CAFO Environmental Effects

Factory farming is currently meeting the needs of supply and demand which is beneficial to the economy. However, with the lack of regulations and enforcement of current regulations by authority entities such as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is ethically and morally unjustifiable for these corporations to practice and conduct business this way. The USDA and FDA are not the only players who are to accept blame in this unethical practice. State and federal laws should investigate and collaborate with those agencies to develop, execute, and retain safe and clean practices. Perdue Farms should also accept personal responsibility and be concerned about their workplace, their employees, the animals that make them money, and the consumers. The ethical theory being put into place

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

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.

In the past century there has been a substantial change in the way human beings raise and keep animals meant for food. While in the past there were great numbers of widely spaced small individual farms, now there are relatively few, but extremely large industrialized farms. And as the numbers of animals kept and slaughtered for human consumption increases, these industrialized farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFO's, are having more and more of an impact on the environment and people around them. The concentration of animals causes a major problem with the waste products they produce, as well as the gases, chemicals, and other types of byproducts. And the increased use of antibiotics in the animals is beginning to have a profound effect on the health of not only the environment but the communities that exist around these industrialized farms. CAFO's, and their secondary industries, are also a large consumer of oil, gasoline, and other fuels which can have an indirect, but devastating effect on the environment. Luckily there are some who have come to recognize the problems, and potential future problems, involved in this type of animal farming and have begun to inform the public to the dangers these farms pose. And in response to this information, the public is beginning to force changes in the way these CAFO's operate and the impact they have on the environment and

Over the last 10 years or so Americans have been at odds with themselves and other Americans regarding the treatment of food source animals. The term “factory farm” is being coined for method in which animals are being processed in the food system. I will be discussing what a factory farm is, who or what benefits from them, and finally at what cost? Factory Farms have become an institution in support of the American way life, regardless of what we think; they have advantages and disadvantages.

Factory farms having locked doors only reinforces what some of us already suspect. That they are engaging in activities appalling to the public. Their secrecy is seemingly sustaining their business. Consumers’ ignorance of the meat production business only encourages inhumane animal husbandry. Foer says, “the power brokers of factory farming know that their business model depends on consumers not being able to see (or hear about) what they do.” (pg. 87) This is why we need to educate ourselves on this matter extensively and start actively demanding where our meat is coming from. Advocating for animal welfare is one way we can begin the process of changing or ultimately ending factory farming.

There are many terms associated with modern agriculture, factory farms, concentrated animal feeding operations, intensive crop farming, and sustainable agriculture. The history of farming in the United States has evolved from families raising their own food with a few larger farms to today's massive crop farms and concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs. The majority of Americans today purchase all their food from a market, but what is the true cost of this convenience? Recent environmental and animal rights studies suggest factory farms should be held to the same strict regulations as other industries because they pose a serious threat to public health, animals often live in horrific conditions and suffer from abuse, and they contribute to significant amounts of pollution.

This book summarizes the excruciating environment factory farm animals live in, as well as the effects eating those animals, and fish, can have on the human body. Freedman and Barnouin point out the way in which factory farm animals are treated: “There are no vast meadows or lush, green pastures,” (44). Chickens and hens are laid on top of one another in wire cages too small for them to even spread their wings inside dark buildings. This “overcrowded, stressful environment” leads to the birds getting their beaks cut off with a hot knife, because if not, the birds will angrily peck at each other (45). Cattle, on the other hand, are kept in stalls that they cannot even lay comfortably or turn around in. They are also branded, creating third-degree burns, and castrated. Even further, their horns are ripped out. Pigs experience branding and castration, but instead of losing horns, they lose their ears, tails, and teeth. Both cattle and pigs live in their own urine, manure, and vomit. This is where the use of half the antibiotics made in the US each year come in. An overuse of antibiotics causes both the animals and the humans who consume those animals to become resistant to medications. Chemicals such as, benzene hexachloride, chlordane, heptachlor, etc., all found in meat, poultry, seafood, and dairy products, correlate with obesity, cancer, liver and kidney failure, reproductive and nervous system disorders, birth defects, and miscarriages. Furthermore, chicken and fish have both been connected to colon cancer. Then, the use of pesticides began, and eventually, “...bologna and other luncheon meats had 102 different industrial pollutants and pesticides, fast food hamburgers had 113 residues, and hot dogs had 123…In comparison, meat contains 14 times more pesticides than plant foods...” (47). The European Economic Community has rejected meat from the United States multiple times, because of the contamination processes and excessive growth hormones uses. Growth hormones are used to produce more meat, which in turn

A concentrated animal feeding operation, also known as CAFOs, is an animal feeding operation (CAFO) where animals are held in horrid conditions to be brutally slaughtered after over 45 days of torture. According to cafo.org, an informational website on everything there is to know about CAFOs, animals held in CAFOs are not able to breathe fresh air, are crammed together with hundreds of other animals, and don’t live the life they should. Animal welfare should be of the utmost importance, since eventually people will be buying pounds of them in supermarkets. Though they are slaughtered eventually, these food animals are put through such bad conditions that they have to be pumped and filled with antibiotics and hormones to keep them going and make them bigger for when they’re slaughtered. All those antibiotics could be extremely dangerous to the public health when it comes to consuming the product. Not only that, CAFOs are harmful to the environment as well. These animals are affected by these horrible conditions and in the long run, the environment and humans are too. Recently, there has been some major changes in the animal food policies throughout the states that have

It is widely known that factory farms treat animals cruelly, hoarding animals in tight spaces where there is hardly any room for air and force feeding them pesticide infested grains. While it is common knowledge that most

Typically, this is in part due to the overuse of antibiotics and the large amount of waste produced on feedlots. In Debra Miller’s book Factory Farming, it was said that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that infections relating to infected meat make around 3 million people sick each year, and said infections kill at least one thousand people annually (46). As the amount of feedlot meat consumed goes up, it is important to note that this number will dramatically increase accordingly. By the same token, CAFO meat has been found to carry deadly and dangerous diseases, as noted by Rachel Lynette saying, "Many people have become sick and even died from eating tainted meat... Some of the more serious illnesses include: salmonella, E. Coli, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CDJ), swine flu, and avian flu," (34). These diseases harm can be contracted easily among humans and can harm both physical and mental health. On the contrary, many people argue that the diseases can be controlled by administering antibiotics to animals. Michael Pollan interviewed one of these such defenders of the factory farm systems, Doctor Mel Metzin, who works as a veterinarian at a CAFO. When he asked about what would happen if drugs were banned from feedlots, he responded with, “We’d have a high death rate,” (60). It may seem that a simple fix to the contaminated meat issue is to give the

Packages of meat, eggs, and dairy are giving false conclusions about where their product comes from. For example, you see on packages the original red wood barn, with the white picket fence surrounding it. Although, the producers just use that image in order to hide the real truth. The truth is that these animals if it is either: pigs, cows, or chickens, they are rarely raised in a true “farm.” They are usually grown in factory farms, which means no room to walk around, poor living conditions, and

Even though factory farms have several problems they do however have some advantages such as their low cost and the jobs they provide for communities. They have such a low cost because the care of the poultry in these farms is often over looked. Poultry in factory farms are put into stressful and dangerous situations every day that cause them physical and emotional pain (“Farm Animals”). When chickens have their beaks trimmed because of outbreaks of violence it causes them extreme pain, but the problem could be solved if they were just given more space (“Farm Animals”). The abundance of jobs they create also comes at a cost, workers breathe in many toxic gasses every day and often times contract bronchitis from these gasses (“Factory Farm Workers”). In conclusion factory farmed poultry and eggs from factory farmed poultry should not be consumed by people even though they do have some

The food industry does not want you to know anything more than what you think about what goes on within our farms, because if you knew, you wouldn’t want anything to do with it and they would lose millions of dollars. The reality of it is, these are not farms we are getting our food from, it is a factory. Your image of the cows, pigs, and chickens running around freely is not what “farms” are like today at all. Our meat is being produced by huge corporations that have all the power in the food industry to do whatever they please to. The fruits and vegetables are being picked while still green all over the world wherever the food is in season after being sprayed with harmful chemicals so it stays fresh till it hits our kitchen tables. Our food is coming from factories, mass farming, and assembly lines, where the food has become a danger to us and the people producing it. This issue has a personal meaning for me because, I

Many companies, like McDonalds, lie about what actually goes on at their farms. “Free range” “Cruelty free” “Killed in a humane way” Those are just some the things that consumers are told and believe everyday. Saying thank you to the animal before munching on its flesh and bones doesn’t excuse what happens to them. The abuse and torture animals go through at factory farms isn’t fair and needs to be stopped immediately.