Caged Animal Feeding Operations and the Environment

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Environmental scientists and social activists are starting to argue that Caged Animal Feeding Operations ( CAFO’s) are detrimental to the environment in a variety of ways. CAFO’s are the result of 10,000 years of human progress stemming from the transition of a hunter/gatherer society to an agrarian society. The transition from a hunter/gatherer society to an agrarian society contributed to the creation of major cities, resulting in higher populations i.e. Mesopotamia. As time progressed and countries started becoming more populated, specifically the United States, a higher demand for food needed to be met due to the growing populous. It got to the point where there were so many people that small family run farms could not meet the demand of the growing population.
The advent of new technology such as the automobile, refrigerator, food processing and preservation provided a way for business entrepreneurs to start new businesses that allowed for large scale production, distribution and centralized retailing of both meat and plant foods. The result being CAFO’s.
CAFO’s are beneficial in that they can provide a low-cost source of meat, milk and eggs due to efficient feeding and hosing methods of the animals, as well as boost the local economy by providing jobs. Unfortunately the negatives of CAFO’s outweigh the benefits immensely.
The most pressing issue that is associated with CAFO’s comes from the amount of manure/waste they produce. The manure that results from CAFO’s contains a panoply of potential contaminants. The manure is filled with plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, pathogens such as E.coli, growth hormones, antibiotics, chemicals used as additives to the manure or to clean equipment, animal blood, silage...

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...urkholder, J., Libra, B., Weyer, P., Heathcote, S., Kolpin, D., Thorne, P., et al. (2007). Impacts of waste from concentrated animal feeding operations on water quality. Environmental Health Perspectives, 11(2), 308–312. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1817674/pdf/ehp0115-000308.pdf
Hribar, Carrie, MA. Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Their Impact on Communities. Ed. Mark Schultz, MEd. Http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh.pdf. National Association of Local Boards of Health, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. .
Sigurdarson,S.T. & Kline, J.N. (2006). School proximity to concentrated animal feeding operations and prevelance of asthma in students. Chest, 129, 1486–1491. Retrieved from http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/129/6/1486.full.pdf

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