Clean Eaters: Is Mainstream Media Serving Us Filth?
The food system of the western world is broken thanks in large part to our reliance on animal agriculture. And no— the term “animal agriculture” has little (if anything) to do with idyllic cage-free, grass-fed, humanely-slaughtered pigs, cows, and chickens living on E. B. White’s pastoral countryside. For the initiated, for those in the know, the ideas that immediately come to mind when reading over the words “animal agriculture” do not stop at rape, murder, and misinformation propagated by mainstream news media—nor should they.
After reading the above, and perhaps upon reflection, if your ideas concerning the rape and murder of innocent beings are not closely followed by concerns related to the stigmatization of critical thought by mass media, rainforest destruction and species extinction, cattle emissions contributing to climate change, and starvation and drought as products of global warming, then consider yourself uninitiated. Fear not, for the following is intended to expose the hierarchy of food, and the media’s role in it, for what it is.
With veganism and animal advocacy on the rise, as well as a decline in religiosity coinciding with a rejuvenated clean-eating movement, mainstream media’s representation of all things green must evolve in order to better inform the public, as well.
∙ I will examine The Huffington Post’s (a “Meatless Monday” story by Ellen Kanner) and The National Post’s (a late-May Sarah Boesveld piece) representation of animal advocacy and veganism to reveal mainstream news media’s position(s) on how important our dietary choices are to global welfare.
∙ I will explore the philosophies of “30 Bananas a Day”, an online vegan blog backed by animal activist (and online celebrity, in some circles) Harley Johnstone, affectionately known as Durianrider, to track how (and if) news outlets bend the truth more than blogs do when it comes to the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle, veganism, and clean-eating.
∙ I will make reference to a 2011 study, “Vegaphobia”, found in the British Journal of Sociology, on the reproduction of speciesism in UK newspapers to strengthen my argument surrounding mainstream media’s duty to better inform citizens on dietary mismanagement, as well as the consequences thereof.
∙ I will reference “Livestock and Climate Change”, a study done by the Worldwatch Institute, a globally focused environmental research organization, to contextualize my arguments by providing relevant data related to greenhouse gas emissions.
∙ I will also reference the 2015 study “To Meat or Not To Meat?”, part of a forum on the rhetoric of food, which examines online vegetarian/vegan community’s motivations to go meatless.
Boesveld, Sarah.(2015, May 30). The new religion: How the emphasis on ‘clean eating’ has created a moral hierarchy for food. The National Post. Retrieved July 5, 2015. From http://news.nationalpost.com/life/food-drink/the-new-religion-how-the-emphasis-on-clean-eating-has-created-a-moral-hierarchy-for-food
Cole, M., & Morgan, K. (2011). Vegaphobia: derogatory discourses of veganism and the reproduction of speciesism in UK national newspapers. British Journal Of Sociology, 62(1), 134-153. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2010.01348.x
Jorgensen, B. (2015). To Meat or Not To Meat?. Poroi: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Rhetorical Analysis & Invention, 11(1), 1-19. doi:10.13008/2151-2957.1220
Kanner, Ellen. (2014, Aug 4). Meatless Monday – ‘Cowspiracy:’ The One Thing No One Talks About.The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 5, 2015. From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-kanner/meatless-monday-cowspirac_b_5634983.html
Sneijder, P., & Te Molder, H. M. (2005). Moral logic and logical morality: Attributions of responsibility and blame in online discourse on veganism. Discourse & Society, 16(5), 675-696. http://das.sagepub.com.ezproxy.kwantlen.ca:2080/content/16/5/675.full.pdf+html