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Impacts of agriculture on the environment
The drawback of factory farming
The drawback of factory farming
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Factory farming is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a business. While some believe factory farming is still a peaceful green field with cattle grazing, the reality is far worse. Today’s modern practice in factory farming has taken mass production of meat to a new level beyond that of traditional farming. The farming method process not only jeopardize and violates the basic humane treatment of animal, but it also endangers the well-being of consumers health and it’s associated with numerous environmental problems we face today. For this reasons, mass industrial livestock productions should be banned or eliminated altogether.
Factory farms, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
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Since industrial farms use the land continuously with out the proper rest. This puts an incredible strain on our natural resources like water and soil. According to FAO (2008), “ Livestock production is now one of the three most significant contributors to environmental problems, leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions, land denegation, water pollution, and increased health problems” (as cited in Ilea, 2009, p. 154). In other words, Ilea believes factory farming practice and presence have increased over the years, and continued growth will cause further environmental damage. Furthermore, factory farming is also one of the top reasons of greenhouse gases emission. Ilea (2009) states, “The FAO documents that the livestock industry contributes more to these emissions—a full 20% of the total—than all of transportation” (p. 154). For example, the top gases emitted by the factory farming industry are methane from the animals, and methane and nitrous oxide from manure handling and storage, which leads to more severe greenhouse effect. However,
Every year worldwide, over seventy billion animals are killed for food in factories without the inclusion aquatic animals (“Factory Farms Overview¨). The animal rights movement began in Europe during the nineteenth century to protect horses, dogs and cats (Recarte 1). However, now modern animal rights groups have switched their focus to factory farms, test animals and the removal of ag-gag laws. The fight to create less painful and stressful environments in factories and the altogether removal of animal testing and ag-gag laws has been taken on by animal rights groups like ASPCA (“Factory Farms”). The biggest issue currently facing animals is factory farming.
Factory Farming “To identify with others is to see something of yourself in them and to see something of them in yourself--even if the only thing you identify with is the desire to be free from suffering.” ― Melanie Joy Factory Farming is a cruel way for industries to make big money. Animals are treated very poorly and are forced to live in unhealthy conditions. I believe that there are other ways to humanely use animals for food, without abusing and painfully leaving animals to slowly die for the pleasure of our people.
In the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author talks about, not only vegetarianism, but reveals to us what actually occurs in the factory farming system. The issue circulating in this book is whether to eat meat or not to eat meat. Foer, however, never tries to convert his reader to become vegetarians but rather to inform them with information so they can respond with better judgment. Eating meat has been a thing that majority of us engage in without question. Which is why among other reasons Foer feels compelled to share his findings about where our meat come from. Throughout the book, he gives vivid accounts of the dreadful conditions factory farmed animals endure on a daily basis. For this reason Foer urges us to take a stand against factory farming, and if we must eat meat then we must adapt humane agricultural methods for meat production.
"Factory Farming: Cruelty to Animals." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Web. 29 April. 2014.
of miles in space, looking like a dot. He said to a crowd “Look again at that dot. That 's here.
Phasing out animal agriculture and replacing it with stronger, safer plant cultivation would greatly reduce pollution released into the environment as animal waste, burning fossil fuels, and contaminated water runoff. The animal waste produced in factory farms is dumped into immense open-air lago...
Factory farms; a place where meat is produced for human consumption, this definition only describes how the industry started. In most factory farms, government regulation is lacking. This is to the disadvantage of billions of animals affected by the dirty business. When piglets are born they are divided into breeding sows, and others solely for their meat. Thousands of sows spend their lives in crammed cages, undergo numerous forced impregnations, and become sick because of their cages are overflowing with feces. However this is only the beginning of the story. These same animals are fed food littered with growth hormones, glass, syringes, and are forced to cannibalistic ways being fed their young’s testicles. Animals in the farming industry face innumerous atrocities including pain filled slaughter, forced growth rates, and overcrowding for the sake of taste, however each of these problems must be solved by enforcing the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and by switching to sustainable and/or organic farming methods.
There is much to be said about how exactly meat is being produced. In the present day, there are hardly any farms out there that still practice the traditional and environmental - friendly way. Animal agriculture is widely used all over the world and greatly contributes to climate change. Meat production leads to global warming because of the combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The process of raising animal is the major source to these harmful gases. It is vital to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change by reducing meat consumption. However stopping this meat eating system is extremely difficult, given that we had been consuming meat ever since our ancestors domesticated animals for that purpose. Over the decade Animal agriculture has been getting worse and worse. In 1973 when the Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz announced ‘’ what we want out of agriculture is plenty of food’’, overproduction was encouraged and lowering the price of meat was carried out; this originally started when there was a massive increase in corn (Wolfson). In order to keep up this mass production of meat, multiple pounds of grains are fed to livestock. Livestock industries depended on corn and soy based food and used over half of the artificial fertilizer used in the United States (McWilliams).
Furthermore, factory farming can also be very dangerous for the environment. Gale (2013) states, “...the livestock industry accounts for 80% of the greenhouse gas emission, while the methane produced by cattle and their manure has a global warming effect equivalent to that of 33 million automobiles.” By working together to stop factory farming, people can save their environment. They will also have a cleaner air to breath ...
618.3 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent are produced each year in the United States alone for agriculture (EPA). Agriculture is one source of greenhouse gasses we can’t eliminate, but we could as a species decide to eat greener. Cows are a massive producer of methane, but very few people are willing to give up or downsize their stake intake. With so much greenhouse gas produced the problem is compiled when the amount of clean water used is taken into context. “Globally we use 70% of our water sources for agriculture and irrigation, and only 10% on domestic uses.” On the same note of water conservation 783 million people don’t have access to clean water. The issue as addressed isn’t agriculture, but where we invest most of our resources in production (The Water Project). McDonalds would not have been happy if he mentioned this, but a Big Mac produces 6.8 lbs. in greenhouse gas emissions (Ganeshan,
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 edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene” ( Macintyre, 2009). Factory farmers do not care about the safety of the consumers nor the safety of the chicken, all the industrial farmers have in mind are how fast they can turn a baby chick into a slaughter size chicken and how to make their chicken big and plumped. Factory farming is not only a health hazard to the well-being of the animals, but the environment, and human beings ;thus free range and sustainable farming need to be put into practice.
According the New Oxford American Dictionary, factory farming is, “a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions.” To go more in depth to this definition, factory farming is when massive amounts of animals (some factory farming facilities can house up to 125,000 animals) are put under the same roof and are fed to be slaughtered.
Factory farms are raising as much livestock as they can in order to maximize profit. Before the animals are used for meat, milk, or eggs, they are neglected and abused. Animals are overcrowded, contained in unsanitary conditions, and in unventilated buildings with little to no
Factory farming is raising livestock in a small, confined area on a large scale for the purpose of supplying food for human consumption. It is argued that factory farming is extremely cruel for the animals involved and that there are better ways for food to be produced. The food produced by factory farms may be cheaper, but the chances are it is also of lower quality. The animals inside these factories are not fed on a particularly healthy diet. Factory farming may lead to the production of cheaper meat produced, but this could be bad for society when the health consequences can result fatal. Factory farming should be banned worldwide because not only is it cruel toward innocent animals, it also results in economic problems and major health concerns.
According to a 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, a diet consisting of meat causes more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide to spew into the atmosphere than industry or transportation. Burning fossil fuels such as oil/gas releases carbon dioxide into the air. According to an article on PETA’s website, it’s claimed that “producing one calorie from animal protein releases eleven times as much carbon dioxide than producing one calorie from plant protein”. The billions of animals that are crammed onto factory farms produce massive amounts of methane, both during digestion and from the giant cesspools filled with their feces. Direct emissions of nitrous oxide come from synthetically fertilized agricultural soils and livestock manure.