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of specific legislation, industry standards and guidelines that allow
exceptional (that is, cruel) treatment to occur in relation to food animals
(such as teeth clipping and castration without pain relief of pigs). Codes
of practice are, in effect, serving to entrench the cruelty associated with
industrialised farming practices by normalising such cruel practices (see
Sharman, 2009; Dale, 2009). Humans, too, are caught up in the profit-
seeking efforts of companies to reduce costs at the expense of the health
and welfare involved in production processes. It has been observed, for
example, that there is widespread abuse of workers' statutory rights and
entitlements in the Australian poultry industry:
Rather than reduce their overall profit in order to lower
poultry prices, poultry producers have instead shifted the
risk to workers by employing more of the workforce
indirectly and relying on contractor networks inside
processing facilities to cope with increasing labour demands.
A great deal of employment inside poultry facilities is now
insecure, indirect and unsafe. (Whyte, 2012)
Pressures for cost-cutting measures leading to further exploitation of
both human and nonhuman is ingrained in systems of production
that demand profitable outcomes for their corporate shareholders.
Production systems are, in turn, linked to distribution networks and
consumption practices.
Extensive and intensive forms of consumption are essential to the
realisation of surplus value - that is, profit depends upon a critical
mass of buyers purchasing the mass produced commodities. The
link between production and consumption occurs through specific
distribution processes (for example, transportation of goods and
services, retail outlets, storage, roads, railways, bridges, and ships) and
exchange mechanisms (for example, finance capital, credit availability)
that sustain and contribute to extensive use of natural and human
resources. Economic efficiency is measured in how quickly and cheaply
commodities can be produced, channelled to markets, and consumed. It
is a process that is highly destructive of environments due to heightened
levels of pollution and waste, and the designed obsolescence of food
(as well as goods and services). Nothing is meant to last for too long in
an era of rapid commodity turn-over, and the ostensible value-adding
offered by 'new and improved' processed foods feeds this consumption
treadmill.
In essence, the competition and the waste associated with the capitalist
mode of production have a huge impact on the wider environment,
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