No Moooore Factory
Farming
Mass-producing
animals and animal products has been part of our culture for the last century.
It has grown significantly up to modern day, emerging as one of the biggest, most
powerful industries. This mass-production is known as factory farming. It looks
like how it sounds: cows, pigs, and poultry kept in cages or stalls, machinery
doing most of the dirty work, factory-style. The practice of factory farming is
detrimental to the planet due to the way it negatively affects our health,
ethics, and the environment.
“Food is
fuel,” “you are what you eat,” “let thy food by thy medicine.” We have heard it
all before. What we put in our body affects our daily function indefinitely. It
appears that the factory farming industry did not get the memo. Many farmers
give their animals low doses of antibiotics and hormones. These are given in
order to promote growth, aid production, and prevent disease (Factory Farming:
Misery for Animals). Not only are these antibiotics and hormones doing
unnatural things to the animals, but it also affects whoever eats the animals
as well. Eating animals that have been inundated with hormones can lead to
chronic illness, obesity, heart disease, and abnormal or early developmental
growth in young teens. According to an article by nutrition expert Tracey
Roizman, eating animals with hormone residue puts women at risk to develop
potentially cancerous breast lumps. In another study, a chemical growth
promoter known as zeranol was found to have reduced height and breast size in
adolescent girls (Roizman). Clearly,
the use of hormones in animals will affect the humans who consume them. What’s more, bacteria residing on or
near the animals become exposed to the antibiotics and can develop antibody
resistance (Factory Farming: Misery for Animals). This will also affect us
because the next time you are sick, your antibiotic may no longer be effective. Our
bodies do not need the health problems associated with hormone treated
livestock.
Like
humans, animals produce waste. Thousands of animals in one farm, times the
thousands of factory farms across the world is a recipe for a whole lot of
waste. Where does it all go? Good question. Most farms want to get rid of the
excrement quickly and cheaply. It ends up dumped in lagoons, liquefied, and
sprayed on to the land. The waste leaks into the water sources and soil of
neighboring farms. Studies have been done proving that the toxins in the waste
can cause illnesses to people near or on the farm. These problems can include
neurological, respiratory, and reproductive problems (Other Health Risks of the
Meat Industry). Additionally, an article
by the EPA reveals that large amounts of nitrate from waste, which seeps into
underground sources of drinking water, can affect children with an often fatal
blood disease known as Blue Baby Syndrome (What’s the Problem?). The factory farming industry is mismanaging
the animal waste at the expense of our health.
Poop is making us sick! Frankly, that is really gross.
During the
processing phase of factory farming, meat is sterilized and cleaned so that it
can be neatly packaged and sent to a grocery store and from there, to your
dinner table. Unfortunately, not all things can be cleaned from the meat. Scientists discovered a disease in the
1970s in cattle known as Mad Cow Disease (Food Safety Consequences of Factory
Farms). It is an infectious disease that
affects the brain of the cattle. Mad Cow
Disease was a direct result of cattle being fed cattle products, such as unused
organs and brain tissue. This infectious disease cannot be “taken out” of
animal meat even after processing. In
fact, a “human” version known as variant Creutzfelt Jakob Disease (vCJD) is
believed to be caused by exposure to contaminated meat (Mad Cow Disease). To put it simply, what we are feeding the
animals affects them and therefore, affects us.
Imagine
living in a cramped, dirty, smelly stall with hundreds of other humans pressed
against you; that is how it has been your whole life. No personal space, no
freedom whatsoever. That is reality for factory-farmed animals. These animals
will go their entire lives in filthy, dark sheds, stuffed into battery cages,
and crates. They will never raise families, never build nests or experience
what they are supposed to as animals (Factory Farming: Misery for Animals).
Take chickens, for example. A chicken will be stuffed into a small battery cage
with several other chickens. Several other battery cages will be stacked on top
of them. Animals above will defecate on animals below, spreading disease. Some
chickens will die and not be properly disposed of (Factory Farming: Misery for
Animals). It is chaoic, grimy, putrid uproar. No living thing deserves a life
like that, yet that is what they get. There have been few laws set in place to
protect the animals from damaging environments. On of them is the Humane
Slaughter Act. Approved in 1958, it contains outdated standards and excludes
poultry. How can this act remain the
same when our world has changed so much in the last fifty years?
In addition
to unpleasant living conditions, animals are also subject to cruel slaughter
methods. The Humane Slaughter Act applies to millions of livestock killed on
federal slaughter plants. It does not apply to the billions of chickens,
millions of turkeys, ducks, and rabbits killed each year. It does not apply to
animals killed on the factory farm (Cruel Slaughter Practices). The regulated methods
of “humane” slaughter are expensive and rarely used. The chicken industry is
known to grind male chicks alive because there is no other use for them. Because
they are not protected, they are subject to horrors such as “being hung upside
down, shocked into paralysis, having their throat cut, and being drowned in hot
water- all while conscious,” (At Slaughter).
No living thing should ever have to undergo such barbarity at the hands
of a human.
Not only is
the treatment of the animals unethical, but the business aspect of the industry
itself is questionable. Factory farming is a huge industry, and billions of
dollars invested in it. According to the Center of Concern, an oligopoly is
usually four major firms controlling over 40% of the market. The agricultural
(including factory farming) industries are closer to 60-80%. Our food industry
is being controlled by a handful of firms, getting rich of cheap farming
practices at the animals’ expense. They often choose the path of least
resistance, keeping production cheap. The success of the industry, supported
the consumers who love meat, enable lobbyists to shape farming policy in favor
of big business. There have been changes in regulation that have made it
easier to “sneak by” with cheaper, unethical practices (Why Corporate
Agriculture is a Problem). This prevents good economic competition, discourages
small family farms, and jeopardizes the integrity of the industry.
Factory
farming is also damaging to the environment. Lots of animals produce lots and
lots of waste. These huge amounts of manure release methane and other
greenhouse gasses such as nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
contributing to the global warming crisis. According to report by the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), animal agriculture gets credit for 37% of
methane emissions and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions (How Factory Farming
Contributes to Global Warming). Our world is deteriorating quickly as we will
are clogging up our atmosphere with greenhouse gasses. Imagine the improvements if factory farming
emissions were out of the equation!
The waste
and general production also pollute the air, water and land. Excrement is
normally disposed of in lagoons or lakes and does not undergo the sanitizing
process of human waste (Factory Farms and the Environment). After it has
liquefied, waste is usually sprayed onto the land. The manure seeps into the
water supply, the soil, and toxins rise into the air. This can affect our
health, as aforementioned. The contaminated soil contains crops that we need to
eat; the polluted water is no longer safe to drink.
Lastly,
factory farming contributes to deforestation. Vast areas of land are cleared to
raise livestock and are eventually exhausted from waste production and constant
tread from animals. What’s more, large amounts of land are cleared to grow food
for the livestock (Factory Farms and the Environment). With regard to
eliminating factory farming, many argue that we will exhaust the land even more
because we will need to grow more crops. This is not entirely accurate; we will
in fact be relieving much of the land from the constant growing of crops for
the animals. Not only are trees being cut down and ecosystems destroyed, but no
counter measures are being taken to replant or relocate. This results not only
in elimination of natural resources, but also decreases the amount of fresh air
to balance emissions.
Factory farming causes severe damage to the planet. If we
want our bodies to last long enough to live good, healthy lives, we cannot
expect it to thrive with the aid of toxic hormones, animal waste, or infectious
diseases. In the same way, we cannot
claim to be the compassionate, intelligent beings when considering the way
animals are treated before and during slaughter. Finally, factory farming is killing the
environment, the earth; our only home. It
is unsustainable and unhealthy for the health of humans, the well-being of
animals, and the condition of the earth.
Works Cited
"At Slaughter." Animal
Welfare Institute. Animal Welfare Institute. Web. 12 Aug. 2015.
"Cruel Slaughter Practices : The Humane
Society of the United States." The Humane Society. Web. 12 Aug. 2015.
"Factory Farms and the Environment." Farm
Sanctuary. Web. 18 July 2015
"Factory Farming: Misery for Animals."
PETA. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Web. 18 July 2015.
"Food Safety Consequences of Factory
Farms." Food Water Watch General. 27 Mar. 2007. Web. 29 July 2015.
"How Factory Farming Contributes to Global
Warming." EcoWatch. 21 Jan. 2013. Web. 2 Aug. 2015.
"Mad Cow Disease in Humans: Facts, Treatment
and Symptoms." MedicineNet.
"Other
Health Risks of the Meat Industry." People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals. PETA, n.d.
Web. 29 July 2015.
Roizman, Tracey. "Do Hormones in the Food
Supply Affect the Human Body?" Healthy Eating.
Web. 12 Aug. 2015
"What's the Problem?" EPA.
Environmental Protection Agency, 4 Aug. 2015. Web. 12 Aug. 2015.
"Why Corporate Agriculture Is a
Problem." Center of Concern. CEDC. Web. 29 July 2015.
