On Hamburgers and Spirituality: A Document Analysis on the article entitled

‘Hamburger Connection Fuels Amazon Destruction.’

A writer once wrote something to the tune of 'how can we attain a higher level of spirituality when our

stomachs serve as tombs for dead animals?" This was written as a reaction against what he perceived as

the baseness and lowly situation of our eating another creature in order to live. Meat is an important

component of the human diet, so if there is anyone to blame, then it should be the one who made it so

that we do these things. For indeed, why would a merciful God of love make it so that in order to live we

have to eat the flesh of other animals? But these are just the more abstract of the ideas we encounter

when the topic of meat-eating comes up. A more down to earth question is the actual effect of this

carnivorism to the environment and what we can do to alleviate or to altogether undo any damage we

have created.

When we buy meat the word that is very far from our minds is the word 'suffering.' Everything is packaged

in supermarkets and hypermarkets to hide the fact that this particular piece of nice, fresh, clean-looking

meat was once a living, breathing being that once walked the earth. We do not ask while we consume this

rather tasty piece of crispy pata whether the pig which was once what this thing was, lived a happy life

and when it was slaughtered did it feel any pain, whether its death was prolonged or very quick. No, we

do not ask these things for the simple reason that guilt might cause indigestion. And so we chomp away

and after finishing our meal, brushing our teeth, and flossing, we go to bed a few hours later and dream

happy dreams.

Sundays, after finishing church service, families go to fastfood places like McDonald's or Jollibee to

indulge in some quality time with each other, just like in the advertisements on television. While eating

their burgers or French fries or hotdogs, they are not aware that they are contributing to the destruction of

forests around the world.

In the article, the fate of cattle which are used for the production of burger for fastfood is tied to the fate of

the rainforests; specifically the Amazon rainforest. Simply stated, the growing global demand for Brazilian

beef has led to the acceleration of the deforestation rate of the Amazon. This is because ranchers take

over forest lands and convert them into ranches used to raise cattle. Also, areas that are declared to be

free from Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Mad Cow Disease (MCD) inside Brazil have increased so

that more countries want to buy their beef there. Added to this is the devaluation of the Brazilian currency

which, according to macro-economic models called Computable General Equilibrium models, is directly

related to the deforestation of the Amazon.

To the point of view of human beings, cattle free from foot and mouth disease (FMD) and mad cow

disease (MCD) is a good thing. It means safe meat to be made into steaks and of course, burgers. But if

we take into account the point of view of the cow, this means death, so that if it could think, it would rather

have these diseases if only to be left alone and live a while longer. However, sick cattle merely take up

space and are a waste of feed. It is more economical for them to be killed and their skin used to make

leather. Any way we try to see it, it is still bad news for these animals.

The McDonalds hamburger can be seen as a symbol of the physical and spiritual malnourishment that

many of the world’s peoples are experiencing right now. All are aware that what they are eating is junk,

that the object they hold before their mouth is nothing but grease held together with chopped up bits of

cattle flesh with two pieces of circular bread on its sides. If health and nourishment is our aim in eating,

then certainly eating fastfood is the most unwise thing that we can do. When Buddhist monks eat, the

term that they use is “taking one’s medicine.” This is due to the appallingly obvious way in which our

bodies are influenced by the things that we eat. The purpose of Buddhist monks is mainly towards the

maintenance of the health of the body so that the mind is able to function properly. It does not matter to

them whether the food tastes good or not. This and only this should be the goal of eating. But we look

around and this is not what we see. All around the world, fast food chains are sprouting up offering not

health but convenience and reliability.

The article provides data and statistics all saying that indeed the Amazon rainforest is in a sorry state. In

the last portion, it commends the efforts of the Brazilian president Luis Inacio da Silva in attempting to

stem the tide of this destruction through an “Action Plan to Prevent and Control Deforestation in the Legal

Amazon,” saying “the government’s approach goes in the right direction.” The article recommends that

the government should provide more funds for these projects, that it should implement the laws regarding

the land-grabbings, that ranchers should be prevented from illegally occupying forest lands and

transforming it into ranches. The article ends in a sad note, saying that due to the current economic

recession there in Brazil, it will be hard for the government to provide the right level of budget allocation

for the project to be implemented successfully, and so calls for the international community to help in

saving the Amazon.

It is interesting to note that instead of simply recommending that people minimize or to altogether stop

eating in fast food places, the article supports the government’s efforts at spending millions to save the

Amazon, as if everything can be solved by money. Is it not much cheaper and more effective that people

simply curb their demand for beef? Here one remembers the admonition of Mahatma Gandhi which is that

“change starts from within” and that “be the change that you want to see.” People are left to be just the

way they are, they are not encouraged to change, and that any problem that is produced by their desire to

consume can be given a solution by the government, and to me, this is the main problem.
not need but culture. It is an irrational thing. For we are destroying the very things that keeps us
alive in order to have something that we can live without.

rising demand for brazilian beef

due to reports of mad cow disease

brazilian beef is clean

cattle raising needs land

forest tracks are cleared and converted to lands for raising beef

this leads to deforestation of the amazon

hamburger is popularized by mcdonalds, the most potent symbol of american economic and
cultural influence on the world

well-being of forest dependent people

rising export demands for brazilian beef to be used in making hamburgers

annual deforestation figure of is very high. new statistics expected to match or even surpass last
year's figure.

cattle ranching for burger leads to deforestation which leads to loss of

not only is commercialized burger unhealthy

fastfood is physically and spiritually unhealthy

"absurd inefficiency in providing people with nourishment"

peter singer animal liberation p.122

"factory-like methods of prodictmachines for converting low-priced fodder into high-priced

flesh."
ibid, p.