Farming Disadvantages

Times have changed, and so has the family, the community and our environment. And these changes have impacted our lives and earth immeasurably. This is where the factor greed comes in to play, the need for more. This need for more called for extensive measures, measures like fertilizers, pesticides and equipment to work the ground and harvest the crops became necessity. Agriculture became a booming business that did not and still does not promote the well-being of the employee nor the individual let alone the family unit and community. Since 1950 an average farm size has doubled, but the number of laborers decreased substantially and the number of small local farmers has been cut in half. Farmers have been forced to become more efficient and there 's been a reliance on greater chemicals and technology, which has become very extensive and expensive. Sadly, what has been short term expansion has become a long-term threat (Trautmann, 2012). This greed driven increase has led to subtle damaging ramifications that most people are ignorant to. Their needs are being met as quality is being forsaken. Our environment is being squandered. Selfishness abounds.

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 efficient and profitable way to make and sell meat. But there are a myriad of consequences to this system. Factory farms do whatever they can to be cost-efficient. This leads to a waste of energy, harmful effects on the environment, cruel animal treatment, and negative effects on human health, and therefore, factory farming should be abolished.

The effects of factory farming is not worth the damage that is done to the health of the environment, animals, and people. The idea of a factory farm is to produce meat at a faster pace, but the way these companies accomplish this task makes life a living hell for the animals. For example, “They’re often given so little space that they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably. Egg-laying hens are kept in small cages, chickens and pigs are kept in jam-packed sheds, and cows are kept on crowded, filthy feedlots”(Factory). The animals on these farms have to experience constant fear and agony, especially since most factory farmed animals will be genetically manipulated to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than they naturally would, and suffer severe pain throughout their entire life(Factory). Animals, especially cows, are being abused not only physically, but mentally as well.. For example, “just within hours of birth, calves are taken away from

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

While animal cruelty is the largest issue that arises from factory farming, there are also many other problems that stem from this type of production such as environmental impacts. With this type of food production, “modern animal agriculture puts an incredible strain on natural resources like land, water, and fossil fuel” (Factory Farming). This is causing non-reversible environmental damage such as contaminating water supplies and producing mass amounts of exhaust due to production. These practices are going unnoticed by both the government and the companies responsible. Laws and regulations for the environment are not doing their job and need to be changed in order to save the resources that future generations have a right to experience. The industry as a whole stand idly by as they destroy the environment by the practices they perform. This puts a major strain on the fight against environmental degradation by the lack of regard for conserving what is not the industries to ruin.

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.

As the Earth’s population grows at breakneck pace over the next several decades, who will feed the world’s people? Agriculture has undergone an extensive expansion and transformation throughout the last few centuries, beginning with the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s. New technology allowed for better and greater methods of production. With the development of modern technology, people try to think some way can plant less, get more. Many farmers plant only one crop in the same place year after year. However, those against monocropping claim that it is very hard on the environment and actually less profitable than organic means of farming (“Monoculture Crops – Learn About The Effects Of Monocropping”). In addition, the destructive nature of agriculture has recently shown its hand. While our supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants are filled with abundant food options, people forget to ask themselves where all this food comes from. Globalization has opened up economies of scale and has allowed people to tap into different types of products, whether that is food or clothing. But the availability of an increased mass market comes at a cost. However, today, the modern farming techniques have grown into a headache for farmers and governments alike, because they are the consequences of overproduction, industrial waste and other problems arising from the modern methods of agriculture. Thus, modern techniques are harmful to environments, animals, and humans.

Since the beginning of mankind, we have become dependent on animal products as a food source. As population increased, so did the production of animal agriculture and its profitability. Unfortunately, it has grown into an industry that is unsustainable for this planet and is demolishing our environment at an astonishing rate. In the academic article, ‘Cowspiracy’ Strips the Meat Industry Down to the Bone, Ford reports the shocking statistic that “even if all utilities were turned off and every fossil-fuel-guzzling system of transportation ceased immediately, environmental damage that results from greenhouse gases would be irreversible…even with humanity’s greatest efforts, the dairy and meat industries will still eventually destroy life on Earth”. As the environment is at its most crucial and devastating point, the major contribution that animal agriculture has on rainforest deforestation, pollution of our water, and global warming becomes undeniable.

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).

Farming for our food causes many issues. Growing our food is causing a major decrease in finite resources, like fertile soil and water (Clemmitt 555). Fertile soil and water are being wasted on crops that are not successfully growing. The decrease in finite resources is caused by old, non-efficient techniques, like the throw-and-grow (Clemmitt

Many individuals have seen or heard of the videos on the internet of various slaughterhouses across the country as well as the videos of factory farms and how their livestock are raised, along with Rachel Carson’s various books about the dangers of pesticides. Until the 1950’s, farming never used hormones to increase growth pace to achieve meatier animals. Factory farms and the mass production of animals have caused corporations to stop thinking about the quality of their foods, but the quantity and efficiency in which consumers receive it. Factory farm raised animals are produced to become our food and sold in stores, but they do not have to live in such poor, unhealthy conditions or live short lives full of pain. While factory farms are beneficial to the economy, ultimately they are harmful to the environment and the health of people and animals. Therefore we should find alternatives to factory farming.

What do most people picture when hearing the word “farm?” Most would probably think of green pastures, white picket fences, and animals out in a field. However, factory farming exists as a much harsher reality. Factory farming is the mass containment of farm animals intended for use as livestock. This type of farming often involves cages confining the livestock, giving little to no range of motion;animals are stacked on top of each other, row on row. With factory farming, the term “free range” could almost be considered foreign. Factory farms often have very poor living conditions for the animals. For example, waste disposal is so poorly managed that the animals live amongst it, and the fumes that come from it. If the waste

Between mislabeling, absent labeling, and bending the truth, the farming industry has become a business. Quality no longer matters. Turn over rate and production seem to be the only goal of so called “farmers”. Factory farming is defined as a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by which poultry, pigs, and/or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions. Factory farms are very common. These intensively crude facilities abuse and kill innocent animals every day. Factory farming should be banned because of the fact factory farms pose serious health risk to consumers, detrimental effects on the environment, and deadly harm to innocent animals.

The cows would roam freely on the hillside and chickens look for food around the red, wooden barn. If you step back into the present you may realize that most farms today are very different than that of the past or what we would see in a painting. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) there are more than 20,000 factory farms nationwide. This is a 30 percent increase from 2003. These farms are industrial-scale facilities where animals are treated as a product rather than a living creature. Thousands of animals are kept in these factories resulting in disease and contamination. In the widely acclaimed documentary Food Inc., directed by Robert Kenner, Carole Morison declared that “This isn’t farming. This is just mass production like an assembly line in a factory.” In fact there are so many animals that workers cannot even process the 1.3 billion tons of waste that is produced annually. To solve this problem, waste is piled into large open pools and sprayed onto the land resulting in health problems for not only the workers but the people who live nearby. Rivers, streams and groundwater may also get polluted from this process.