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Organic vs sustainable agriculture
Effects of factory farming
Negative impacts on factory farming research paper
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Meat is an essential aspect of most American’s diet and a lot of people enjoy consuming meat. It is conveniently available at grocery stores and fast food restaurants and can be accessed within a short amount of time. Most Americans eat meat on a daily basis, but they do not realize that the majority of meat is produced in factory farms. Factory farming consists of housing “more than 125,000 animals under one roof and are designed to produce the highest possible output at the lowest possible cost to the operator” (Farm Forward). Animals, (chicken, turkeys, cows, and fish) are confined in cramped living conditions with little to no room to move. Allowing livestock to live in deplorable conditions is animal abuse. Factory farms negatively affect the environment and the health of humans and animals. The issue of factory farms must be resolved, the bad outweighs the good in this situation and if we do not solve this problem the consequences could be very dire.
One of the many problems with factory farms is that it negatively effects surrounding populations, as illustrated in North Carolina, where concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), also known as factory farms, are in close proximity with cities. These factory farms use the waste from pigs and spray them on crops. The waste from these animals “can contain pathogens, heavy metals, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.” The chemicals from the waste of these animals then affects the surrounding population and “a growing body of research suggests these emissions may contribute not only to mucosal irritation and respiratory ailments in nearby residents but also decreased quality of life, mental stress and elevated blood pressure.” In addition to this, the smell from the waste is at...
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... farms. As for the argument that pasture-raised livestock take up too much time, this is actually incorrect because livestock are mainly self-sufficient in pastures. The livestock feed themselves mainly on grass and may require fewer workers than factory farms. The benefits of organic farming will outweigh the negatives caused by factory farms in the end.
Factory farming is widespread throughout the United States and accounts for a vast amount of meat production. While industrialized farming is convenient the problems it creates outweighs the efficiency of confined animal feeding operations. Industrialized farming is a danger to the environment and human and livestock health. Americans must be educated on the harmful effects factory farms create and be introduced to organic farming as a viable solution. If this problem is pushed aside, serious problems will occur.
Every year worldwide, over seventy billion animals are killed for food in factories without the inclusion aquatic animals (“Factory Farms Overview¨). The animal rights movement began in Europe during the nineteenth century to protect horses, dogs and cats (Recarte 1). However, now modern animal rights groups have switched their focus to factory farms, test animals and the removal of ag-gag laws. The fight to create less painful and stressful environments in factories and the altogether removal of animal testing and ag-gag laws has been taken on by animal rights groups like ASPCA (“Factory Farms”). The biggest issue currently facing animals is factory farming.
When it comes to the pros and cons of factory farming, according to a non-profit organization called Farm Sanctuary, the cons definitely outweigh the pros. Food production in the United States today is dominated by factory farms, and their treatment of animals has been downright abusive. The usual farm consists of small, hugely overpopulated living spaces for the animals, and they are considered commodities to get more money rather than a living animal. Almost all of the animals undergo extreme amounts of mutilation at the hands of the farm workers and they usually cause chronic and/or extreme amounts of pain to the animals because they are usually done without any form of pain relief for the animals. All of this abuse towards the animals is all so the farmers can maximize the output of the products they get from the animals, and the animals’ bodies cannot support the overgrowth and they usually form painful, debilitating deformities from it. The areas in and around these large farms are generally extremely polluted from the extreme
...nts that are harmful are released. The factory farms have not only been seen to affect humans, but the animals also. The food given to these animals are supposed to make them grow faster, but it is also causing serious digestive problems for the animals. According to the Sustainable Table, “recent studies have shown that chemical additives in feed may accumulate in animal tissues, potentially exposing consumers to unwanted chemicals such as veterinary drug residues and heavy metals.” This is not fair for the animals and humans to have to suffer through something like this just so unhealthy food can be produced.
The farm uses a cycle of animals, which include cows, chickens, turkeys, bunnies, and pigs, in order to keep the land fertile which allows for little use of external human made input. Polyface farm also takes hours of work everyday to upkeep unlike factory farms where it’s mostly automated. The farm also makes use of forested areas and other non-farmed resources, which forces them to protect that land from being cut down to receive those benefits. However, organic farming’s limiting factor is human population growth and the resources needed by the growing population.
When you think of pollution you think of industrial pollution running down a river, or smoke coming out of a factory’s smokestack rising up into the environment. These are all concerns in the world today; however, in this paper will talk about pollution that hits a little closer to home. This paper will discuss about pollution on family run farms in rural America. These pollutions range from private well water contamination to fecal pollution run-off into streams by dairy and beef farms.
...h? Factory farming holds no regards to animal welfare and it is why it must be stopped; shut down. Though things are easier said than done an effort should be taken to disclaim this notion. There is power in numbers the more people campaigning for animal rights and or welfare will bring about some change even if it’s small, but it’s a change nonetheless. Ending factory farming is not an overnight success it’s a process that will require every able bodied human who cares enough about this matter to take a stand. As we’ve seen you could be a vegan advocating for animal welfare in the meat industry. Humane animal agricultural is very possible such as family farms and vegetarian ranchers we just need to make that shift. A task in deed but not an impossible one to achieve.
There is much to be said about how exactly meat is being produced. In the present day, there are hardly any farms out there that still practice the traditional and environmental - friendly way. Animal agriculture is widely used all over the world and greatly contributes to climate change. Meat production leads to global warming because of the combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The process of raising animal is the major source to these harmful gases. It is vital to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change by reducing meat consumption. However stopping this meat eating system is extremely difficult, given that we had been consuming meat ever since our ancestors domesticated animals for that purpose. Over the decade Animal agriculture has been getting worse and worse. In 1973 when the Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz announced ‘’ what we want out of agriculture is plenty of food’’, overproduction was encouraged and lowering the price of meat was carried out; this originally started when there was a massive increase in corn (Wolfson). In order to keep up this mass production of meat, multiple pounds of grains are fed to livestock. Livestock industries depended on corn and soy based food and used over half of the artificial fertilizer used in the United States (McWilliams).
According to Last chance For Animals, factory farming is an industrial process in which animals and the product they generate are mass produced. There many common animals that are raised in factories like chickens, cattle, pigs, and even turkeys. Factory farming is bad for the animals because they are kept inside without any sunlight or the freedom to roam around. You might say “who cares? They are going to be killed anyways”. Yes, this is true but would you rather eat chicken that comes from a cage where they walk around their own feces or would you rather eat chicken that roams around freely in a field? If you chose the first one then factory farming is just for you. Since the farmers do not want to spend a lot of money, they feed their animals the remains of other animals (LCA). Because the animals are treated in this manner, they refuse to give them a normal social interaction. Neglecting them to interact with each other causes them to experience boredom and stress which leads to unnatural aggression. Each animal are treated with abuse but each
Factory Farming “To identify with others is to see something of yourself in them and to see something of them in yourself--even if the only thing you identify with is the desire to be free from suffering.” ― Melanie Joy Factory Farming is a cruel way for industries to make big money. Animals are treated very poorly and are forced to live in unhealthy conditions. I believe that there are other ways to humanely use animals for food, without abusing and painfully leaving animals to slowly die for the pleasure of our people.
There are a lot of issues in the world that we need to fix. One of the issue that I chose for this argument is factory farming. Factory farming is a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by keeping animals like pigs, chickens and cows in a strict controlled condition where they can barely move around in a confined indoor.
Poultry is by far the number one meat consumed in America; it is versatile, relatively inexpensive compared to other meats, and most importantly it can be found in every grocery store through out the United States. All of those factors are made possible because of factory farming. Factory farming is the reason why consumers are able to purchase low-priced poultry in their local supermarket and also the reason why chickens and other animals are being seen as profit rather than living, breathing beings. So what is exactly is factory farming? According to Ben Macintyre, a writer and columnist of The Times, a British newspaper and a former chicken farm worker, he summed up the goal of any factory farm “... to produce the maximum quantity of edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene” ( Macintyre, 2009). Factory farmers do not care about the safety of the consumers nor the safety of the chicken, all the industrial farmers have in mind are how fast they can turn a baby chick into a slaughter size chicken and how to make their chicken big and plumped. Factory farming is not only a health hazard to the well-being of the animals, but the environment, and human beings ;thus free range and sustainable farming need to be put into practice.
Cruelty toward animals, huge economic problems, and major health concerns are just three reasons why factory farming should be banned worldwide. Many people argue that factory farming is the only way to meet growing demands for food in the world today. However, factory farming is just not necessary, especially when it comes down to killing innocent animals in order to feed people. A way to put an end to the factory farming system is by buying our food from smaller, sustainable farms. These businesses still aim to profit from their labor, but that’s not their only objective. (The Issues: Factory Farming, n.d.) They simply will not sacrifice the health of the land or the quality of food simply to make a few extra dollars.
There are many debates around the world about the topic of animal abuse. Animal abuse in the food industry has become a major problem due to the cruel treatment of animals. Most of the world's population might think that animal cruelty is only found in homes and on the street, but they forget about the other forms of animal abuse that affect the food industry. Large contributors to animal abuse are due to fishing methods, animal testing, and slaughterhouses. "Animals have always been a major part of our society in history and they have played huge roles in agriculture" (ASPCA). Factory farming is a system of confining chickens, pigs, and cattle under strictly controlled conditions. Slaughterhouses are places where animals are killed
Pigs are held in small metal cages waiting in fear to be slaughtered, and hundreds of thousands of chickens are stuffed into one single barn. We call these living situations “Factory Farms”. If we think about it, this clearly shows that eating meat is NOT ethically right and something must be done about it, the first thing we must do is remove the factory farm system by taking away the demand for meat. To do this we must stop eating
When and if possible, the food could be grown organically without the use of chemicals such as pesticides or herbicides that can pollute the environment and cause health problems for other animals or humans. Plant based meals are one of the best ways to we can help heal our planet. It takes around 100 to 200 times more water to produce one pound of beef than it does to grow one pound of plant foods. From these numbers we can see that meat production is responsible for more environmental degradation than any other single industry