Intensive Animal Agriculture

• Corn is cheap (and also helps make the chickens fat quickly) allows low meat prices – over 200lbs of meat per person per year would not be possible without this diet of cheap grain

In the second section of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pastoral grass and “organic foods” are the main focus and many agree that grass is a far better choice for animals that graze. By switching a cows diet back to normal food, will impact the market of food prices because the supply would not be able to keep up with the demand, thus making the food market a disaster, or at least that’s what I picture when I think of the outcome. The demand for beef now is so great that these cattle are being slaughtered at roughly 12 months, that’s not even half of the total life-span they’re supposed to live. A grass fed cow takes about 4-5 years to be ready for some great steaks, but thanks to our wonder crop, “corn”, we can slice that

The problem is, cows are not built to digest corn, and so we are actually poisoning them while we try to get the most meat that we can for America. Due to the severity of the situation, cows are pumped with hormones and antibiotics just to keep them alive. In fact, if we didn’t kill the cattle when we do, six months later, the cattle would die anyways.

When eating anything, most people check the labels to see what the food all consists of. Just like when eating hamburger, some people may want to know if the hamburger came from grass-fed or grain-fed cattle. Depending on the person, they might prefer one over the other. Some people may think that one tastes better than the other or they may just think it is healthier. Not only might the meat coming from the cattle be affected, but also the milk coming from a cow. Either way, further explanations for grass-fed vs. grain-fed cattle will be discussed in this paper.

Horrigan, L., Lawrence, R., & Walker, P. (2002). How sustainable agriculture can address the environmental and human health harms of industrial agriculture. Environmental Health Perspective. In this article, Horrigan agrees with Pollan that there is definitely a problem with using corn-based feed for animals who are to then be fed to human beings. Specifically, Horrigan examines both animal feed and the danger of other forms of pollution which have an impact on human food production and eventual consumption. The authors make the claim that animal consumption itself is highly dangerous and perhaps should be universally abolished in order to help the environment in terms of pollutants and to help humans in their health concerns.

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

Corn even turned up in French fries (23 percent).” (Patrigenaru) What is wrong with all this corn? Growing corn involves an abundance amount of pesticides and fertilizers that release chemicals into the soils that eventually make it to the water tables underneath. the ground. That can be terrible for the environment. Also, eating too much corn can cause an abundance of calories in a diet and not enough nutrients necessary to sustain a healthy body. In other words, corn replaces nutrients with an excess of calories. Patrigenaru also points out, “More than a quarter of products in the average American supermarket now contain corn or its derivatives.” (Patrigenaru) Since corn replaces nutrients with calories and is in almost everything that is consumed in America now, it is plain to see why the United States is one of the fattest countries in the world. Processed food are becoming more and more prevalent in the American diet day to day. Kim Rhyssdal wrote in an article based on an interview, “Processed foods are, plus or minus, 70 percent of what most of us eat.” (Ryssdal) 70 percent is a very damaging piece of evidence to the conviction of the American diet. While corn is the leading source of the unhealthiness of Americans, added sugar and fat are not far behind. Tim Philpot wrote in an article, “As for added fats and sugars, their 2008 levels reached 459 and 641,

At this point you must be wondering, whats the issue with corn? Frist let me point out when I say corn, I am not speaking of sweet corn that you eat a bowl of for dinner. We are talking about field corn, which is primarily grown to fed animals, that we then eat. The problem is with feeding animals field corn. Here 's the problem with feeding animals (particularly cows) field corn: animals are not supposed to eat corn!!!! As a result we have meat products that are wreaking havoc on our health. First, understand cows are meant to eat grass and other foraged materials. Cows are not supposed to eat corn, when they do a plethora of things happen. The first is that it makes them sick. Cows fed corn become bloated, are more susceptible to liver abscesses, and e.coli. Also, because Corn is high in phosphorous and low in calcium which is a recipe for kidney stones. You must also understand to combat all the damage the corn does to cow, farmers then pump their animals full of drugs to

Corn is not the ideal nutritious food. It wreaks havoc on the animal;s' digestive system and gets turned into sweeteners that makes people obese, aside from giving us an unhealthy diet. In other words, the industrial food chain that American man is sustained on is largely based on corn, whether in its direct form, fed to livestock, or processed into chemicals such as glucose, and the cheapest forms of these are high-fructose corn syrup and ethanol. The former, particularly, through a combination of biological, cultural, and political factors, appears in the cheapest and most common of foods that constitute the American diet. It is the ingredient that results in obesity, and, since it appears in the cheapest products, the ingredients that more poor, than wealthier individuals, consume.

Every year, an average American will consume approximately one hundred-twenty six pounds of meat. This meat can be traced back to factory farms where the animals are kept to be tortured to turn into a product for the appetite of humans. The terrible treatment these animals are forced to endure is the outcome of the greed and want for a faster production of their product. The industry of factory farming works to maximize the output of the meat while maintaining low costs,but will sadly always comes at the animals’ expense.

Animal rights are practically non-existent in many different ways today. Factory farming is probably the worst thing they can do to the poor helpless animals. Factory farming effects chickens, cows, pigs, and many other animals that are used for food, milk and eggs. One of the biggest organizations against factory farming is called Compassion Over Killing (COK). They go to great lengths to protest and inform people about animal cruelty.

Most of the meat in America as of lately comes from a farmer out west that has thousands of cattle in a feedlot. They start pumping these cattle full of feed and antibiotics to gain maximum profit. The feed consists mostly of grain, as in corn, and not a grass fed diet in which cattle by nature are supposed to eat. According to King Corns’ article off the PBS website, the reason why cattle are fed a diet of mostly corn is because its “Cheaper and more efficient than grass, corn enabled cattle to be brought to market in as few as 15 months.” Traditionally cattle took anywhere from two to three years to reach a point where butchering was able to be performed. So instead of finishing cattle the way it should be done, huge corporate farms instead use cheaper methods that result in major decrease in the quality of their product. All this in the name of profit and greed, speed up the growing process of cattle to better supply the American people with a lesser quality meat. Well you ask yourself, corn can’t be that bad for cattle, can it? “A corn diet dangerously raises the acid

Is animal husbandry in Texas sustainable in relation to fresh water use and water contamination?

“The UN along with other agencies reported that not only did livestock play a major role in global warming, it is also the leading cause of resource consumption and environmental degradation destroying the planet today.” (Andersen & Kuhn, 2014). It is important, then, to consider the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. This essay will argue that animal agriculture is harmful to the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water- and land use, and that policies in the form of subsidizing plant foods, altering the Canada Food Guide, and creating plant based nutrition coaching and support groups should be enacted to solve these problems. The first section of this paper will outline scholarly literature on the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. This paper will then discuss why a plant based diet is also suitable for optimal health. Finally, this essay will conclude with an overview of the various social policies that must be executed to solve these environmental issues.

Cows are ruminants, a group of animals with a special adaptation that allows them to process the cellulose in grasses. This adaptation comes in the form of a “second stomach,” called a rumen where foliage goes to ruminant, or be broken down by the bacteria housed there. When rumination occurs it produces copious amounts of gas which is expelled through burping. Cows that are put on a corn based diet and are ingesting large amounts of starch and almost no roughage, have basically no activity in the rumen. This leads to a slimy build up causing gas to accumulate. The rumen expands and begins putting pressure on the lungs and can cause the animal to suffocate if the build up is not manually removed (Pollan 2006).