In Kristof's article, "Animal Cruelty or the Price of Dinner?" he eloquently makes an argument against the poultry industry. He begins with an anecdote about a man who was arrested in Florida for dangling his dog upside-down out of a twelve story window. This anecdote is really powerful, because he then calls attention to the nine billion chickens that will be slaughtered in the US this year by being dangling upside-down over conveyer belts. As I am a vegetarian, it is probably not surprising that I agree very strongly with his opinion. He then moves into discussing why poultry farming in its very nature is animal abuse and cites several experts, ranging from farmers to people on the corporate end of the operation. He also uses a quotation from Leah Garces, from the organization Compassion in World Farming. He quote Garces, "It is inhumane to breed a bird with a huge breast that its legs can barely support." This expert opinion in particular really changes his argument, in that it exemplifies his stance well. He does not say anything about vegetarianism or veganism in his writing- and although I do believe he would support both of these dietary styles as a means of improvement- what he is really proposing is for the means of the poultry industry to change. Kristof praises Whole Foods for proposing to sell chicken with more traditional genetics to avoid the issue that Garces illuminates. Although this change has not been implemented yet, I believe that once it is, people will begin to fulfill the author's vision to a much greater extent. Hopefully, if people continue to demand this, other food suppliers will have to follow the example Whole Foods will set. However, one could argue that this is not something that could be feasibly implemented due to the fact that a change in genetics could take a lot of time, cost money to companies and consumers, and also potentially preventing their being enough supply to meet demand. If I was rewriting this argument, I would try to address these concerns and also add more of an emotional appeal.
I accessed this article through the NY Times website: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/sunday/animal-cruelty-or-the-price-of-dinner.html?ref=opinion
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