers that don’t see me as an equal
because of my sexual preference?
On the flip side, I feel ashamed of
being an athlete when I am around
other students. Most schools see
their athletes as examples of the
university. They wear their uni
forms and jackets with pride. Here,
it seems the only people behind
sports are some professors, fraterni
ties and sororities and other ath
letes.
I am proud of my athletic ability,
and I am proud that I am not
ashamed of my sexuality. So why
do I feel so oppressed by my peers?
The vandalism in Founders Hall
says it all. I am hated as a homo
sexual to the point where my life is
threatened and I am unwanted as a
scholar athlete.
I have worked hard my entire life
as an athlete to understand who I
am as a human being. I am strong in
mind and body and I demand re
spect for both.
I have the honor of throwing with
the best throwers in the Big South
Conference under the direction of
the best throws coach (in my opin
ion) anywhere. I have stayed quiet
about all this foolishness for long
j enough. We, as a community, as a
campus and as human beings must
( be more open to everyone.
I Don’t hate me because I am an
1 athlete. Don’t hate me because I am
' a homosexual. Don’t hate me be-
. causelamnotscaredofyou.Tothe
graffiti people, “fags” won’t die and
“athletic scholarship asses” won’t
get out of here. So let’s all just c^m
down and get back to the basic
understanding that has always been
accepted and practiced on this cam
pus: tolerance.
Molly de Mattos
Junior, literature
Track and field, UNCA-Out
Cheney a danger
Dear Editor,
Seemingly overlooked in the me
dia evaluation of Dick Cheney is
his effect in securing the votes of
the extreme right for the Republi
can ticket. The national press has
asked Cheney about his congres
sional votmg record on issues rang
ing from Head Start to cop-killer
bullets. Cheney liberally alters his
position on each controversial vote,
except his vote against a resolution
in favor of freeing Nelson Mandela.
In defending his Mandela vote,
Cheney invokes “communism.”
Mandela a communist? Hardly —
then or now. Why does Cheney
continue denigrating Nelson
Mandela? Because Nelson Mandela
is black. Cheney’s stance reassures
and secures the votes of the bigots
and racists of the extreme right.
Cheney creates a bufiir between
the extreme right and George W.
Bush. Thus, Bush frees himself to
appeal to fiscally conservative white
middle class voters whom other
wise will not tolerate bigotry. With
Cheney, Bush gets the vote ol the
extreme right and finesses the vote
of otherwise sensible, kind conser
vatives. The vote of both groups is
essential to his campaign success.
Perhaps the effect of this plan is
what Bush means when he talks
about “soft bigotry.” But in whose
cynical lexicon is bigotry ever “soft?”
The bigotry of the Republican
party is as masterfully pernicious
and present today as it was in 1988
when the elder George Bush in
voked Willie Horton, an antic for
which the Bush’s campaign adviser
Lee Atwater later apologized, but
Bush never did.
Like father, like son. The fruit
doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Roy B Conant, President
RC Company, Inc.
Portland, Ore.
Donors needed
immediately
Dear Editor,
I have recently had a double-lung
transplant (May 20, 2000). I was
very grateful to be lucky enough to
get a second chance. However, three
people who were waiting for new
organs were scheduled for their sur
gery, but all three got cancelled
because of lack of blood from do
nors.
Please consider donating blood
anywhere locally around where you
live, and please encourage friends
or family to donate also.
One donation could save two to
four lives. I thank you, and I am
sure whoever would receive your
blood would be just as thankful, if
not more so.
Thank you for your tiiye, and
please consider being a donor.
Daniel C. Wine
Hacienda Heights, Calif
Meal plan issues
Dear Editor,
I have to agree with Sean Clancy’s
Oct, 12 column “A meal in the life
of a college student.”
All on-campus students are re
quired to get a meal plan. Mine
cost around a thousand dollars.
The meal plan covers about four
months — approximately $250 a
month.
I spent some time off campus
where my monthly grocery budget
was $ 150 a month, and I ate much
better than I ever had on campus.
I don’t understand why the food is
so disappointing in the cafeteria,
and it makes me angry that the
staff- does not seem to care about
quality of the food they serve.
It seems that by requiring the on-
campus students to pay for the
cafeteria food, the school has taken
away the accountability of the caf
eteria. After all, why listen to the
customers if they have to pay
whether they like the food or not?
Perhaps changing the meal policy
of the school would result in a little
more attention to customer satis
faction.
Jen JaJinke
Senior, art
decomposing remains overflowtrash
cans and are piled outside the poul
try sheds. These carcasses are even
tually burned, buried or dropped
down feed chutes.
The waste from these houses of
torture and death is a huge environ
mental hazard that kills wildlife and
fish as well as leaching into ground
water. Every day, a typical slaughter
plant kills over a quarter-million
chickens and uses two million gal
lons of water.
When the level of egg production
drops too low to make a profit, all of
the birds are slaughtered and sent
away to be turned into pet food,
chicken soup and feed for animals
on fur farms.
Workers in this industry often suf
fer from pain and limb damage from
repetitive motion, and are usually
not unionized.
So, we say, what about free-range
hens? Well, there are no regulated
standards for using that term. Many
of those advertising such farms are
blatantly lying. Many “free-range”
hens spend their lives in conven
tional battery cages, are force molted
and de-beaked.
Force molting is when hens are
deprived of food for days so that
they shed all of their feathers and
stop laying eggs, in order to drive
up the price of eggs. Male chicks are
considered useless, and at both fac-.
tory and “free-range” farms are
stuffed into trashcans alive to suffo
cate, thrown alive into the grinder
or sold to laboratories.
When people eat chicken from
these factories, they are ingesting
the vaccinations the birds have re
ceived, the antibiotics, pesticides in
the food, not to mention the ge
netically engineered seed that grew
the plants used to make their food.
Many also believe they are eating
the bad karma that the meat carries
because of the incredible injustice
in its life. Animals have emotions.
They have the capability to be happy
or sad in their life. It is something to
take into account.
It might be sort of funny to see the
cow with the “Eat more chikin”
sign, but the reality of the industry
will sure wipe the smile off
All of the information in this ar
ticle is from United Poultry Con
cerns (UPC) and People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA).
Thorough article
Dear Editor,
Many thanks for the cogent and
thorough article about the course
on the death penalty at the College
for Seniors. Lauren did a fine job in
reporting, and also in melding stu
dent opinion with the class speak
ers and class participation.
It was very refreshing to have two
students in our class, and we wel
come student members in any of
the subsequent classes (2:30-4:30
Wednesdays for the next three
weeks). This is a current and con
troversial topic. Student input is
desirable. Thanks again, Lauren.
Ellie Zitin
College for Seniors
Unnecessary use?
Dear Editor,
The choice to reproduce a large
picture on the front page with the
words “fags will die” disturbs me,
to say the least. Have you not em
powered the homophobic
vandalists that have done the graf
fiti by enlarging and printing it up
so that it is the first thing hundreds
of people see when they look at the
paper?
The words in the picture are larger
than any other word or phrase on
the page. Was it really necessary to
show the grafiiti, which we could
have all easily pictured in our heads
since we have seen its kind before,
because you needed to prove that it
existed?
Such sensationalism is an abuse
of the power of the press. The copy
that has been given to LGBT issues
in the past few weeks’ papers is not
fair; it is exploitative of problems
on campus. I fail to see how the
recent articles have in any way
helped the issues. They seem only
to have made them worse by in
creasing the us/them divide that
already exists between LGBT and
Straight community members.
Why does it take extreme circum
stances and controversy for LGBT
issues to get press? Is the Blue
Banner’s purpose to inform and
raise awareness or is the goal merely
to entertain?
Daniel Roberson Holton
Sophomore, undeclared
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The Blue Banner Staff
Editorial Board
Emma Jones
Sarah Wilkins
Kathryn Krouse
Lena Burns
Sarah Lacy
Lauren Deal
Matt Hunt
Ben Welgand
Editor-in-Chief
News Editor
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Sports Editor
Photo Editor
Copy Editor
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Asst. Online Editor
Staff
Kay Alton, Amanda Anderson, Casey Blankenship,
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Rachel Crumpler, Kristina Elliott, Ben Ezell,
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Luke Knox, John Locke, Justin Meckes, Angela Nantz,
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Cate Bergman
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Manasers
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