Sick Land, Sick Animals, Sick People, Sick Planet : Intersectional Analysis of Distance as the Foundation of Exploitative Capitalism
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| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | As Covid-19 outbreaks in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants are reported all around the world, widespread exploitation of workers and animals in the meat industry is being unveiled. In 1906, Upton Sinclair published his seminal work The Jungle that unmasked inhumane practices and dire unsanitary conditions in the US meat plants, triggering outrage among the public of unprecedented proportions. Despite the public pressure for reform, more than a century later the meat industry still generates ever-more atrocious inhumane conditions for both workers and animals. Using Anna Szorenyi's theory of distanced suffering as a framework, my paper will argue that distance is the foundation of capitalism that drives human and animal suffering and ultimately causes environmental destruction. Drawing on Karl Marx's theories of social alienation and “metabolic rift”, I will explain how distance impedes empathy and thus enables exploitation. Furthermore, I will introduce Billy Ray Belcourt's “decolonial animal ethic” to reveal connections between North American settler’s encroachment of Indigenous lands and animal agriculture by tracing the history of displacement of Indigenous populations due to factory farming. Slaughterhouse workers, farm animals and Indigenous peoples have all been historically confined to geographic spaces away from the settlers' eyes hence rendered invisible. As environmental justice, social justice, decolonization and animal liberation are closely tight, an intersectional approach is essential to address the pressing issues of our times. |
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