The Food And Water Watch Analyzed Data From An Industrial Operation Of Raising Animals For Human Consumption

The top four meatpacking businesses hold 20 percent of the nation’s cattle in company owned feedlots or cattle bought before-hand, sometimes using secret pricing contracts (138). These farmers are doing everything they can to make a living. This includes rotation practices that big companies would never care about.

Factory farms have become an ingrained part of our society. They are depended on by people daily. However, it is not generally a fact people ponder often. A large portion of the average Americans food comes from factory farms. What individuals also do not realize is the damage these farms are doing to them daily. However, recently it has become a more prominent problem that many Americans and individuals around the world have started to recognize and raise concern about. Many are now considering this fact every day. Factory farms, specifically in the U.S. are a growing social problem that contributes to animal abuse, the deterioration of our environment, and damage to the local economy.

For many Americans, the term “factory farming” conjures up images of mistreated livestock crowded into undersized cages while force fed large amounts of antibiotics and growth hormones. Yet for others, greatly reduced prices on meat and other animal by products, such as eggs and milk, helping to keep costs of food down for their families’, springs to mind. Factory farming has managed to reduce costs of meat, poultry and by products, making it more accessible to our citizens by increasing rate of production and efficiency, while reducing the space utilized to farm livestock. However, the ability to increase production relies heavily on the use of large amounts of growth hormones and antibiotics in livestock,

The quantity of meat Americans consume and the way the animals are farmed in the U.S. has changed over the last half century resulting in major impacts on the environment. These effects are largely a result of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations which are also known as “CAFOs” or “factory farms” in abbreviated terms (McCorkell 2009). Animal agriculture is responsible for much of the damage to land, biodiversity, consumption of drinkable water, and contributions to global warming in the United States. For years, its impacts have only become more extreme. Over the years, a few options for solutions have been brought to light involving efforts of reducing the demand for animal products, grass-feeding livestock, and passing stricter

In the United States, society has portrayed farms as being a place of euphoria for animals. Big red barn, cows grazing in the green grassy fields, pigs splashing in the mud, and chickens running amuck in the barnyard. However, that is completely false. Only 1% of farm animals live on traditional farms seen on movies and television. The other 99% of farm animals live on factory farms. You may ask, what are factory farms? “Factory farms” is a large, industrial operation that raises large number of animals for food.

Factory farms are an inhumane processes in which animals are mass produced for the sale and consumption of the increasing human population. These animals are put on a diet of GMO grains, artificial hormones, and antibiotics. Animals are crammed, neglected, and abused as safety and comfort are not the top priority of this industry. Factory farmed cows are treated as nothing more than products used to generate income.

Poultry is by far the number one meat consumed in America; it is versatile, relatively inexpensive compared to other meats, and most importantly it can be found in every grocery store through out the United States. All of those factors are made possible because of factory farming. Factory farming is the reason why consumers are able to purchase low-priced poultry in their local supermarket and also the reason why chickens and other animals are being seen as profit rather than living, breathing beings. So what is exactly is factory farming? According to Ben Macintyre, a writer and columnist of The Times, a British newspaper and a former chicken farm worker, he summed up the goal of any factory farm “... to produce the maximum quantity of

Factory farming is defined as a large, industrial system that produces large numbers of livestock for food. It is a system in which farm animals such as poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined in small spaces indoors under strictly controlled conditions. Factory farming has taken over family farming since more than 99% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised in factory farms. This industrialized system focus on their profit and efficiency at the expense of animal welfare, human health, and the environment. Factory farming is a serious issue in the United States since livestock gets treated with extreme cruelty and mutilation, the meat produced harms human health as consumers, and the large amount of waste produced damages our environment.

Factory farming is a modern agricultural method that produces mass amounts of animals to meet the food consumption. In the 2009 documentary film, A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms directed by Don McCorkell, people can see actual accounts how modern agricultural methods of meat and poultry manufacturing has on the environment and human health. Observing the film, people can view why this matter is immediately necessary. To reduce operation cost and produce surplus amount of animals to meet the need, factory farms stock enormous amounts of animals to be raised for food in a restrained space. This bulk production decreases the food prices for several companies. Conversely, excluding for contributing an abundant quantity of inexpensive food, factory farming is an unnatural and unhealthy agricultural system to both the environment and on humans. Factory farming contributed to severe environmental contamination problems, spread of human disease, and impacted the political, structural and behavioral factors of the communities that occupy these facilities (Glover, 1994).

Human attempts to make animal agriculture efficient through factory farming has caused unexpected problems, and some are not easily overcome and impose continuous costs. In the Unites States, farming and the meat industry are controlled by a few, making it a monopolistic multi-billion-dollar

In the early 1900s over 6000 small rural farms provided the meat consumed in the United States. Today that number has fallen to 2000, 95% of which are what we typically call “factory farms” (Dimitri, 2). This move towards a highly concentrated factory production system has had a staggering impact on the current change in climate. This impact stems from broad and wide reaching causes fueled by factory farming, stretching from land degradation, to chemical use in fertilizers, to C02 and methane emissions. Lobbying by agribusinesses has resulted in miniscule regulation, and with the help of government subsides meat production under this model has been allowed to flourish. Furthermore, the public at large is apathetic to these issues. With factory farming as the second largest contributor to green house gas emissions in the US and an ever increasing demand for cheap meat products it’s clear that the current trajectory of the industry is on the road to causing irreversible damage. If we are to put an end to the disastrous effect factory farming has had on global climate change we must increase public awareness of the concerns associated with factory farming, remove government subsides, and investigate synthetic alternative to meat production.

The rise of factory farming didn’t happen overnight, and it is no accident. There is an oligarchy of corporations that determine how animals are raised, how much farmers get paid and how meat is processed all while reaping the massive profits.

Agriculture in America is rapidly changing. Not too many years ago a majority of American’s lived on farms, and would produce for subsistence rather than farming as a manufacturing business model. Today, rather than the individual producing their own food for those in their communities we have few people producing meat for a large and ever growing population. Every year, approximately 9.8 billion animals are slaughtered in the United States for not only domestic but also for markets abroad (Kim, 2013). This large number of animals being slaughtered every year is not a sustainable model for advancement. Advancements in technology had led to the switch from smaller farms where people raise cattle for local distribution and consumption to large scale intensive animal farming. This new system has caused many environmental consequences as well as risks to human health in addition to the maltreatment of cattle. This grotesque industry must be severely changed so that we can mitigate the damage to the environment and the people who are affected by the cattle industry. The change from traditional cattle raising to intensive animal farming has caused serious problems to public health, animal welfare and the environment.

Everyday millions of people around the world sit down to a meal composed predominantly of meat. Many of these people have no idea where the meat came from before it reached the shelves of local grocery stores. Most of the meat and animal by products found in today’s grocery stores are produced from large scale farms, commonly known as factory farms. These farms have replaced traditional small-scale family farms. Factory farming is an unsustainable practise that puts the health of the environment at risk.

Companies are trying to meet the food consumption demands with using a modern agricultural technique of factory farming (Coller, 4-7). Factory farms house large number of animals to be raised for food in a confined space of farms to minimize operation cost, and the mass production drives down the food prices as they could produce excess number of animals to meet the demand (Coller, 4-7). However, except for offering human abundant amount of cheaper food, factory farming is an unhealthy agricultural practice to both human and the environment (Coller,4-7). Factory farming contributed to serious pollution problems, the animal treatments are inhumane, and it has smothered the business opportunity of traditional farms and its workers by occupying their markets (Coller, 4-7).