As I sit in the car, listening to my music with my eyes focused on my phone, trying to ignore my dad singing that’s completely out of key, I know the minute we get close to a farm. It's not the change of scenery or my dad saying, “Look cows!”; it's the smell. Everyone knows it too well, the stink of manure. Weather its cow patties, animal droppings, dung, guano, or stool, every animal goes number two; and some more than others. According to Daniel Oldham, a researcher at North Carolina A&T State University, hog farms produce forty three billion gallons of manure yearly. That’s a lot of poop! This manure has to go somewhere, so farmers create lagoons to hold manure until they are ready to spread it onto the fields as fertilizer. Most people …show more content…
think this is perfect! Using manure as fertilizer has always been an essential part of farming, and out of sight, out of mind right? Although this may seem like the perfect strategy, many of these lagoons are overflowing and causing detrimental damage to the environment along with causing health problems in wildlife and in humans. Farmers tend to over-fertilizing their crops, leaving the extra manure to run off into our water supplies. Finding a way to remove the amount of manure produced from farms is essential to helping keep our environment clean and safe. When I think of clean natural habitat, I think of a bubbling brook running through a lush, green forest with a cute little bunny hopping among the trees.
Sadly, most of our wildlife is dying because of an influx of pollution in our waterways. The Chicago Tribune explained that from 2005 to 2014, one million fish died statewide due to pollution incidents. Four hundred and ninety two thousand of those fish deaths are due to hog farm incidents. Hog farmers have been trying for decades to find safe ways to remove waste from their farms. Many farmers have created lagoons to put this extra waste in. These lagoons are prone to overflow during a big rain, just like your toilets overflow when it continues to put more water into a full bowl. Pig waste contains more than one hundred microbial pathogens that can cause human illness such as salmonella and streptococci. Let’s not forget the amount of antibiotics and other medicines that leave the pig's body through excretion. These medicines wind up in our water sources and can injure wildlife that drink or live in the water. These diseases, medicines, and black slug that comes from the solid waste of feces make waterways completely unusable to wildlife and small agricultural
communities. Although the solid waste of manure is a problem in itself, there is a hidden killer in lurking in the air around us. The gases released into the atmosphere from manure are profoundly destructive to the environment. Manure contains many different noxious gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen sulphide, and ammonia. Not only are these greenhouse gases adding to the ever growing problem of global warming, but they are harmful to the health of humans and animals. Hydrogen sulphide, the gas that gives manure that “rotten egg” smell, is a poisonous gas that causes nausea, headaches, and vomiting. Jeff Tietz, a journalist with the Rolling Stone magazine, took a trip to one of Smith Foods’ lagoons to understand how strong the smell actually is near these areas. He said when he walked up to the lagoon, that he had never smelled a stronger odor in his life and that it instantly made him feel nauseated. He had it easy though. There have been many reports from people who live near these lagoons of family members fainting because of the overwhelming smell. These families have also been shown to have higher levels of depression, confusion, and fatigue. Most people don’t think about the workers who have to clean and take care of the animals in the confinement buildings. The American Lung Association has found that seventy percent of all hog confinement workers experienced a respiratory illness and fifty percent suffer from chronic bronchitis. Manure has many bad chemicals and bacteria that are harmful to the environment and everything in it. Luckily, there is a way to use pig manure in a good way. Ellie Finnie and a team from North Carolina A&T State University found a way to turn pig manure into asphalt. Pig droppings contain a type of oil similar to petroleum, a nonrenewable resource. Although this oil is too low of a grade to be used in the production of gasoline, it is perfectly suited to be used a petroleum substitute in asphalt at a lower cost. The researchers were able to squeeze out the oil while keeping the solid waste usable for fertilizer. Don’t worry about the smell though. The team was able to remove the chemicals that gave the poop it’s nasty smell. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics said that in 2014 there were 8,766,049 miles of paved road ways in the United States. If we were able to pave all of those roads with this new asphalt, then we could greatly reduce the amount of waste and use it for something good. We can change a crappy situation into a movable one with a little bit of pig manure. In my community, just like many others, our water comes from well water and a small creek. If our water sources became contaminated then we wouldn’t have an easy source of fresh water. Hundreds of creeks and rivers in Illinois are currently unusable and unlivable for fish. Our fresh air will soon be filled with dangerous chemicals that is terrible for our health if the amount of pig manure in the environment continues to grow. Without a way to use the over abundance of manure, we risk turning our world into a stinky and unlivable place. Using the oil from the pig manure as a petroleum substitute is a great way to use waste manure. It helps keeps our waterways clear of disease-causing bacteria and can leave our air fresh. We can turn some number two into the number one solution to keep our environment clean.
In his article “Boss Hog: The Dark Side of America’s Top Pork Producer,” (Rolling Stone Magazine, December 14, 2006) Jeff Teitz reports that not only are millions upon millions of pigs being abused and slaughtered each year by America’s largest pork producer, but, in turn, the waste produced by those pigs is polluting, destroying, and even killing others. Teitz begins by revealing that Smithfield Foods, the world’s most profitable pork processor, killed 27 million hogs last year, which is roughly equivalent to the entire human populations of America’s thirty-two largest cities. As Teitz delves deeper into statistics, he explains that more fecal matter is produced from half a million pigs at one Smithfield subsidiary than the 1.5 million residents of Manhattan, and in just one year Smithfield’s total waste discharge is enough to fill four Yankee Stadiums.
Why do people ban books? They limit freedoms and hints at the fact that adults don’t trust kids and/or teenagers to make decisions on their own. Do you want to be one of the schools that do this? Animal Farm is a very good book and definitely adds an interest of that time period. Animal Farm is also a good discussion topic. I feel as though taking that away would hurt classroom discussions in language arts as well as social studies.
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...
“A dog is not a thing. A thing is replaceable. A dog is not. A thing is disposable. A dog is not. A thing does not have a heart. A dog’s heart is bigger than any “thing” you can ever own.” -Elizabeth Parker. According to the ASPCA, a puppy mill can be defined as “a large-scale commercial dog breeding facility where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs” (Puppy Mills 1). Dogs are more than just items that are sold for profit, they are part of many people’s families. The way dogs are being treated in the mills is not the way one would want someone in your family to be treated. Because puppy mills do not care for the animal’s health, wellbeing, or safety they should be banned federally.
I believe that the most effective propaganda technique used in animal farm is glittering generalities. The reason for this is that they use certain words and phrases to get the animals to do what they want them to do. This is shown in the story when the animals discovered that the pigs were taking the milk and mixing it in with their mash. Squealer tells the animals in response, “It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back” (52). This is an example of glittering generalities because Squealer uses phrases like your sake, and failed our duty. These words stir the emotions of the animals, and the pigs don’t have to go into specifics or use
Although George Orwell’s Animal Farm was created in order to mimic individuals as well as occurrences that took place during the Russian Revolution period, it is still possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of the text without a past knowledge of history through the exploitation of human nature’s imperfections. Following the publishment of his novel, Orwell confirmed that his goal in writing this fable was to expose the wrongdoing of the Soviet Union as well as the treachery of the true ideas of the Revolution. Nonetheless, there have been several other examples of events such as the French Revolution that can effortlessly be contrasted against components of the allegory. However, we need not to dig no deeper than to the fundamental faults in human nature to witness the catastrophic consequences that attributes such as hierarchy, propaganda and betrayal have on today’s society.
Over the past few decades, small and medium sized farms have been taken over by large-scale factory farms. These farms house billions of animals used for consumption each year. The conditions on factory farms are filthy, overcrowded and disease ridden. Animals forced to live out their lives on these farms are subject to extremely harsh conditions, such as mutilation, confinement and living spaces piled high with feces. Not only do conditions on factory farms make life for livestock absolutely miserable, but factory farms are also negatively impacting human health and the environment. The production and sale of meat has become a billion-dollar industry based upon the bloodshed of other sentient beings. With this being the case, at the very least, factory farms need to be properly regulated and companies involved need to be held accountable for their abuse.
of damage in the form of pollution; but rather than let this abundant resource go to waste, why not just fix it? Enviropig—a genetically modified hog programmed to have reduced levels of phosphorus in its feces— could be one of the first steps toward fertilizer that won’t have as large of an impact on our planet, while keeping our crops growing and our store shelves stocked. I believe that this transgenic animal provides our farmers with the best of both worlds: reducing their environmental footprint and maintaining economic stability; although its production is controversial, the moral obligation to do our best to keep our planet fit for future generations
Each year 2 million dogs are breeded by puppy mills and over 1.2 millions dogs every year are put down. There can be no argument that these numbers do not relate. Puppy mills are places that breed dogs for profit. In a lot of these mills dogs are kept in metal cages for 24 hours and do not not get any medical attention. These puppy mills are about profit and anything that cuts into there profit margins they neglect (dog food, veterinary services, protection from heat or cold). Some may argue that there are responsible breeders that care for their breeded puppies, however these breeders still contribute of the the endless cycle of dogs not having home and either being on the street or in a crowded shelter. The fact is that
How much is that doggy in the window? The one with the waggly tail? Well, if you knew where the puppy came from, you may think twice about purchasing the canine. Puppy mills have been around for over fifty years. (1) In these mills, the people who are in charge of the dogs, also known as breeders, are breeding female dogs left and right. Not only are they breeding them every chance they get, but they are performing this task in very unsanitary conditions which causes serious health issues to these animals in the mills. While puppy mills can help people who want to find a breed of dog that is hard to find, puppy mills need to be terminated due to the puppies’ being mistreated and abused, the overpopulation of dogs causing euthanization, and
ANIMAL FARM About 80 per-cent of all the animals on Animal Farm completely followed the seven commandments. The other 20 per-cent of the animals would rarely follow all the rules and they were often treated like a piece of dirt. All the animals on Animal Farm were treated differently according to their social status, where in today’s society everyone should treat everyone equally. The characters in Animal Farm had many diverse characteristics, some of the animals were powerful, stupid, and sneaky First of all, Napoleon is a huge Berkshire boar and he clearly is the most powerful of all the animals. He was able to take complete leadership of the farm because he secretly trained the dogs to attack Snowball. George Orwell writes, “ ‘Never mind the milk, comrades!’ cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. ‘That will be attended to, the harvest is more important’ (817).&nb describe Napoleon as a leader, “ ‘long live Comrade Napoleon’ ” (846). All the animals on the farm (no matter what Napoleon did to them) would treat him as a powerful leader and whatever he said they would do. Often Orwell stirs up controversy about the rebellion, “ ‘forward in the name of the rebellion. ‘Long live Animal Farm!’ ‘Long live Comrade Napoleon!’ ‘Napoleon is always right.’
A United Nations report states that land used for animal agriculture, both for grazing and production of crops fed to livestock, takes up an astounding 30% of land on Earth. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") To meet the industry’s demands, over 260 million acres of forest in the U.S. have been cleared to grow grain fed to farm animals. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") With that in mind, the meat industry also dumps disease-causing pathogens through animal waste that pollutes water and forces the need for waste lagoons to be constructed, which are susceptible to leaking and flooding. ("Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms”) Scientists say that about 14% of the world’s greenhouse gases are released by said agriculture industries, which is a growing concern for climate change and global warming. (Silverman) The meat industry uses one-third of all the fossil fuels consumed in the United States. (Moore) There is no question that farming animals has a negative effect on the environment and steps should be taken to mitigate air and water pollution risks and future deforestation. If animal agriculture was phased out, land used for animal grazing could be returned to forest land and some of it converted into fields for cultivating crops for humans. A global shift toward veganism, resulting in the elimination of the meat and animal agriculture industries, would protect the environment from various detrimental effects.
Power is authority and strength, which is any form of motive force or energy, ability to act, or control. When too much power is given, a dictatorship government can form, in which all decisions are made by one authority. In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell the author portrays how “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).
Writers often use social criticism in their books to show corruptness or weak points of a group in society. One way of doing this is allegory which is a story in which figures and actions are symbols of general truths. George Orwell is an example of an author who uses allegory to show a social criticism effectively. As in his novel Animal Farm, Orwell makes a parody of Soviet Communism as demonstrated by Animal Farm's brutal totalitarian rule, manipulated and exploited working class, and the pigs' evolution into the capitalists they initially opposed.
Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell, was a story of courage and corrupt government. It was set on a farm in England. This setting is very important to the story itself and the characters in it. It made the plot a lot more interesting and influenced all the characters.