Proposal for exhibition of works addressing Meat and Climate Change
Billie Grace Lynn
2023
What are the intersections between social justice and climate change? How is it that a bag of carrots is more expensive than a hamburger at a fast-food chain? Where do environmental issues expose deep divisions between those who can afford better quality foods and clean water and those who cannot?
Because what we consume directly impacts our physical and mental health, educational attainment, and longevity, food security and its quality are primary social justice issues. I have spent the last three decades exploring the issue of meat consumption and making a body of work addressing its social and environmental impacts. I used found cow bones to create much of this work. On a social justice level, there appears to be a strong correlation between industrialized animal agriculture, climate change, and the treatment of those considered “lesser” (i.e., the poor, children, prisoners, elderly, disabled, sick). These most vulnerable groups among us are often in situations on many levels, not unlike the animals we keep for food. On an environmental level, the overuse of pesticides and antibiotics and the unregulated sewage runoff from the billions of animals raised for meat is literally killing the Earth.
I would like to show a few of the primary works related to the exploration of meat consumption and its impact, including video performance and live participation, as described below.
The ongoing work, Deathbed (a seminal piece in the series), with several new additions would be important and timely due to the climate change emergency we are confronting. I had a vision of sleeping in my sculptural bone bed in a cow pasture for several nights with the cows. I would document in video and photos my interactions with the animals and then show the documentation during the exhibition.
The Deathbed brings to mind birth, sex, and death and what we are willing to live with and die for to eat huge amounts of cheap meat. In ancient initiation rituals, people killed animals and sometimes engaged in orgies beneath slaughtered bulls in pits dug beneath the animal. It seems we still conflate sex and power with eating meat. If this cultural history is unexamined, then it will continue to function as an invisible structure and operating system of “Dominion,” in the biblical sense, in which we reenact rituals without understanding what we are doing or why. What are the connections between patriarchy, white supremacy, religion, and meat eating? What is a BBQ, really?
The second work I would like to include, Axis Mundi, is a newer one in the series that speaks more directly to the environmental component of meat production. It is a tree constructed of cow bones to raise awareness of the rapid destruction of the Amazon rainforest for mining, soybean production, and cattle ranching. The Latin “axis mundi” means world axis, and it references the “tree of life,” a concept that has both ancient and biblical origins. Traditional renderings of this concept often include a serpent at the base of the tree. In this piece, the tree is emerging from a “seed” that is also the head of a human (a different kind of serpent?).
What is the actual cost of raising one pound of meat (beef, pork, chicken) or of producing a gallon of milk? By some estimates, it takes 1,800 gallons of clean water to produce one pound of beef. Using information from farming websites, and other web sources. I would make a series of “calculation drawings” based on these figures so that visitors could see the full costs of eating meat and producing dairy.
For example, one calculation drawing could illustrate the amount of feed, water, and pasture required to raise a cow, hog, or chicken for meat consumption utilizing industrial feedlot techniques.
In another, the costs per pound could be recalculated utilizing sustainable practices. How many animals can be sustainably raised in this country and worldwide while also reaching our climate goal of Net-Zero?
Yet another could calculate the amount of “bad” outputs like methane, sewage, antibiotic resistance, pesticides, and fossil fuel fertilizers used in the total production of one pound of meat. How can we reduce or eliminate these negatives?
Finally, a drawing could calculate the results of using agricultural land for the production of human food rather than animal feed to determine if people are starving because we are raising feed for animals.
Are wars being fought over grains, oil, and water? There are so many questions to explore about meat production, and the answers may be troubling. Inviting participation is key to inspiring action. It seems agriculture touches everything and everyone.
Perhaps eating meat should occur only on special occasions? If meat were considered a precious ingredient, we would raise many fewer animals and the Earth could recover. We can’t slow, much less stop, global warming until we change the ways we raise animals for meat. We will never address equal access to food, medical care, and a clean environment until we stop seeing differences as lesser. In my opinion, the way we eat and what we eat are at the root of it all. But it will be young people who must find the answers to these difficult issues and lead the way forward.
