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Negative Effects Of Factory Farming

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Statement Of The Problem The growth of industrialized factory farming has been substantial in the past decade. The number of dairy cows on factory farms increased by 100% and the average-sized dairy factory farm increased by 50% between 1997 and 2012. The number of livestock on factory farms rose by 20% between 2002 and 2012. The number of pigs on factory farms increased by more than 33%, and the average farm size grew by more than 70% from 1997 to 2012. The trends are all showing that this practice is growing – and quickly. This demands that attention be paid to the impact it has on the surrounding areas and world as a whole, and many studies have been completed to explore them. Among these, many facts point to the idea that factory …show more content…

Antibiotic resistant infections kill 90,000 Americans every year. Lack of sufficient sanitation and waste management on factory farms can lead to food supply contamination by bacteria like E.coli and salmonella. Annually, 76 million Americans suffer from foodborne illness, and thousands die. Zoonotic diseases are exchangeable from animals to humans, with the potential to turn into pandemics. The outbreak and spread of the H1N1 virus was said by various experts to be caused by the overcrowding of factory farm pigs and the retention of their waste in massive manure lagoons. Many have examined factory farming’s effects on small farmers too; Nathaneal Johnson’s "The Making of the Modern Pig" states that the past few years have eliminated over half a million hog farmers; “As large farms replaced small ones, the population of Thornton became too small to warrant its own high school. Now his high school serves as a middle school for both Thornton and three other towns “ (Johnson 2006). There are now four main companies producing the majority of pigs (Swenson 2000). Again, there are only four companies producing the majority of cow products; Eric Schlosser of “Fast Food Nation” states, “In the late 1970s, the top four beef companies controlled about 20 percent of the market; now they control more than 80

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