truth about our envoronment

[Jana]

Hi guys!
As i´m writing my term papers about the American society represented in <Rise Against´s songs, I started analyzing theirr songs and clips and I found this one online. I don´t know how the situation is the US, but here in Germany the vid isn´t shown on TV as it´s too cruel...I think the vid is great work, but it took me about 2 hours to be mentally able to see it because it was simply too much for me... i´ve never been able to see films like "we feed the world" without feeling mad, so i´m quite relieved thet i finally managed to watch it at all.
http://www.tape.tv/musikvideos/Rise-Against/Ready-To-Fall
As a reaction the Band spreat this video online because they wanted that as many people as possible can see and share it.
What do you think about it? What are your first impressions? What were your thoughts while watching it?

greetings, jana

[cdttmm]

Hi Jana, I'm with you -- I have a hard time watching cruel or graphic videos, so I don't think I can bring myself to watch this one knowing that I might find it disturbing. I had never actually heard of Rise Against, so I am going to try to listen to some of their music so that I can get a better sense of what your term papers are going to be about.

[SteveinMN]

As a reaction the Band spreat this video online because they wanted that as many people as possible can see and share it.
What do you think about it? What are your first impressions? What were your thoughts while watching it?
Well, Jana, the link you put in your post redirects anyone outside a few European countries to a very limited landing page showing fragments of "Videos of the Week". I did find the video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2FrUUq-zI) for anyone interested in watching.

I didn't find the video to be "too" cruel. Maybe YouTube has a sanitized version, though I don't see any others there. There are some quick shots of animal and plant cruelty and plenty of scenes of animals living their lives in native surroundings. I'd rate it PG-13, to use the movie ratings code most common in the U.S. Maybe that says something about me or the U.S. already.

My impression after seeing the video was that, based on what I know, it is an accurate depiction of corporate food production in most of the world. There are several shots of very tall trees being felled to make lumber and some views of strip mines and brownfields (pollution). But most of the video centers on how animals are raised and made into food, along with the collateral damage (dolphins stuck in tuna nets, etc.). I will admit to being a carnivore; the reasons why IMHO are a topic for another thread or a PM if anyone wants to discuss it. I know chickens do not magically appear in foam and plastic containers in the market and, most of the time, I'm okay with that. That does not excuse the largely-unintentional damage in most cases. There is no excuse for using "downer cattle" to produce meat and I try to avoid factory farms in which animals are penned up and fed until slaughter time. Those are intentional choices. So is strip-mining and clear-cutting forests. On the other hand, it is one reason why Americans spend less money on food and other products than most of the rest of the developed world. I'm sure many here will have differing views on the higher morality of feeding people adequately versus treating animals adequately.

The other thought that came to my mind is how much carbon/energy the band used to make the video. They don't address if any of the power used was solar or wind or whatever, but they had to transport all their gear and a camera crew to someplace in the middle of nowhere to shoot it. And there's at least one scene that I'm pretty sure was done with a helicopter camera. It's kind of like going to a Green rally in one's Suburban (or Mercedes-Benz GL500) -- it detracts from one's point.

I don't know if that was any help at all. :|(

[Jana]

Thanks !
Almost finished that chapter now :) going to finish it back at home B-)