Comments on: Can science take pain and guilt off the menu?

By: Tim J

Tim J — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:29:32 +0000

Great article Melody, well done!

By: Dave D

Dave D — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:42:59 +0000

Interesting article – having just watched ‘FOOD, Inc.’ the documentary, I have to say i was shellshocked by the expose on the American Industrial Food System. Here in NZ, we are moving in that direction inevitably, as we seek to increase the profit margin and productivity of the food industry. What are the implications for humans involved in the processing of (particularly) meat? The nightmare scenes of cold hearted production line workers plucking brand new baby chicks off the conveyor belt, electricuting them (?) or stunning them in some other way and dropping them into another conveyor for the next section of processing left me not only physically sick and shaking with grief, but thinking ‘the poor wretches doing this from 9 to 5 every week…52 weeks a year, must SURELY be affected mentally……

A lot of questions have to be considered, and time marches on as we each fight the indoctrination we are born into…I suspect the pollution of human thinking begins at conception…affected by the very incoming poisoned food that the mother consumes, and the placenta processes…

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:00:47 +0000

Lesions to the primary somatosensory cortex , damage to the anterior cingulate and lesions to the spinal cord do not stop the pain message at source.
What the brain damage you mention does is force the brain to interpret the pain signals differently causing a different physical/behavioural response (the learnt “pain behavior” is not accessed).
So when these animals are tortured, these creatures do not have the ability to communicate their discomfort & pain levels it does not mean it is not felt.
I know first hand what effect the aforementioned mentioned lesions cause in relation to the human perception of severe pain.
Say, if I kicked Rainville and colleagues hard in the nuts after causing lesions in their pain centers- despite saying they can’t feel pain their testes they would still be sending pain/distress frequencies.
But try as I might I cannot justify the testes torture of these ‘neuroscientists’ for reasons of human curiosity and corporate politicoprofitprotection.

By: Andrew Graham

Andrew Graham — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:41:03 +0000

excellent article Melody! I’d love to see someone’s proposal for how exactly a vegetarian utopia would work.. what would happen to the farmed animals?.. and how much pain would they go through in the “wild”. would it still be humans responsibility to care for these “wild” animals? something to think about.

i kinda think that if humans can go to the trouble to genetically remove pain from an animal, then surely we can go to the trouble to enforcing better kill systems/higher standards in the abatoir.. maybe someone is looking to make money off GE?

theres so much more i wold love to say.. but ill simply recomend two books ive read:
The omnivores dilemna, by professor michael pollan. And Hugh fernley whittingstall makes some good points in his “Meat” river cottage cookbook.

By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:36:57 +0000

This is fascinating – where did you get all the info on world meat consumption etc? I’d be interested in reading more.

By: Darlene

Darlene — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:51:26 +0000

Interesting article! I’m not sure if I’m right here, but I think that stopping an animal from feeling pain in order to “feel better” about housing them in less than desirable conditions doesn’t take away the effect that these conditions have on the meat itself.

I eat meat, but I would never eat a pig with lesions and stress from being kept in a tiny pen, even though it didn’t feel any pain. Perhaps the pain causes the stress, but I think that pain is a signifier that something is wrong. Taking the pain away doesn’t take the environmental wrong away – nor the moral wrong (in my opinion).

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:45:10 +0000

This would be very wrong in my opinion as you are still taking the animal’s life, and preventing it from expressing natural behaviour.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:27:16 +0000

Nice piece melody. Very insightful