Red Wood to Stainless Steel

As I have been exploring my Junior Theme on factory farming and the truth about where our food comes from in America I have begun to pay attention to more brand names and labels on the food products I consume. I was sitting at the dinner table and drinking a tall glass of milk, something I have had every single night since I can't remember, but I never thought to examine what really lies behind that nice looking label. The label portrays a green field with the bluest sky with just the right amount of cloudsI have ever seen, and the sun is shining so bright it's blinding. All of this makes the product seem natural and from the earth, as it portrays the ideal fresh green field of grass. However, the harsh reality of the food system in America is that the cow from which this milk came from will never actually see the light of day, let alone graze in the fresh green grass.

Dairy milk in our modern day food industry comes from what is called a factory farm, where the cow will spend an accelerated lifespan of just six short months. By the time the cow has finished that time though they might as well wish they were dead, because the entire time they have been standing knee high in their own feces in a pen so small they cannot move around, and constantly fed engineered corn products all hours of the day that make them sick because it is not their natural diet. There is no green grass to be seen, and no sunlight whatsoever entering through the tinted windows in the harsh metal factory.

Lehigh's marketing picture on their cartons of milk could not be farther from the truth, it is simply a tool to appeal to the customers because certainly painting the real picture of the origins of their milk product would not be pretty. In fact the way most American's see their food being made is the way they want to see it, so it is not entirely the companies fault. They want to think that their food is made in a place like this valley of lush green grass and sunlight. They don't want to know or believe that they are endorsing these cruel factories with every daily grocery purchase. The company markets to the consumer's interest, so we as American consumers need to change our standards of food production in order to make any changes to the entire system.