Social Impacts Of Animal Agriculture

Our nation’s industrial farming has become more than just feeding people; it has become a way for the food industry to make more money as human population continues to grow. Jonathan Safran Foer in his book Eating Animals, illustrates the effects factory farming has had on animals meant for human consumption. Furthermore, Foer asks many questions to the reader on what will it take for us to change our ways before we say enough is enough. The questions individuals need to be asking themselves are: how do we deal with the problem of factory farming, and what can people do to help solve these issues? Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, also illustrates the animal abuse that goes unseen within the food industry as well as Bernard Rollin and Robert Desch in their article “Farm Factories”, both demonstrate what is wrong today with factory farming. Foer gives such examples of employees who work in slaughterhouses giving accounts of what goes on in the kill floors, and stories of employees who have witnessed thousands and thousands of cows going through the slaughter process alive (Animals 231). Namit Arora in the article “On Eating Animals”, as well as Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, both address some of the issues that animals face once they hit the kill floor. The food industry has transformed not only how people eat, but also the negative effects our climate endures as a result of factory farming as illustrated by Anna Lappe in “The Climate Crisis at the End

Thesis: The buildup of Animal Agriculture is a great destruction to our planet and our species. It is creating lots of negative impacts like overuse of water, water pollution, destruction of land, depletion of natural resources, mass extinction of animals (especially fish), and atmospheric pollution which causes global warming.

Scientist have proven that global climate change is a direct result of mankind and is not in fact caused by natural occurrences. In addition, Walsh agrees with recent studies that the raising of livestock might be the biggest impact humans have on the planet today. Nonetheless, this impact is nothing to be proud of when animal agriculture takes up 40 percent of our earth’s land alone, is the cause of the world’s methane emissions by up to 40 percent and even 66

Animal Agriculture accounts for much of the issues in our environment today. Most would not think of animal agriculture being the main reason for pollution or greenhouse gasses. The majority of people would agree that the fossil fuels that come from cars are the number one producer for greenhouse gasses. Well think again. I am going to tell you how animal agriculture has affected our atmosphere in a negative way by emitting a large amount of GHGs, and in turn effecting our climate and speeding up the global warming process. Animal agriculture refers to an industrial livestock production, the management of farm animals such as cattle, poultry, and in some cases fish, are bred, fed and cared for in a way that is advantageous to humans, also known as factory farming. Animals behavior, genetic qualities and are altered to fit the mold of a human. This process requires a lot of energy, land and water.

Throughout history, new farming methods have popped up to keep up with the food demands of the growing United States population. Such farming methods strived to make food production cheaper and more efficient. Hence, the birth of the modern factory farm. Now, nearly two thirds of U.S. agricultural output is from three percent of its farms (“Factory”). Though factory farms have been very good for the efficiency of food-production, animals in the farms are often victims of mistreatment. By examining these different theories, one can form an educated stance on the economic side of factory farms.

Society is filled with images of happy animals living on farms where the cows graze in lush green fields and the chickens have spacious coops. The picture of free-roaming animals living in spacious fields is miles away from reality. A majority of animals are being raised for food, live terrible lives in dark, confined, and overcrowded facilities, called factory farms. Factory farming have led to institutionalized animal cruelty, massive environmental destruction, as well as animal and human health risks which can be reduced by natural, free-range farming.

Food is one of the major parts of American culture. Food is needed for survival and is one of the largest industries in the world. Although many Americans enjoy eating their meals, many have no clue what it takes to arrive on to their plate. In watching the movie Food Inc. I realize the dark truth of the food industry and learned how industrial agriculture is a very efficient system that has dangerous flaws. The information provided from the documentary Food Inc the topic of discussion will be animal’s rights, health and immigration. The discussion will also include how industrial agriculture shapes American society.

Livestock production impacts the planet in a catastrophic way and the rate at which greenhouse emissions are increasing are completely unsustainable for every living species on this planet. A United Nations report warns that rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than of the entire transportation sector because transportation exhaust is responsible for only 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions whereas livestock and their byproducts account for 51% of all worldwide

When you think of animals being raised on a farm, most people think of a eco-friendly place with cows out at pasture, chickens or pigs roaming free in the yard, horses grazing beautifully in the fields. We think of the animals as happy and stress-free and the environment healthy and clean. Unfortunately, that is not the reality of America today. The reality of farming today are called Factory Farms which are large scale animal operations that control most of the animal industry , where the quality of goods produced are set higher than the well being of animals. This includes both the raising, and production of either milk, eggs, ect or slaughtering for fur or meat. Today, 94% of Americans agree that animals raised for human consumption do not

A child sees beef cattle in a field riding down the highway, “look at the cows!”

Animal agriculture is full of multiple components that overall affect the Earth’s health including the health of the population that makes up the Earth. The practice of breeding livestock has become readily responsible for the changes in the Earth regarding climate and pollution. The Animal Agriculture Alliance has promoted the interest for the largest corporation and trade association for livestock, antibiotics, and genetically modified organisms (Modern Animal Agriculture Methods Are Efficient, Highly Productive, and Sustainable). In other words, this corporation is profiting from this field while the Earth is going through exposure of dangerous weather conditions, predators, and disease; all resulting in carbon emissions. Furthermore, Canada’s

This day in age we have heard so many rumors of how factory slaughter cattle farms are actually ran. Many people assume all beef cattle are kept outside in fields. But, this is not always the case. This paper is to serve to somewhat get a clearer picture of what really happens within a cattle slaughter house. In every phase of development within a factory slaughter farm, animals suffer needless changes and restricted, narrowed living conditions. Not only are the animals being affected by diseases or stress, but we too are being affected just as much. When the farms dump fesses on lands it will make its way into our water and air supply leaving behind pesticides and toxins affecting our immune systems. “Scientists have linked animal stress to problems with food quality and safety” (Animal Welfare). Like any human that suffers from stress and anxiety can be diagnosed with any sorts of illness, the same circumstances can happen to an animal when it is subjected to stress and pain, the animal is prone to disease and can produce lower quality meat, and milk. In this case the cattle being exposed to stress their milk and meat will have a lower quality.

In this article Julia Tanner examines the concept that farming is not cruel because we have now made modern changes to it. However, she states the fact that even though there are modern fixes to farming, that doesn't mean that the farms are not cruel . Therefore, she believes that the concept of cruelty of farm animals should be defended by the law and that we should not consume animal products. I believe this will be a great addition to my research paper because it is an article with much more information on livestock production that i can use in my

Our nation’s modern industrial farming has become more than only feeding people; it has become a way for the food industry to make more money as human population continues to grow. The food industry has transformed not only how people eat, but also has had negative effect on our climate as a result of factory farming as illustrated by Anna Lappe in “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork”. Jonathan Safran Foer in his book Eating Animals, illustrates the effects factory farming has had on animals meant for human consumption. Furthermore, Foer asks many questions to the reader on what will it take for us to change our ways before we say enough is enough. The questions individuals need to be asking themselves are: how do we deal with the problem of factory farming, and what can people do to help solve these issues? Namit Arora in the article On Eating Animals, as well as Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, both address some of the issues that animals face once they hit the kill floor. Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, also writes on the topic of animal abuse, and what goes unseen within the food industry as well as Bernard Rollin and Robert Desch in their article Farm Factories, both demonstrate what is wrong today with factory farming. The food industry today has impacted all facets of farming practices: from our Earth’s climate to the abuse animals endure, and the loss of old world agricultural farming

The impacts of livestock on global climate change are important to the health of the ecosystem because it causes the average global temperature to increase. Livestock contributes to the majority of methane emitted into the atmosphere because of the feces it produces. The growing population increase is not helpful to this matter because as a result, a demand of food arises. This demand for food also includes the demand for livestock because it is appropriate for the human diet. “Meat production is to double from 229 million tonnes in [2000] to 465 million tonnes in 2050” (McMichael et al. 1259). The methane emission rate is bound to increase because it is “dependent upon the population size of the [livestock], their productivity, and [handling system]” (Jose et al. 3).