This time Art Burshy prayed to animals and compared humans to lemmings...let me tell you the story...
Art Burshy wanted to see how animals are really being treated in modern farms.
Art had tried to understand different sorts of supermarket animal products...about environmental and animal-friendly certificates...
But all these certifications seemed really vague and left loads of room for interpretation.
What does 'free range' really mean or 'biological' which seems the best thing around.
And 'free access to outside air' or 'only chemicals that are available in nature'...
We arrived at the farm that Art had looked up...it did not really look like a farm...
I asked Art: "so how did you plan to get in?"
A woman approached us...in a hurried pace and clearly suspicious, but before she could speak I heard Art say:
"Hellooooo, what a wonderful farm you have, amazing so green, so neat and such a beautiful house..."
The woman's expression changed, the frown disappeared.
Art: "We were just out for a drive, and I told my friend...look at that wonderful farm...I so much empathise with farmers
- poor farmers are squeezed by the large supermarket chains
- hardworking farmers are the closest thing we have to nature
- clever farmers have gone through so much innovation and change adjusting to many challenges, it is just amazing...
Would you allow us to admire your farm, seems very advanced and futuristic..."
The woman finally allowed us into the barn, where we witnessed thousands of chickens...walking around on a small piece of surface...the smell was terrible...but Art did not seem to care.
At some point I saw him engaging with one chicken, talking to her...and it seemed he was sort of praying, or rather apologising...
I keep getting surprised by this crazy artist...now he is praying to a chicken...
On the way back I asked him quite some questions and he explained:
"Of course the woman let us in...
When people are suspicious or under pressure you have to make them feel at ease:
- throwing compliments at them
- avoiding the sensitive subjects
- showing understanding their point of view
- show an interest in their challenges
This will kill the barrier between you and them and help get to share real information.
Sure it requires some acting, but it often just takes a few minutes and in a way these people are in a struggle and often do not see themselves why what they do is not good.
Often these people see themselves as victims..."I need to keep up with the competition" and "everyone does it like this" and "there are places where situation is worse".
Basically humans are great in cognitive dissonance - hiding away from undesired insights...
And this is why we hide these farms far way from the city, from where we buy our steaks and chicken fillet...
We are too afraid to harm or kill an animal ourselves, yet we have them massively killed by others and by machines.
And these chickens have no life, their life is a few months of suffering....
Imagine yourself in such a situation... like in The Matrix-movie, but then it is reality and even worse...
And for any religion; would any God now agree that we adequately 'care' for the animals...
And does society have enough ways to correct these undesired situations?
Will companies find an incentive to change the way they 'produce meat'?
Do methods like LEAN and Six Sigma in business solve such sort of problems?
Not necessarily, as these methods look to satisfy client demand... don't they?
If the client does not see the issues, the owners of the company want revenue and nobody represents animals and nature...who will have an incentive to make a change ?
And if customers ask for biological food, the producer will meet the requirements set by himself, his industry or in best case of a certification institution.
But in the end when the intention is not there, it will be a race to the bottom...produce lowest price products by respecting the minimum of requirements..."
This is why Art asked forgiveness from the chicken..." because mankind is just like lemmings; the population of that animal grows and grows until a moment where they blindly follow each other... jumping of the cliffs."
"And probably the time is right to set up animal unions...sure many animals are clever enough to go on strike and hold demonstrations"
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