Factory Farming

You walk inside the giant cold metal building. You feel the bright fluorescent lights pierce your eyes, and the noises of the captives consume your ears. You walk down the corridor and examine the cold iron bars containing the victims and notice the overcrowded cells. You might be thinking that you are walking the halls of a prison, and in some ways, it is similar to a prison, but this is actually a modern farm. The captives you heard and noticed in the potent and cold atmosphere are farm animals that will soon become your meal. This visual illustrates the situation of modern factory farming and food production. Factory farming is described by Merriam Webster as a farm on which large numbers of livestock are raised indoors in conditions intended to maximize production at minimal cost to the producer. Jacy Reese wrote in the article “US Factory Farming Estimates” from the Sentience Institute on April 11, 2019, that 99% of US farmed animals are living in factory farms at present. So almost all of the meat we consume is from factory farms, and the USDA reports from January to August of 2019, that 36,033 pounds of meat have been commercially produced. Meat producers searched for cheaper and quicker ways to feed the country because of basic supply and demand of meat, and this is what has become of it. When looking at GDP in terms of food production levels, the United States looks successful, but if one were to examine the quality of what is being produced, it would be quite the opposite. But in order to understand this current concern, we need to take a closer look. So, today, we will examine the problems, determine the causes, and uncover some solutions for the factory farming issue that threatens the lives of animals and humans alike.

(I) First, factory farming poses issues in a myriad of ways, but it’s important to focus on two problems: environmental and social problems.

(A) But first let’s examine the environmental problems. Farmsanctuary.org describes on their farming literature brochure that the animal agricultural sector is among the two or three most significant contributors to deforestation, land degradation, water and air pollution, climate change, overfishing, and reduction of biodiversity. Today we will focus on two environmental issues: depletion of resources and climate change. In the process of food production, fields must be plowed to yield a sufficient amount of feed. When the fields are plowed and watered, habitats and resources, especially, can be destroyed. According to the Smithsonian Institute, the equivalent of seven football fields are bulldozed every minute for animal agriculture. As resources are destroyed and depleted due to the increasing demand for meat and its production, this could inhibit America’s, as well as the world’s future for food sustainability.

Factory farming also contributes to the world-wide issue: climate change. Some of you may be wondering how a few million farm animals could spur climate issues, so let’s break it down literally. Here’s an example: When cattle consume grass or grain, their bodies release methane gas in the digestion process of the plants. Methane is actually more of a gas emission threat to climate change than CO2 is, and as we increase the amount of cattle to feed the meat demand, these emissions can only increase. The discovery channel explains on December 1, 2018 that one cow fills up a trash bag full of methane gas every single day. One cow is not a big deal, but when there are 1.5 billion cows filling up 1.5 billion trash bags full of methane gas every day, that changes things. So, to sum up the climate issues: the high demand for meat equals a high demand for feed, and lots of animals equals lots of waste. And this waste equals more greenhouse gas emissions. Now that we have a tighter grasp on the environmental problems that accompany factory farming, let’s move onto the social problems.

(B) Next, Factory farming not only harms the environment, but it also affects the living creatures involved in the process. Human health and animal cruelty hold the spotlight for the social problems associated with factory farming.

But first, let’s take a closer look at our own bodies as humans and how our health is being affected by this concern. We will focus on the dietary effects of meat first. A page called “What’s the beef with red meat?” published by the Harvard Health Publishing Medical School website in 2019 explains that a month ago, a Japanese study portrayed that there was no connection between eating unprocessed meat and the development of heart disease and diabetes, while there was a strong connection with eating processed meat. Eating processed meat can increase your risk for premature death by 20% compared to a 13% for unprocessed meat according to the study. This is important to realize when discussing the current meat production problems.

Second, let’s discuss the problem of animal cruelty involved with factory farming. Obviously, countless animals have been killed to feed the human race over the course of history. However, the current situation involves billions of animals confined in abhorrent conditions in order to feed the world’s demand for meat and boost productivity levels. According to the Compassion in World Farming International, space, mutilation, and fast growth are all cruelty issues. Space is an issue because of the increasing amounts of animals and the meat processors’ inability to expand their buildings or pens. Confined spaces cause injury among the captives, and animal mutilation is common to prevent these injuries. Tails, beaks, and teeth are docked, clipped, or trimmed to decrease these injuries, but these are done without pain relief. Fast growth is needed to fulfill the demands for meat production, and selective breeding and concentrated feed contribute to this. Obviously, as the demand for meat increases, these abhorrent conditions will continue.

So, we have now discussed the problems associated with factory farming, and now it is important in our efforts today to determine the causes for these current problems.

(II) Now that the environmental and social problems have been evaluated, the causes will be addressed about the serious problem of factory farming. The causes can be simplified into two categories. Both causes are associated with people, but the first is hardly something we could change immediately.

(A) First, the problem of factory farming is simply caused by the increased demand for meat to feed the human population on the planet. The population is not something that we, sitting in this room, could change in an instant, and that poses a serious issue. However, we will examine this cause despite this. Because people are living longer today, more children are born, and more food is needed for the world to survive. Katy Askew from Foodnavigator.com explains in her article “Population growth a threat to food quality” published on November 10, 2017, that food production needs to increase by 70% if the population continues to increase by 2050. This pressure is felt around the world by food producers, and this can lead to cutting corners in order to cheapen and ease the food production process to prevent food insecurity.

(B) Next, the second cause of factory farming and its need in the world today could be attributed to the lack of consumer awareness. Not a lot of people are aware that 99% of the meat they consume came from a factory farm. This is appalling, and if more people knew about this situation, there might be more of a push to stop this industry from continuing. Some of us have seen a feed yard, a pig farm, a dairy, or a massive chicken farm on the side of the roads in rural Texas. If more people were aware of the process, I feel like they would rethink their dietary choices. Doris Lin of Thoughtco.com explains in her article “Why we have factory farming and how to end it” from October 2, 2019 that consumer awareness is on the rise and thousands have been convinced to stop eating meat or reducing their meat intake, but this small amount of people is outnumbered by the millions of people that eat meat on a daily basis. This needs to change.

Altogether, the causes of factory farming revolve around the human population increase and the lack of consumer awareness. It now time to uncover some solutions to the factory farming issue.

(III) Now that the problems and causes have been identified, let’s gather some solutions to solve the issue that is threatening the lives of so many people and animals. These solutions are twofold.

(A) The first involves consumers: you. After the statistics portraying the unhealthy aspects of meat, and the conditions in which the animals live in, we should all stop and think about how much meat we are consuming and how our own dietary and consumption choices are adding to the issue. First thing you can do is reduce your intake of processed meats that harm the environment. Decrease your consumption of lamb, pork, and beef, which take the most resources to process, as well as harm your health. If you happen to purchase meat, do so locally, and make sure that your meat was not factory farmed. If you and your friends and everyone you knew began to make these conscious choices, the demand for meat would decrease, and the need for factory farming would disappear.

(B) Beyond consumers, legislative action is needed for this issue to be solved. As of now, the only federal laws concerning farm animals have to do with transportation requirements to allow for food and rest, and a slaughter law that the animals shall become painless before slaughtering. For state laws, Texas only offers a law to prohibit the use of a drone to take photos over a concentrated animal feeding operation, otherwise known as a factory farm, according to ASPCA.com. This is not enough. We, as citizens need to contact our state representatives to add more laws. Our congressman is John Carter and our representative is Hugh Shine. By simply contacting their offices, we can inquire how these issues can be solved on a federal and state level. With these simple choices and actions, we can help solve the issue of factory farming.

In conclusion, factory farming affects all of us, even if we do not consume meat at the moment. The depletion of resources and gas emissions, the health facts, and the ethics of animal confinement should all make us pause and reevaluate our dietary choices and how we are aiding factory farming. Today, we discussed the environmental and social problems, determined the causes surrounding human population increases and lack of consumer awareness, and we uncovered some solutions that we can contribute to if we just think about our actions. If we choose the better path, the quality of life for animals, for consumers, and for our future children and grandchildren could be improved in a myriad of ways.