One of my goals has always been to be someone who is constantly changing, adapting and evolving as I acquire more knowledge and enter new chapters in my life. I can assuredly say that recently I feel like perhaps one of the most noteworthy transitions of my life is occurring, and I could not be more ready to embrace it. The other day I received a leaflet on campus which elucidated the realities of animal agriculture – it rendered me utterly speechless.I feel like many hold preconceived notions about the “divide” between those advocating for animal rights and those who accept the status quo and don’t see anything particularly irksome with eating animals as food – notions about the former being radical, excessive and flawed in fighting so vehemently to allot rights to a set of animals that would have no capacity to claim them, and the latter being consistently demonized by the former. I have come to view this whole issue in a new light. The issue of factory farming and essentially “manufacturing” animals for food is one that deserves our full attention. Here’s why:

I initially, like most of us, thought animal agriculture to be this commonplace phenomenon that didn’t merit further investigation. Man is a complex, rich, productive component to planet Earth, and as a result, we are entitled to whatever sustenance we see fit to fuel our endeavors. Perhaps this would be a reasonable justification for eating meat if the industry was not so rife with unimaginable suffering. I had no idea that such shocking abuses existed in factory farms which are instated as “standard operating procedure:” dehorning cows with wrench-like utensils as they wail in inconceivable pain, cutting off the tails of little baby pigs so the other piglets don’t chew on them as they progressively go insane from their unsanitary and cramped conditions, searing off chickens’ beaks with hot blades to prevent them from pecking at each other as they succumb to a similar insanity from dwelling in the filthiest and most inhospitable conditions – all without anesthesia, all without regard for the fact that these are sentient beings with a potential to suffer just like us. Animals like pigs are even smarter than your cats and dogs at home. These examples merely scratch the surface of the physical and psychological ramifications of institutionalized suffering in these horrid places.

The world is filled to the brim with injustices, oppressions and unfathomable suffering. While it may be overwhelming to be keen to this suffering and aware of it all, there is hope to reduce it with our deeply inspiring ability to be empathetic. Empathy, I believe, is the unifying factor of humanity, not greed, not “the invisible hand,” not megalomania – but empathy. I am humbled and grateful that people took the time to come to our campus to be disseminators of knowledge, even with a simple leaflet, to help remind us that our unparalleled ability to do good can help tangibly minimize the misery that currently occupies our country’s factory farms through reducing our meat intake. I am saddened by the lack of regard for life which takes place in agra-business, but I am overjoyed that I can make things better without any life upheaval or disruptive changes to my life. I encourage you to embrace this opportunity to go vegetarian or simply reduce your meat consumption by doing Meatless Mondays, which tons of other Boston schools are doing. I am thrilled to be one less contributor to needless suffering, and you can be too.

-Kira Bornemann is a sophomore music technology major.