Agronegócio e a crueldade contra os animais na produção de carne bovina em Tocantins

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to analyze animal cruelty as part of the process of capital accumulation represented by agribusiness. The expansion of global hegemonic agriculture occurs with the imposition of a pattern of food production and consumption in which access to beef is a symbol of social advancement and essential food for human beings. However, the priority of the current meat production organization is profit to the detriment of the sentience of animals and the eradication of hunger. Based on the analysis of data collected in the field research and the theoretical support of the bibliographic research, the mistreatment and stressful situations such as branding with a hot iron on the bodies of animals; bruises and injuries resulting from travel; climatic discomfort during stays in resting pens; the slaughter of pregnant cows; and the massacre of immeasurable suffering in clandestine slaughter, in which non-capitalist relations of production are made visible in the stages of illegal meat production. Animal cruelty results from large-scale production made possible by technology in the expansion of the means of production and from the exacerbated demand for raw materials (which are slaughtered animals) transformed into merchandise in the capitalist production process. The greater the demand for raw materials (merchandise), the greater the density of live animals in transit, confined, mutilated, with bruises, injuries, broken bones, in suffering and slaughtered. Therefore, animal cruelty is part of the process of capital accumulation, while the production of meat in the current productive organization does not guarantee the food sovereignty of the population. The work was constructed based on bibliographical research and field research. The following research techniques were used to obtain the data: interview, participant observation, field diary and photographic record. The interviews were conducted with employees of the Tocantins Agricultural Defense Agency (Adapec); with the president of the Rural Union of Araguaína (SRA); with the managers of two meatpacking plants registered with the State Inspection Service (SIE), referred to in this work as Plant 1 and Plant 2; and with the drivers responsible for the land transport of live animals from the farms to the plants for slaughter.