history shows capitalism wins over ethics...

Singer and Mason look at different eating habits for three different families: a typical standard Walmart buying American family, a local organic family and a vegan family in conservative area. For Singer and Mason, the vegan diet seems to be by far the healthiest, most sustainable and therefore most ethical way of eating.

However, Singer and Mason argue the point that the industrial and capitalistic driven food system can be transformed by our individual consumptive choices. Therefore, with this belief, factory farming will then become obsolete if more and more people refrain from purchasing those factory farmed foods.

But, as they both point out, while organic food has become more visible so has "corporate organic companies,” such as Horizon. These companies are providing healthier and more environmentally sustainable food and are therefore more ethical. Thus factory farming in the traditional sense could become obsolete.

However, these companies are then subject (especially as more and more people jump on the organic bandwagon) to the same drive of necessity as every other capitalistic company. By this I mean that these “corporate organics” will have to constantly drive down production costs in order to remain competitive, which is exactly what the “free market” demands. With that said it seems almost inevitable that our capitalistic economy will takeover most organic production; thus, most likely leading to the destruction of the principles of community building, social justice and respect. The “free market” and capitalism are strong forces that compel many companies to become competitive and then succumb to the pressures of cutting costs. What does this cost cutting affect? Who does this cost cutting affect? Workers? The environment? Animals?

What’s to say that organic food production won’t become what our factory farming became in 25 years? Why wouldn’t they try to remain competitive and cut costs? There is always going to be that constant tension between making a profit in a capitalistic economy and ethics in production and history has shown us that the economy has won.