Concentrated Animal Farming

Before we get started, I want to address and define a few key terms that I will be using throughout my speech. First term I want to address is factory farming. I may also refer to this as industrial farming or industrial agriculture. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, factory farming, or industrial agriculture is “the system of chemically intensive food production developed in the decades after World War II, featuring enormous single-crop farms and animal production facilities” (Union of Concerned Scientists, Industrial Agriculture). The next important key term is Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a Confined Animal Feeding Operation is a large operation where animals are kept and raised in confined situations (USDA, Animal Feeding Operations). The final term I want to define before starting is monoculture. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, monoculture is “the cultivation or growth of a single crop or organism especially on agriculture or forest land” (Merriam-Webster, monoculture).

Chickens have to endure suffering that no living thing should have to go through. The egg laying chickens have to be forced into tiny cages without enough room to stretch their wings. Up to 8 hens are crammed in to a cage that is the size of a folded newspaper, about

Last week, Shawn Archibeque spoke to the class and presented an optimistic perspective of the meat industry. I learned about the meat industry in the past, but this was the first time that I had heard someone defending the meat industry. It was very refreshing to hear about the different perspectives in the meat industry. Listening to Shawn in class and writing this paper, I realized that this is a very controversial topic and that there is no easy solution to feed everyone and limit the damages to the planet. Concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as CAFOs, a large scale & high density animal raising facility with the purpose of obtaining produce (Hribar & Schultz, 2010). Shawn, the guest speaker explained that the toxicity of everything depends on its concentration. If there was a lot of animals contained in a confined space, there would be a chance that the environment would become toxic.

I couldn’t believe what I was watching, it was very interesting. It covered many topics that had to do with the earth and pollution. It mostly had to do mostly with animal farming and how the world wasn’t doing anything at all to help and fix the situation. Cows and pigs would grow on the acres and feed awhile bunch so they could become big. It was so they could gain more meat so when they were slaughtered there would be more meat. The animals are used to gain slot of profit since people tend to like meat.

Over the past few decades, livestock farming has gone through a dramatic transformation that has adapted to consumer wants and needs. Food production has shifted from small, family-owned farms to large agricultural farms. The larger farms often have corporate contracts, and meat and dairy products are produced with single species buildings or open air-pens. There are two different types of large farms: animal feeding operations (AFO) and concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO). A CAFO raises animals for the consumption of eggs, meat, and milk. CAFOs usually contain a high density of animals and are large-scale industrial agricultural facilities (Hribar 1). CAFOs contain many animals in a confined space that have little or no access to

Factory farms are cruel to animals and therefor people should not consume factory farmed poultry or eggs from the poultry. Chickens in factory farms will never experience anything a natural and normal life, they will never be able to perch, take dust baths, or even meet their mothers. (“Chickens Used for Food.”) Even though chickens are just as intelligent as dogs they are put into stressful and harmful conditions in these farms for their whole lives. Being put into a confined space causes a chicken and other poultry lots of stress which can lead to violence amongst the birds. (“Farm Animals.”) Because of this violence the birds have their beaks trimmed which can lead to chronic pain and reduced feed intake. (“Current Developments in Beak Trimming.”) The problem of beak trimming and violence in poultry could be solved if they could experience a normal life and have a large amount of space to live in. Not only do poultry face large

With such a high demand for food products within the United States, farms are greatly depended on to fulfill these needs. The two main food suppliers are factory farms, or industrial facilities, and family farms. Recently, small farms have begun to disappear which leaves the industrial farms holding most of total food sales. With this being said, what are the favorable and opposing outcomes from both of these food suppliers?

The concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), it is also called the animal feeding operation, it is the process to keep and take care of the animals in a confined place. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identify CAFO as the farm that take care and grow up the animals in a confined place for at least 45 days in a year without the presence of any grass during their growing (Frumkin, 2016). The waste results from growing the animals could have environmental health hazards, CAFO helps to confine the animals in an isolated space and ensure waste disposal in the proper way by following the EPA regulations. The operation is necessary to avoid any air pollution by the animal wastes that could release harmful gases like ammonia and

Throughout history farming has been a way of life for almost all civilization. In today’s society the people of the United States have strongly leaned on factory farming. Industrial animal farming or "factory farming" is production or raising of animals based on the use of meat for human consumption, raised cheaply, raised efficiently, and producing other products that farms animals produce without focusing on living conditions of the animals. The lifestyle of a farmer is not like the rest. Some encourage factory farming because of the amount of meat, and other products that are produced, others however are discouraged by pollution rates in the areas surrounding the farms, such as any lakes, rivers, or streams, and also the continuous harm these animals encounter every single day. Because factory farms raise living creatures, precautions will be taken into consideration while raising animals.

Today’s factory farms, animals are crammed into thousands of filthy, windowless sheds, stuffed into wire cages, metal crates and many other tortuous devices. These animals are packed into spaces so tightly they can barely move. Many have no access to the outdoors, spending their lives on warehouse floors, or housed in cages and pens. They are stripped from their natural living, never being able to raise a family, build nests or root around in the soil. Most won’t feel the warmth of the sun or breathe fresh air until they are crammed into a truck, which is typically without food or water and sent to the slaughterhouse. They are often injected with antibiotics used to make them grow abnormally fast and keep them alive in unsanitary conditions.

Seriously, it doesn’t matter whether you call this type of production an animal feeding operation, confined animal feeding operation, feeding lot, factory farming, industrial farm, or a concentrated animal feeding operation, it doesn’t matter which way you slice it, a name by any other name is still the same, it is still a monumental disservice to the planet and everything that lives on the planet. This type of industry brings havoc to all involved including animals, farm workers, water, soil, air, and people in general, such as those living nearby and those who consume the product. After gathering information for writing this paper I am appalled by what our government has allowed to happen and wonder how this has been allowed to happen.? But, then again I know the answer to this question-the government-the government follows the wishes made by big corporate money and money determines the fate of poor, innocent people and whether they live a happy, humble life or whether the life they live is a continuous nightmare. In the end I say again…. CAFOs NO

Caging hens is unacceptable and a barbaric way of keeping animals. In New Zealand, 80% of hens are currently suffering in battery cages, living an unnatural lifestyle. This inhumane way of farming has to stop as it’s detrimental to the rights of hens and all animals to live and be treated without cruelty and I believe it is simply unjust. Not only are these defenseless Hens killed, they are also denied the right to move and walk, are arguably tortured and will never spread their wings. The ban of battery cages needs to take a stronger stance as the phasing out of battery cages by 2022 serves only to make way for colony cages which are just as cruel.

Broiler chickens are restricted to massive windowless sheds that holds tens of thousands of chickens each. As G.KNOWLES has noted “Throughout the world the majority of broilers are reared using very similar, modem, intensive systems of production where birds are confined for their lifetime within high density housing and reared from hatch to slaughter weight within approximately 40 days. The detrimental effect of higher stocking densities may be more complex, reflecting not only a lack of room available for birds to move and exercise, but also the extra environmental loading from

Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life in an environment, specifically the existence of many different kinds of plants and animals [1] , but biodiversity is so much more than that. Biodiversity is incredibly important to a well functioning ecosystem, and without it, food webs would break down and many organisms wouldn’t be able to survive. Biodiversity is especially important in California, a biodiversity hotspot. California is home to 5,879 species of plants and animals, more than any other state. [2] California has ideal climate and geography for a wide range of species. The abundant variety of organisms in California is very important. The ecosystems provides

Backyard poultry rearing also finds an important role to raise indigenous birds free of stress and harmful residues (Khandekar 2003, Mandal et al. 2006).