No, the title is not a description of my current state – it is the pointer to today’s topic of propaganda: the divide between those of us who eat meat and those who don’t.

I have previously written about my thoughts on the divide between mass agricultural production and production on small farms. Not many happy cows found at either, is the short version.  Today I am more interested in the acrimony between those advocating for a stop to all animal husbandry, and those who cannot live without heir steak. Or their porkchops. Or their eggs.  Or their milk and cheese. Or their leather belts and shoes, for that matter.

In danger of sounding like you-know-who, there are good and bad guys on both sides. Well, really, there aren’t in white supremacist rallies, don’t get me going. But there are along the continuum of vegans to paleo-dieters. And both have amply employed propaganda. Case in point is the film Cowspiracy, which claims that those of us who eat meat cannot be counted as good environmentalists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-XP79o8gqQ

It bases its claims on scientifically debunked statistics that agricultural animals are responsible for 51% of the greenhouse gas emissions that hurt our planet. The factual number is closer to 15 % and that’s due to emissions from livestock agriculture including the methane from animals’ digestive systems, deforestation, land use change and energy use. The remaining pollution really lies at the feet of the fuel fossil industry.

Here is a short article on why this propaganda film is self-defeating and hurtful to the cause of environmentalism.

http://climateandcapitalism.com/2016/02/13/22449/

Another film also aimed at animal cruelty, Okja, is less of a documentary and more of a movie. Heavy-handed ideological promotion, nothing else. Why did I watch it? Because I watch anything with Tilda Swinton in it, here playing the baddie, and Joon-ho Bong as director ( who I liked from Snowpiercer.) Pure propaganda.

Let me hasten to say that of course it would be terrific if those of us who like and can afford meat would eat less or none at all. It is healthier, it is better for the environment on many levels, and it would help those who live in poorer countries whose scarce national resources get destroyed by our demand for hamburgers. And I am also aware that the meat industry wins first prize when it comes to propaganda: here is a good summary in a Frontline  piece.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/politics/

Photographs are of members of a vegan organization /PDX chapter who were demonstrating and informing in front of Powell’s Bookstore today. They showed movies that they made under “threat to their lives” going undercover in the agricultural industry. That was repeatedly emphasized.  Got lots of attention. And now let me think, guilt twinges and all, about Bratwurst for dinner.