The Smell of Money
Next to industrial-strength pig and chicken factories, human neighbors routinely breathe a god-awful stink The factories collect excrement and urine in open cesspools. They irrigate (spray) farms with toxic liquid. Toxic material permeates the air, pollutes the water.
In a related discussion, why do thousands of animals need to be stuffed in a building designed for horrible treatment of them and questionable product quality for people. The stink, the toxicity, and to say the least, the disregard is “The Smell of Money.” That’s the name of a drubbing good film raising awareness about routine corporate behavior underpinning our food supply.
Big business makes big money. How? Consider two very important terms in environmental justice: Externalized Costs and The Precautionary Principle. While the film “The Smell of Money” slams industrial farm factories pretty hard, it doesn’t indulge these terms.
External costs refer to costs companies DON’T pay. For instance, they don’t pay for the pollution they cause. They don’t pay for the ill health they cause.
If it’s reasonable to worry that a company is causing harm, the company should have to prove that what they’re doing is safe. Companies aren’t bound by this Precautionary Principle. They bank on people having to prove that a company caused harm.
See “The Smell of Money.” It follows people who live and suffer next to these animal factories. It follows their lawsuits. Can the poor neighbors win? What happens if they do? Can we all sign on to discontinuing support for businesses that do business this way?