The World Peace Diet: Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony

The Domination of the Feminine / 127
microflora that are necessary for digestion and elimination, thus weakening
the immune system. Toxic pesticide residues from the feed, antibiotic
residues, and hormonal, chemical, and pathogenic bacteria residues
all concentrate in the fat and eggs of these hens, making them extremely
unhealthy to consume. 29
The tens of thousands of chickens crammed into one egg production
shed have nowhere to move and no way to nest, establish social order,
or in any way express their natural intelligence or purpose. The artificial
lighting schedule that keeps them in almost continuous darkness,
and the feed and drugs are all designed with only one goal: to cut costs
and maximize the number of eggs that drop from the hens’ uteruses and
roll down the slanted wire cage bottoms to be whisked away on the conveyor
belt. On modern chicken operations, this is over 250 eggs per
year, more than two and a half times the number hens would lay under
more natural conditions. 30 In nature, a hen is particular about her nest
and often chooses the right place to lay her precious egg in partnership
with a rooster. When she actually lays the egg in her carefully prepared
nest, it is “obviously for the hen a moment full of pride and satisfaction.”
31 Contrast this with the following description of egg laying for a
caged chicken.
The frightened battery hen starts to panic as she vainly searches for
privacy and a suitable nesting place in the crowded but bare wire
cage; then she appears to become oblivious to her surroundings,
struggling against the cage as though trying to escape. . . .
Take a moment to imagine yourself as a layer chicken; your home
is a crowded cage with a wire floor that causes your feet to hurt and
become deformed; there’s no room to stretch your legs or flap your
wings and they become weak from lack of exercise; but at the same
time, you can never be still because there is always one of your miserable
cell mates who needs to move about; one of the other chickens
is always picking on you and you cannot get away—except by
letting others sit on top of you; the air is filled with dust and flying
feathers that stick to the sides of the cage splattered with chicken shit
from the inmates in the cage upstairs; it is hard to breathe—there is