Will To Order

Golden eggs are bone white and free of contaminates...mighty fine.

Artist's Statement: The newsreel style of Will To Order was inspired by Nazi war propaganda films, particularly the Die Deutsche Wochenschau series. The music was ripped directly from two separate episodes of these newsreels. The title, and cloudy bgs are a reference to the opening scenes of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will in which early film footage shot from airplanes in flight was captured.

This satire explores a hypothetical call to arms. Invoking language similar to Disney's 1942 short Food Will Win The War, Will To Order calls upon citizens to increase food production for the booming population. This Malthusian scenario involves the intensification of food (animal) production as a way of providing food security for the population. Will To Order glorifies a technological approach to solving the world's food problems. Engineering animals to do what we want them to do. Irradiating food to make it safer to eat. Better living through chemistry.

Poultry feed ingredients include protein concentrates such as chicken meat and bone meal. Since protein is generally one of the most expensive feed ingredients, the industry uses targeted rations and reduces the amount of protein in the diet as the birds grow. During processing, leftover pieces of chicken unfit for human or animal consumption are recycled as an inexpensive source of protein for feed. The militarized CAFO in Will to Order is located in Arkansas; most of the largest chicken CAFOs in the US are concentrated in the southern states.

The rift between nature and human nature is most disturbing in relation to food production. Concentrated in cities, we tend to underrate our dependence on a healthy ecosystem. The health and ecological hazards of mismanaged CAFO waste are myriad. Who/what will absorb these astonishing amounts of animal waste? These agricultural technologies have brought unintended consequences. Our long-term loss of food security means eventually unplugging the refrigerator.