WORK IN PROGRESS

1. WORK IN PROGRESS The Boy and the Factory Farm

2. WORK UP TO DATE • Character Development • Plot Diagram • Brainstorming • Collecting Information

3. Character DevelopmentMeet Johnny • Protagonist • Parent’s own a modest ranch (but constantly struggle financially) • Introverted and reflective • Insightful • Idolizes his father • Crushes on the girl next door • Loses his parents to illness

4. Johnny’s story Introduction: “My little boy is outside flying a kite. Someone covers my eyes with cold hands and I’m five feet tall.” Johnny speaks about wife as a teenager (concluding story): I didn’t know if it was the way I knew we shared a mutual upbringing, how I would accidentally touch the water she would soak the dishes in and it would be ice cold because kids like us, they don’t have hot water to spare. It had to be the color of her finger tips. They confessed a bad habit at an awful young age. But nothing told me she was the one more than her sheepish eyes that danced around me while we opened the diner together, the waves of morning sun surfing her face as they crashed over me. Johnny speaks about mother’s cooking: “The scent of boiling tomatoes and basil fill up my lungs and I let go of whatever baggage the day has brought about in the doorway. Baggage as a kid included Peggy getting manure all over my white shirt, squealing blissfully and satisfied in the process of our neighbor Sophia noticing me observing her.” “Momma’s not in the kitchen so I best make a fast move on that tomato sauce. I open the lid and little streaks of salty steam greet me on the way up, lifting up and floating out the window to prey on some other victim. I am a fool for my momma’s cooking.”

5. Other Characters • Pops • Johnny’s father • Hot head • Aggressive and obsessive over money • Hits his wife when something upsets him • Dies in the end from sickness • Momma • Johnny’s mother • Loving and kind • Passive to her husband’s abuse • Dies in the end from sickness • Sophia • Johnny’s neighbor • Extroverted and friendly • Shy around Johnny

6. Plot Diagram Protagonist realizes the truth: what his beloved farm has become and what really happened to Peggy his pet pig • Protagonist kills his first chicken and becomes a “man” in his father’s eyes • Fast forward to when he falls in love with neighbor (they work together at a local diner) • Parents eventually die • Dad shakes hands with big corporation • Transition of traditional farm to factory farm • Peggy the pig disappears • Protagonist becomes suspicious • Present year 2013: protagonist is watching his son play outside and then wanders back in time • 1946: After World War II (led to the creation of “synthetic pesticides”) the beginning of the Green Revolution (introduced pesticides, irrigation and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in our food system) • Characters are introduced • Protagonist seems sad; smiles → sets an ambiguous mood • Protagonist goes outside to see his son. • Ends with father and son and view of hundreds of cows; father puts his arm around his son.

7. Factual & Conceptual Inspiration • Speceism: phenomenon which consists of disregarding the interests of other beings merely because they are not members of our species • An animal’s communication restrictions does not mean a lack of interest • Pleasure and pain can be experienced by other mammals such as birds and perhaps even fish and reptiles; making them “responsive to noxious stimuli” like us. These animals will do everything they can to prevent from feeling such “noxious stimuli” such as “pain, extreme pressure, heat, tissue damage”, like us. These natural responses that such animals have towards pain in general can be sufficient evidence to make them “sentient”. • Agriculture practices involve the animals being confined in cages so small they can barely move, static in their own feces, “castrated, debeaked, dehorned, or have their teeth, tail, and toes” removed “without anesthesia.”

8. Potential Problems Integrating facts smoothly Incorporating much vivid imagery within the word limit Getting the theme of “lost and found” across

9. Thank you !