Charlotte Damson
Critical Studio
October 25, 2017
Our Daily Bread
Our Daily Bread is a documentary by filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter. With multiple videos and no voiceover narration, Geyrhalter takes us inside the world of the food industry. During the documentary the viewer visits mechanized farms and slaughterhouses, and is educated in the unsettling ways everyday food is produced. The scenes of the treatment and killings of the cows, chickens, and fish were brutal and memorable for obvious reasons. Geyrthalter captures the compacted living conditions of theses animals. He films the panic and fear of the animals as the face their inevitable deaths. He also shows the aftermath of how their bodies are cut up. The scenes are haunting, and the employees appear emotionless towards their violent actions.
The terrible treatment towards the animals escalated throughout the film. By the end of the film there is a scene where a cow is pushed into a round metal machine to hold him. An employee aims a gun-like machine to the cows head and kills him. Each cow that is shown appears distressed and knows something terrible is about to happen. After the cow is killed the machine turns upside and an opening allows the body to slide on a metal holding. The employee then attaches the body to metal hooks and the body is raised and carried to another room. The cycle repeats and the next cow walks into the machine.
Since I am a vegetarian and against harming animals in anyway, I had a hard time watching this documentary. I know that meat is a product on high demand and humans need protein to survive. The treatment of the animals is alarming and I personally found it wrong. Overall, the film showed me things about the food industry that I would never of known or thought about. It made me question if there is a better way to treat animals and make them more comfortable, even before their deaths.
