A River Of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms

Our nation’s industrial farming has become more than just feeding people; it has become a way for the food industry to make more money as human population continues to grow. Jonathan Safran Foer in his book Eating Animals, illustrates the effects factory farming has had on animals meant for human consumption. Furthermore, Foer asks many questions to the reader on what will it take for us to change our ways before we say enough is enough. The questions individuals need to be asking themselves are: how do we deal with the problem of factory farming, and what can people do to help solve these issues? Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, also illustrates the animal abuse that goes unseen within the food industry as well as Bernard Rollin and Robert Desch in their article “Farm Factories”, both demonstrate what is wrong today with factory farming. Foer gives such examples of employees who work in slaughterhouses giving accounts of what goes on in the kill floors, and stories of employees who have witnessed thousands and thousands of cows going through the slaughter process alive (Animals 231). Namit Arora in the article “On Eating Animals”, as well as Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, both address some of the issues that animals face once they hit the kill floor. The food industry has transformed not only how people eat, but also the negative effects our climate endures as a result of factory farming as illustrated by Anna Lappe in “The Climate Crisis at the End

Nobody denies that the need for more food grows with the global population. Factory farms seem to be a solution to this problem since they produce mass quantities of food for cheap compared to their organic counterparts, which are forty-seven percent more expensive (Consumer Reports). The factory farming business, however, is not the best way to feed more people since it pollutes the environment. The factory

Factory Farming is an increasing industry in the United States. These large farms, which evidently appear to be more like slaughterhouses than the typical farms a person can imagine are located throughout the United States. These factory farms contain animals ranging from chickens, sheep, goats, cows, turkeys, and pigs, they also contain dairy products. The conditions for the animals and the employees of these factory farms are inhumane and vile. Life behind the walls of the factory farm is both unsanitary for the animals and the employees. Employees are forced to endure long hours and poor treatment. Animals in these conditions withstand living in cages and are forced to live in uninhabitable ways.

Even though higher yields are met for demand and human consumption, factory farming is cruel to animals due to the fact animals are often subject to harsh living conditions, more susceptible to diseases and injuries and are treated inhumanely during the slaughtering process. Unfortunately, with an increase in human population worldwide, the strain on farmers to meet the demand increases as well. This in turn causes more animals to be subject to this cruelty.

Factory farms cause a lot of waste in fact, a place called Delmarva Peninsula has 600 million chickens which together all create a whopping 400 tons of manure in a single year but that is nothing compared to the US’ crazy 61 million tons of animal waste alone in a year. That is 130 times the amount of human waste! According to the Environmental Protection Agency, hog, chicken and cow manure has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in just twenty-two states! The amount of animals bred in Factory Farms will make these numbers rise dramatically too.

The meat and poultry industry is the largest segment of U.S. agriculture. This contributes to the high number of production of meat in the industry. Americans eat meat, eggs and drink milk frequently, but that doesn’t make it good for us. Factory farming is the main issue as to why the way food is processed isn’t good for humans to consume. Animals in factory farming are trained to grow faster than the average animal so that the portions of the food they produce are larger. These animals are sprayed and fed with harmful pesticides and antibiotics. These harmful substances are then passed on from the animal bodies for humans to consume. The way animals are processed is a major problem in the fast food industry. In fact, it is my contention

In the United States, most of the meat and dairy products consumers purchase at the grocery store come from facilities called factory farms. Factory farming is a fast and cheap method of mass producing meat, cheese, milk, eggs, and several other variations of animal products. Although cost effective, factory farming is criticized because of the subpar conditions the animals are subjected to, and the apparent environmental harm they inflict due to the immense amount of waste these factories produce. In an article titled “Using Emerging Pollution Tracking Methods to Address the Downstream Impacts of Factory Farm Animal Welfare Abuse”, the authors Tarah Heinzen and Abel Russ discuss the recurrent mistreatment of livestock on factory farms, the

Factory farming is the application of industry models and production to farms and agriculture. It stresses efficiency and maximum output, but has some terrible consequences. Nearly 65 billion animals worldwide, including cows, chickens and pigs, are crammed into CAFOs. Most farmers have no where to put waste so they put it in lagoons. Collecting animal waste in the massive lagoons is bad because the waste breaks down and forms ammonia gas. This then breeds bacteria, which combines with other pollutants in the air to form nitric acid. The nitric acid builds up in the atmosphere and then returns to the surface of the earth as acid rain, harming soil, forest habitats, and water ecosystems. This causes vast amounts of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of all human-Introduced greenhouse gas emissions and because we burn fossil fuels there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been for the past 600,000 years. Methane comes from the animals and it is stronger than CO2. This bad because carbon cycle filter out only so much of it at a time and if there is to much it can damage the ozone layer. There is more to animal agriculture than just making product for people around the

Sage research provided me with a number of link to books and articles revolving around the impacts economically, socially and environmentally. The effect of mass food production cover a number of ethical dilemmas such as worker safety and compensation, animal cruelty, waste production, crop subsidies by corporate enterprises, greenhouse emissions, etc. it is a rather large subject to tackle. One subject in particular that I didn’t expect to be so prominent in my research was antibiotic resistance and the impacts of industrial animal farming has had on creation antibiotic resistant bacteria otherwise known as “Superbugs”. The widespread use of antibiotics in the rearing of food animals not only as a treatment to infection but also as a preventative measure. While the use of antibiotics in industrial farmed animals is considered necessary due to the close quarters the animals are raised in increasing risk of infection and allowing for rapid spread of infection; the subsequent side effects of antibiotic use in increased animal growth has led to a vast overuse in food animal production.

This article talks about the problems with manure on factory farms. They generate so much manure that the “lagoons” the manure is kept in can leak or have runoff which contaminates the ground and the water. This manure is also very bad for the air. Workers and people living near these factory farms are at risks for many health problems including respiratory illnesses.

Some of the worst things for our environment are your hog farms. I have read a few articles about your company, and I would like to address a few questions with you. Things such as, does your factory farming affect food safety? Or, how can a CAFO dispose of the waste without contaminating the environment? I believe that they cannot dispose of something that toxic without hurting our environment. Also, is factory farming humane? I want your honest opinion on this. Most believe it is not, including

The factories that make the garbage that we purchase give off a ton of pollution. A lot of those factories work with plastic which is terrible for the environment. The air pollution levels rose fourteen percent from 1990 to 2008. The gas let out into the air and the products made just create more problems for the world. The factories waste energy and natural resources and eventually we won’t have anything to make other products that would be more useful. So much money goes into making useless garbage and that money could be used to make more useful and important things like new roads and new businesses.

Factory farms increase production and help feed the world. Due to an increase in population factory farms holds the world’s food supply in check. Factory farms produce more animals in a quicker matter than any other place. Factory farms help contain waste and help stop some environmental problems that come with raising livestock. One problem that concerns most happens to be the disposal of animal waste. With their waste being captured in a pit under the confinement factory farms help stop the spread of pollution that comes from livestock.

Companies are trying to meet the food consumption demands with using a modern agricultural technique of factory farming (Coller, 4-7). Factory farms house large number of animals to be raised for food in a confined space of farms to minimize operation cost, and the mass production drives down the food prices as they could produce excess number of animals to meet the demand (Coller, 4-7). However, except for offering human abundant amount of cheaper food, factory farming is an unhealthy agricultural practice to both human and the environment (Coller,4-7). Factory farming contributed to serious pollution problems, the animal treatments are inhumane, and it has smothered the business opportunity of traditional farms and its workers by occupying their markets (Coller, 4-7).

The environment which we live in is polluted every single day. The carelessness of humans today is further damaging the ecosystem in some ways, more identifiable than others. Factory farming is a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by which poultry pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions (Merriam-webster). The animals are forced into the participation of the supply and demand through cities and towns. Many may be oblivious to the fact that the animal industry is a leading factor of pollution. The global movement of intense meat production is negatively affecting climate changes, ocean pollution and the animal food chain.