Randell Adjei

Randell Adjei is an entrepreneur, speaker, author and spoken word practitioner who, in April 2021, was named as the first Poet Laureate of Ontario. He uses his talents to empower and transform thought all over the world. Adjei performed the opener for former President Barack Obama at the Economic Club of Canada in 2020.  

An arts educator, Randell founded Toronto’s largest youth-led initiatives, Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere (R.I.S.E Edutainment), which seeks to create safe and inclusive spaces for youth to express themselves in positive ways. In 2018, R.I.S.E received the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Mayor’s Youth Award. 

A Scarborough Walk of Fame inductee (2022), Adjei also holds CBC Metro Morning’s Torontonian of the Year award (2015) and NOW Magazine’s Local Hero award (2017). 

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There are boundaries in our society that are unspoken
Systems of life benefitting from death that are broken. 
Ways in which we justify unjust practices to keep capitalism going
to keep industries growing 
and profits flowing
even if it comes at a cost to our health.
It’s like our lives are a subsidiary to building wealth.

But who are these boundaries meant to protect?
The lack of Industry regulations will harm the earth’s resources
and suck all the oxygen until our last breath.

It seems we would rather sacrifice our beloved planet
to produce a pound of flesh?
Than to leave the earth better for our kin 
a foundation towards the right step.

I have no issues with Abattoirs themselves 
But there is a better way to do things
These industries have me questioning 
What it means to be human, so
I often wake up each day and feel like the Truman show
Our society is in a rat race
A cycle of ignorance
On a hamster wheel going nowhere beneficial.

Imagine if slaughterhouses 
were opened and made of glass.
I’m sure there would be thousands of questions we’d have to ask.
In fact, behind closed doors, many industries thrive
off of the death of millions of lives. 
Gives a new definition to the term ‘making a killing’.
Capitalism continues to Kill to live
putting profits over our mere existence.

The Western World is built on the idea 
of exploiting people and animals to make money.
Even if it means monopolizing in other countries.

They put profit over people
Power over justice 
And when we call them out
They bribe and lobby to politicians 
And use the same laws to insult us.

It’s funny how “the best nation” in the world 
Happily partakes in animal cruelty, exploitation and
private prisons to keep itself living.
With remnants of dried Indigenous blood 
Still stained on their hands since the beginning.

But they’ve learned to justify the games they play to stay winning.
It’s interesting how society tries to “protect” us from the concept of death 
Hides the truth only then to run back 
and advocate for our mental health. 
A cynical system in the rat race for wealth. 

As a society, many of us have become desensitized to death 
So long as the consequences don’t directly affect us.
They’ll hide the truth in plain sight to perplex us.
Then propel the system as the nexus 
But so long as the profits keep flowing
The death toll will keep growing.

We’ve become unconscious consumers 
buying into a cycle of violence.
A system of silence packaged as consumer goods. 
Its like buying a new car, without looking under the hood.
As long as it is under the pretense of patriotism 
America won’t bother to look. 

The first public slaughterhouse was invented in France 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
Essentially, the French word abattoir 
was introduced to refer to a specific place 
where animals are slaughtered 
for human consumption. 
Today, these slaughterhouses are full of corruption.
From inhumane practices, greenhouse gasses
to unsanitary meat being fed to the masses.

What I’ve learned through this research
Is that we must question where our food is coming from.
question the system, 
What other injustices take place that we are ignorant of?
It begs the question, ‘what else is hidden in plain sight?’
What other dark industries refuse to meet the light?

In the USA alone, 
approximately 25.3 million animals are slaughtered daily. 
That is nearly 9.5 billion animals slaughtered annually.
Sad that half of that meat goes to waste 
Yet they continue killing millions the next day. 

If we had to kill our own food 
Would we eat as much meat as we consume?
Could we meet the same demand 
to fulfill our taste for our favorite foods?

An average slaughterhouse 
contains a slaughter floor
a lairage to the hold livestock prior to slaughter
a chiller to preserve after death
a tripe room for cleaning of the insides
and a room to cut the meat and process.

There are conveyor belts of carcasses 
and cascading hooks tearing through flesh
with outdated regulations
How can we guarantee our meat is fresh? 
pools of blood flowing on industrial rubber mats
Greenhouse gas impact
animal waste finding its way into our water streams
Just to enjoy a full plate of meat.

Like some American Police Officers
Society hires slaughterhouse workers to serve and protect
But sometimes both brutalize mammalian flesh. 

The traumatizing nature of their work 
can cause anxiety, depression, and stress, 
and can lead workers to emotionally detach,
self-medicate, or express their feelings 
through violence or workplace sabotage.
The trauma is hidden in plain sight, 
I remind myself that this is babylon
But this is not life.

For Slaughterhouse Workers, 
Physical Injuries are only the beginning
According to onlabor.org, slaughterhouse work 
has been linked to higher levels of aggression, 
violent dreams, anxiety, and hostility.

The purpose of slaughterhouses
Is to kill as many animals as plausible 
in as little time as possible to maximize profits
is inherently in opposition to animal welfare.

Not to mention that slaughterhouses 
get a free pass to pollute America’s waterways 
with nitrogen, phosphorus and other oxygen-depleting substances
We are literally eating our own environmental deathWith little improvement
I had to step back and ask.. 
What the health are we doing?

The Amazon has lost 70% of its ecosystem 
due to the production of slaughterhouses and cattle. 
Is this even sustainable? 
We are losing more of our rainforests 
to fulfill our greed and need to eat 
But in the process losing our trees
The source of life that helps us breathe.

They say we are what we eat,
At this rate, the climate crisis will turn us all into dead meat. 

Slaughter has become the cornerstone of modern life
No ethics, no morals, no questions of why
Most would just say, “that is life”.

If that is life, 
Then what justifies all of this death?
Martyrs being slaughtered for their flesh
Genetically modified to enlarge the harvest
Hormones injected to reproduce 
And meet greedy targets
Then feeding GMO meat to the market?

We must learn to question these systems 
They profit off our ignorance 
and benefit from our silence
You vote with every dollar used to buy in
To this capitalistic system.

Our planet relies on us to wake up 
and listen to its cries for help
Our overconsumption is contributing 
to the global warming crisis
Our glaciers de-icing
Our ozone layer thinning 
If that is not enough
Look at all the floods hitting different corners of the earth.
We need to be in harmony with the planet to make it work.

There are countries around the world 
who lack clean drinking water to survive
Yet, meat processing facilities are responsible for 29% 
of the agricultural sector’s total freshwater consumption worldwide.

The environmental impacts 
are disproportionately borne by low-income communities,
particularly Black communities 
and other communities of color. 
Federal data shows that 
almost half of the slaughterhouses in the United States 
are in communities with more than 30 percent 
of their residents living beneath the poverty line.

It directly affects their communities 
Exposing nearby residents 
to chemical-laden toxic sludges and air pollution
their drinking water is jeopardized,
Some can’t even open their windows
For fresh air for fear the chemicals may cause them to die
It also impacts neighboring wild animals 
who depend on clean water to survive.

The U.S. government spends about $38 billion 
in tax money each year 
to subsidize the meat, egg, and dairy industries,
But Flint Michigan is still dealing with a water crisis.

America, how can you stomach the fact that 
there is blood on your hands 
You may call yourself the best nation in the world
But have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?
Do you not see the hypocrisy?
the lies you’ve told yourself
and regurgitated to your citizens
It is true that life and death are imminent 
You can’t take the money with you 
but karma is infinite. 
You take pride in being militant 
Then justify to the American people
That you are doing it for their own good.
Look at the Insolent stunts you’ve pulled.

You’ve turn countries like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan
Into slaughterhouses.
Set up boundaries to slaughter the planet and humans
Then turn a blind eye
Greedily extracting flesh and the earth’s resources

Unpropotionately then bask in your own lie

Here is some food for thought
Slaughterhouses are synonymous
to the way your society is run
Herd people in like sheep
Feed them green
Then make them fear the gun.

Your love of money outweighs all else 
You regulate your own regulations
For the sake of “success”
You’ve made more billionaires 
Byway of death.

You can keep people and animals in captivity
and profit all you want
Kill the herds until all life is gone
But we see right through your schemes and tricks
Your slaughterhouses have become glass walls
We will advocate and make it stick
Because there is a better way to do things
than to purely profit off the life and death of animals and humans.

Abattoir USA
When will you wake up to the truth?
You can slaughter a billion lives
and never be satisfied
that the real problem is you.