Thursday, December 16, 2010

Anchor Butter: a dairy digression

The girls down at Anchor Butter are just a bunch of working stiffs, like you and me, taking well deserved pride in the fine product they help bring to market.

The successive artificial inseminations! The endless chain of babies torn from their sides! All cheerfully endured for the sake of their company's flagship commodity.

The most salient point: the cows are not mere objects—they are proper subjects, actors on their behalf, agents in their own right. Can an object drive a tractor? Ha!








Or churn butter to exacting standards? Or manage a hand truck? Absurd!

Touching on a loathsome but little-discussed theme—that of livestock as valued employees—this depiction of a shift at Anchor Butter is really just a snapshot, a day-in-the-life catalog of animal liberation.

Exploited underclass? No more than any other wage-earner! Captive property? Nothing could be further from the truth!

The cows are making the butter! They're calling the shots! The humans (chuckle chuckle) work for them!

(Thanks to Dr. Vez for the referral and the photos.)

Addendum: Revisit our most recent dairy digression.

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