preview

Informative Speech On Factory Farming

Good Essays

“It is possible, I think, to say that a Christian agriculture is formed upon the understanding that it is sinful for people to misuse or destroy what they did not make. The creation is a unique, irreplaceable gift, therefore to be used with humility, respect, and skill”- Wendell Berry (Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture). This quote speaks numbers to me. I believe that agriculture, both animals and plants, should be farmed with humility, respect and skill, as said by Wendell Berry. It has, however, become a concern of mine that this is not the case in large industrial farms. The purpose of my speech is to persuade my audience that there is a need for large scale production of food to feed the growing population, but there needs to be some restrictions placed on certain practices in factory farming. I first became interested in agriculture when I joined 4-H and have since learned more through farming and studying animal science here at Penn State. Even though we need factory farming, factory farming should have restrictions because Confined Animal Feeding Operations and monoculture practices are doing more harm than good.
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).
Now

Get Access