“Constructing Consumables and Consent: A Critical Analysis of Factory Farm Industry Discourse,” Cathy Glenn

IWA: 3/22/13

Summary: In her article, “Constructing Consumables and Consent: A Critical Analysis of Factory Farm Industry Discourse,” Cathy Glenn attempts to tell her audience, the general public, that meat companies are basically horrible people who mistreat their animals and such. She argues that many people in power use “double speak” to trick their audience into believing something that is awful is really actually decent.

Synthesis: This article reminded me of “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty” because it discusses, in a way, proper ways to advertise and look good to the public. It also reminded me of the recent articles we read (Swales and Gee) because it discuses discourse.

QD 1: Glenn says the main characteristic of the factory farm discourse is what she calls doublespeak. This basically means companies (like in this discourse) will use advertising slang to their advantage to make something awful sound wonderful. It sanitizes the practice by basically misleading the public as to what is going on. To me it’s not really ethical because, even though it’s technically telling the public the truth, it’s doing so in a way that would mislead them. It’s just like a lot of PR people do. It’s not the Estate Tax, it’s the Death Tax. They mean the same but they sway you in two very different ways.

QD 2: Basically what Glenn means is that good companies know what the public wants and so will basically lie to them to make them seem like the good guys. Obviously if people saw how their food was being treated before it ended up on their plate and they happened to be animal activists, they’d probably be ticked off and would no longer support the company. I guess in a way I did participate in this because I’d rather NOT see the chicken concentration camps and what’s really in the food I eat because that makes me nauseous. However at the same time I don’t participate in this because I do know what goes on and every once and a while when I’m enjoying my dinner I look at that piece of chicken and think, “wow…this guy went through hell…” and then procede to eat.

AE 2: My company is McDonald’s. I did some quick research and found they do in fact use factory farms. Of course the public probably is not well informed about this. It was fairly easy to find out when I googled it. It was the first thing to pop up. From what I can tell they never advertise a “family farm”.

AE 3: Basically they use words the general population would not understand or misinterpret and believe to be good. It’s all about advertising.

AE 5: I would say very rarely do we have home grown foods anymore. We’re becoming more local though I would say with increased farmer’s markets and everything. Other cultures I feel like grow a lot of their own food to put on the plate and it appears they do treat their meat properly.

MM 1: I would say my views haven’t really changed. I mean I’m still going to eat my hamburgers and everything. It does make me sick to my stomach though because it makes me think of “Supersize Me” and makes me think about the food we put in our systems is awful.

Afterthoughts: This article made me feel very ill in a way. It also ticked me off because it made me think a lot about how companies manipulate the public to seem like a great corporation if they’re not.