Cause and Effect Essay - Factory Farms Cause Sickness and Pollution
There is little doubt that animals raised on small-scale diverse farms are apt to be healthier. When allowed to range freely, particularly in organically maintained yards and pastures, they receive more exercise, their diet is more varied and they are exposed to commensal bacteria that help exclude, and build resistance to, harmful pathogens. Some organic practitioners also argue that free-ranging animals actively seek out plants with medicinal properties that can build their resistance to illness,
When Livestock production is carried out on a scale that suits the global market, however, huge numbers of animals are kept in tightly confined conditions, and
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The newest class of antibiotics, fluoroquinolones- viewed as the last line of defence for some human infections- are already proving ineffective against some bacteria strains. An epidemiologist for the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention says that among public health officials
³there is no controversy about where antibiotic resistance in food-borne pathogens comes from²: the heavy use of antibiotics is to blame.
The huge amounts of manure that the industrial livestock farms produce also represent a human health risk. In the Cape Fear region of
North Carolina, for example, factory hog farms produce ten million metric tonnes of waste annually, equal to that produced by forty million people.
When heavy rains hit in 1999, numerous lagoons containing the manure burst.
In one case, two million gallons of hog waste spilled when a lagoon ruptured at a farm that raises hogs for a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the United States. Such manure spills were one reason the storm left 400,000 wells in North Carolina contaminated. Health officials expressed concern that an outbreak of gastrointestinal and other diseases, such as pathogenic E. coli, might be caused by contaminated drinking water.
Other agribusiness livestock practices are equally alarming.
Monsanto has been aggressively marketing rBGH, a recombinant form of a naturally occurring hormone, for use in dairy cows. The use of the genetically engineered
In the article America’s Food Crisis and how to fix it by Bryan Walsh it talks about how people are packing in animals into confined pens with a bunch of other animals of its kind. All the animals are dosed with antibiotics to keep from getting sick. The article explains that the waste that the animals produce on the factory farms gets disposed into open air lagoons and how it can contaminate nearby streams and creeks.
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
The significant growth of Factory Farms has contributed to the issues of the environment, public health, economic, food safety, and animal welfare. There is another name for factory farms which is CAFOs which stand for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Animals on factory farms can produce millions of tons of manure annually, which pollutes water sources and the air. Local markets can feel these impacts also by health conditions from the food or from the excessive antibiotics given to these animals. Although factory farming makes meat more affordable, its negative consequences far outweigh its benefits.
Factory farms are an inhumane processes in which animals are mass produced for the sale and consumption of the increasing human population. These animals are put on a diet of GMO grains, artificial hormones, and antibiotics. Animals are crammed, neglected, and abused as safety and comfort are not the top priority of this industry. Factory farmed cows are treated as nothing more than products used to generate income.
There is an extreme amount of waste created by raising so many animals in one place which then the surrounding land, air, and water becomes contaminated/ polluted by waste run-off. Even the residents of communities around factory farms reported many accounts of illnesses, and property values were lowered by their proximity to these farms. In an effort to try and counteract the health challenges brought up by the unsanitary, stressful, and overcrowded living conditions, antibiotics were used frequently, which can then create a drug-resistant bacteria and further puts human health at risk. Close to 75% of the antibiotics given to farm animals ends up undigested in their urine and manure. Through this waste, the antibiotics contaminate crops and waterways thus affecting human health.
For years, capitalized agriculture has replaced our small, family owned farms with intentions to develop a way to produce cheap, fast meat. This newly efficient way of farming has caused an increase in consumption and a decrease in regards for the health of the animals they are raising. Cows, pigs, and birds each suffer at the hands of factory farm workers.
Factory farming reduced the amount of land needed for meat production, however, these farms are a serious water pollutant. The waste of these animals ends up in the surrounding water and poses the constant threat of drinking water contamination. Runoff from factory farms and livestock grazing are one of the leading causes of pollution in rivers and lakes. The EPA notes that “bacteria and viruses can be carried by the runoff and that groundwater can be contaminated.” The huge quantities of animal waste runoff produced by these operations leech into the water supply and affect the natural aquatic life cycle. Livestock manure is rich in nitrogen, phosphorous, and other fertilizers. These chemicals eventually work their way into our stream, rivers
All animals should be treated with compassion and protected from suffering, throughout their lives. Sadly billions of factory farm animals lack the basic protections under the law. A factory farm is a large-scale industrial operation where thousands of animals are retained for food. Factory farms, or industrialized facilities, maximize profits by treating animals as production units rather than sentimental creatures. The facility threatens them with antibiotics and hormones to maximize and prevent disease their growth and food output. The antibiotics fed to the animals on a consistent basis cause many humans to lose some of their ability to fight strains of certain bacteria. The farm also forces animals to breed and produce young at accelerated unnatural rates that cause stress and exhaustion. Animals raised for food are jam-packed onto trucks and transported to the slaughterhouse without food or water, when they have finally grown large enough. Those who survive the punitive expedition are often conscious while their throats are split. The problem with the farm is so many animals being confined in one place creates an environmental hazards, such as land, water, and air pollutions. Factory farms are inhumane and contribute to many health problems for humans, and animals.
Some groceries stores have pictures of happy animals and beautiful farms adorning the walls of their stores. There are commercials depicting the same things but what if the real picture was not as serene as it seemed? Milk, eggs, butter, meat, yogurt, and many other products sold in grocery stores come from industrialized farming operations. These operations are also called factory farms or confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The need and the desire for something like these CAFOs is understandable but the conditions are absolutely deplorable. Animals are treated poorly, the environmental effects are unimaginable and the health of humans is also at risk. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States Department of Agriculture
This industrial farming isn’t just cruel. It can also make you sick. Factory farms are making e-coli, Salmonella, and obesity become hazards from ingesting diseased meat from these farms. Factory farms are producing 500 more calories per person than they did 25 years ago. These atrocious dilemmas in abattoirs are clear safety hazards. It is entirely possible that men, children, or women can easily contract a disease from the senseless and unsympathetic reasoning of the slaughterhouses.
Factory farming is defined as a large, industrial system that produces large numbers of livestock for food. It is a system in which farm animals such as poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined in small spaces indoors under strictly controlled conditions. Factory farming has taken over family farming since more than 99% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised in factory farms. This industrialized system focus on their profit and efficiency at the expense of animal welfare, human health, and the environment. Factory farming is a serious issue in the United States since livestock gets treated with extreme cruelty and mutilation, the meat produced harms human health as consumers, and the large amount of waste produced damages our environment.
In this article, the author describes how bad factory farms are for humans, the environment and the animals that are raised on these farms. She first talks about the effect of the humans working at the butcher shop for a factory farm and how horrible it is for those people. Another way these farms affect humans is through eating antibiotic fed animals that could potentially give you diseases. These farms affect people that do not even meat through their water. She goes on to explain more some problems with the Food and Drug Administration such as allowing protein in animal feed. She also talked about the different moral views such as utilitarianism and biocentrism and their connection and views on factory farming. The author offered up some
Reversing back to the movie, “Soylent Green’’ we saw in 1 quarter, compelled me to think about the food we eat today. Our industrial Agriculture defines a form of modern framing which uses techno scientific, economic and political methods to produce their product. The products like crops, fish, livestock, and egg consumed by us. Most of the United States today practice intensive agriculture. That is, farms are often run like factories, and cultivated using large amounts of labour and capital. Large amount of labour includes Fertilizer, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides for growing crops. And capital is most important for maintaining high-efficiency machinery of planting for business profits. This industrial agriculture is considered a great success but, it has a large effect on our environment and nature.
Factory farming creates an enormous volume of meat for consumption, and with over 9 billion land animals slaughtered in the United States, an immense amount of water, feed, energy, and land is used to
As the soil becomes more and more polluted with these toxins, it becomes unsustainable. Therefore, land that would have remained fertile for centuries through the commonsense farming of our ancestors, is being ruined by farming controlled by big corporations whose sole interest is in immediate short term profit (Goodall 38). Industrialized livestock farming with thousands of animals crammed into small factory spaces is responsible for numerous bacterial and viral infections such as E.coli., Avian bird flu, Mad cow disease, Salmonella, and many more. Therefore, conventional farmers use antibiotics to keep these animals alive. This over use of antibiotics is causing the creation of new, resistant strains of deadly diseases that kill people and animals. Disease is actually caused by the bad practices, shortcuts, and antibiotic resistance. This has the opposite effect of what was intended and also costs farmers millions of dollars every year instead of saving money. Unfortunately, conventional agriculture experts recommend these monocultural farming practices in the name of quick, mass production.