As children, one of the first things we learn is how to recognize friendly farmyard animals. It's easy to spot the furry cow with soft eyes, the feathered chickens running wild and the pink pigs rolling in the mud. We can also sing about that nice farmer, Old McDonald, and all his nice animals. The truth is that the old McDonald with a straw hat has been replaced by a businessman with a hard hat. Ninety-five percent of the meat we eat does not come from OldMcDonald Farm. Chickens, chickens, turkeys and more than half of the beef cattle, dairy cows and pigs come from an "animal factory" (Sussman, 95) which is a mechanized environment. This new farming method finds blue skies, tall silos and grassy hills good for calendars but bad for business. These photos are not profitable. The animals are not treated with the loving care of a farmer, but are treated like inmates on death row. Poultry, pigs and calves are forced to live in total confinement, never to see the light of day until they head to the slaughterhouse. Chickens are frequently crammed into small cages that they cannot leave for a year or two. Pregnant sows are often placed in stalls that serve as their homes for three months at a time. After having her piglets, a sow may be grounded for four to seven weeks to prevent her from turning on her babies. Cows can be regularly fed sawdust mixed with molasses, shredded newspapers, plastic pellets, poultry manure and processed slaughterhouse waste in order to gain weight more quickly. The confinement is so complete that the animals have no space to move (206). Not only are the animals forced to live in this unnatural environment, but they are also doused with antibiotics, hormones, steroids and dipped in pesticides. More than half of cattle and almost all pigs, calves and poultry are fed a regular diet of antibiotics and related Jarboe 2 medicines to help control disease. No o... middle of paper ...... although our bodies are designed to depend on vegetarian foods, modern man has changed his eating habits to those of the carnivore or meat eater. We may consider ourselves carnivores, but our flat teeth are not designed to tear skin, flesh, and bone. The tenderizer is placed on the meat to make it easier to chew. Additionally, the carnivore's digestive system is designed to get rid of the meat it eats before it breaks down. The human digestive system is designed to break down complex carbohydrates and fibers like those of herbivores (Sussman, 300). Beyond the cruel treatment of animals and the nutritional value of the vegetarian diet, perhaps God didn't intend for us to do so. eat meat at all. In Genesis 1:29-30, God said: I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the face of the earth, and every tree that bears fruit and seed. They will be your food. And to all the beasts of the earth and to all the birds of the air and to all the creatures that move on the earth, to everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every plant for food. And it was like this.