Braiding Sweetgrass Blog Post 1

Annie Cheney

1st Blog Post

In class was the first time I have ever heard of Robin Kimmerer and I was sincerely moved by the way she spoke about SkyWoman. The way Robin Kimmerer writes this book is very powerful and I feel as though I have a strong connection to the topics she talks about. I was raised to love nature and growing up my parents always told me that my body is from Earth and when we pass away our bodies then go back home to Mother Earth. In the chapter The Gift of Strawberries there is a quote written that stood out to me and made me think about a past experience of mine.

“Something is broken when the food comes on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a being whose only chance at life was a cramped cage. That is not a gift of life; it is a theft.” - The Gift of Strawberries Page 31

I agree more than 100% with this quote. There is something broken when the carcass of a turkey or chicken or slab of any meat is sold in a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic. This quote made me think of this past month and an experience I had. I was driving through the deserts of  Southern California. The deserts there are actual ghost towns and if you broke down there is no one coming to get you. When you drive through these parts of America is makes you think of all of the land that this country actually has and how a lot of it is unoccupied.

After driving for around an hour looking out my window in the middle of nowhere there were monstrous farms crammed with caddle. These outdoor stables ran for over 10 miles in length and 10 miles in width. They were filled with cattle and chicken and any other animal that is bought at the store and they were all in the same holding stables. After that moment of seeing those poor creatures living like that I became a vegetarian for a week, until I became sick and went to the doctor only for them to tell me that my iron levels were low and that I needed to eat some red meat.

Once one of these animal stables ended five feet there was another stable that ran for another 10 miles and it goes on and on. My heart broke that day when I saw this disaster that we call “farming”. To have these beautiful creatures be slaughtered and have their lives taken is horrific. My heart hurts when I think that that's the only life they all get to live. Hopefully soon “Commercialized Farming” will end or something about it will change for the better. I know we all need to eat but it is inhumane to be an animal ourselves and treat other animals (cows, chickens etc.) in this manner. Every living thing that is on this earth deserves to live a happy life.