Let’s play a game. Can you spot the part of this sign at Whole Foods that is a complete oxymoron? It’s kind of like those games in Highlights magazines where you locate the hidden objects in a normal picture. Only this should be easier for you to see.
Put your answer in the comments. The best answer will win a prize – which to keep us in suspense – will be announced tomorrow.
“Raising farm animals naturally and humanely”. Specially when paired up with “every species we sell”.
Yes, I also feel the following statement is an oxymoron:
“Raising farm animals naturally and humanely”. If you are raising animals for food, how is that being humane?? How is that natural??? In nature, they are free to roam and graze and are not taken to slaughterhouses.
The name of the foundation alone also gets me. Where is there compassion in raising and slaughtering a sentient being??
Oxymora are usually used intentionally. Maybe they are but I suspect it’s a mixture of ignorance and capitalism at work here.
We have “raising farm animals naturally and humanely,” anyone who has done any research or even thought a little about it understands that raising farm animals isn’t natural it’s just convenient (keeps us from having to hunt so much for the meat we “need” and I’m not sure if killing something completely unnecessarily is ever to be considered humane.
I have never seen one of these signs (we don’t have Whole Foods in VT) but I am amused and sickened by the sentence containing “These enhanced standards for every species we sell.” I mean I realize a lot of the human race is speciesist but can’t we be just a little ashamed of the continued enslavement rather then proud?
Oh, Whole foods…’improve the lives of farm animals’. I also thought ‘every species we sell’ was absolutely inane as well.
I agree with everyone’s responses on the absurd comment about raising these animals “humanely” for food…but also, the note says that these so-called “enhanced standards” will be completed by 2008. Hmm, what year is it now?
Also, they can “improve the lives of farm animals”? Oh yes, little piggy! Let me love you and let you frolic in the meadow for an hour and then peel your skin off and slice you up while you’re screeching for your life! Ugh! Makes my heart hurt! :(
‘lives of farm animals’. The ultimate purpose of farm animals is their death, and their dead bodies. To talk about the life of a farm animal is oxymoronic, they do not have lives, just a slow, protracted, painful death.
“Raising farm animals naturally.” Ain’t nothing natural about it.
“Improving the lives of farm animals”….by killing them!
Makes TOTAL sense.
NOT.
Animal Compassion and talking about raising animals to kill and sell seems a bit oxymoronic to me. Where is the compassion in killing unnecessarily and for profit?
“These enhanced standards for every species we sell.”
…wow.
How about the whole sign?
“every species we SELL?”huh…..
the fact that the sign states that the enhanced farm animal treatment standards are being developed by Whole FOODS MARKET and ANIMAL WELFARE advocacy groups.
May as well have a sign that reads: PETA will be working with The Vick Corporation to develop humane Pitbull fight protocol to ensure the safety and well-being of the participating canines.
Stop the madness…..
When used to describe factory farming practices, the following are oxymorons:
[farm animal] “producers evolve”
&
“enhanced standards”
Oh my where to start … aside from being outdated, if you want to raise an animal naturally you have to remove the human element. A person cannot raise farm animals 100 percent naturally.
P.S. I hate the produce signs at Whole Foods that say something about Try Our Fresh Produce, and then underneath that tend to say something like “From Mexico” or “Product of Guatemala.” Oh but we Americans paid for it so it is “ours.”
id say the entire thing is one big oxymoron… how do you “humanely” kill an animal….. wtf
Um…the whole part where they talk about compassion, but then later talk about selling those species.
A “Compassion Foundation” doesn’t SELL species! Period!
This is for people who love animals so much they just have to eat them.
It should read: “…through the work of this foundation we can improve the lives of farm animals by 1%. We could improve their lives 100% by not raising them in confinement, slaughtering them and then eating them but then we’d lose money.”
My partner has become almost entirely vegetarian at this time – from a meat 3x day stance. We have agreed that at least those things she does buy should be not supporting factory farming. Drives me nuts, but if she has to contribute to this whole thing, at least do it as humanely as possible.
Give me time though. I’ll make her understand eventually. I can’t even walk near the meat dept. The smell makes me feel like my face is buried in a corpse and it just makes me so sad. :(
“NATURAL PROGRESSION”
Whole Foods claims they are helping producers (farmers/murderers) “evolve their practices for raising farm animals”…they claims this is a “natural progression”.
NATURAL: Growing spontaneously, without being planted or tended by human hand, as vegetation.
PROGRESSION: The act of progressing; forward or onward movement.
There are other oxymora on that sign; this is just the first & it really jumped out at me. Jeez …