Factory Farming: Affects and Consequences Due to human population increases and modernization, farming has changed from family run pastures and fields to industrial and mechanical factory farming. Factory farming is fast becoming the most widely used method for producing meat, eggs, and dairy for consumption all over the world. However, this method provides more negative impacts on the world than positive impacts. Factory farming negatively affects the environment, health, society, and the food animals it kills as well as pets. Solving this issue will take federal regulation and protection that extends to farming animals rather than just companion animals combined with a decrease in human animal consumption.
The book Fast Food Nations by Eric Schlosser is written to give the viewers an understanding on where their money is heading to when they purchase fast food. The Book is separated into 2 sections, “The American Way” and “Meat and Potatoes.” The book provides a sort of historical background of the fast food industries. It also shows the dark side of the industry. Such as unsafe and unsanitized slaughterhouses with zero respect to the employees. He provides factual evidence to back up this information.
Over the years, the decline of family farms and increase of factory farming has caused harmful effects on human life. Some health problems that effect consumers are respiratory infections, food poisonings, obesity, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and obesity. A lot of individuals are becoming increasingly aware of the health effects of factory farming. Two solutions that would help decrease the harmful effects of factory farming are making the living and manufacturing conditions of the livestock more humane. Another solution to help decrease the harmful effects of factory farming are feeding the livestock a natural diet with limited use of antibiotics and pesticides.
The documentary also shows how animals are given antibiotics to make them grow much more rapidly. In addition, Food Inc. presents that factory farming does damage to the environment due to the loss of biodiversity. The article “Report Targets Costs Of Factory Farming” from the Washington Post emphasizes how factories have taken a hidden toll on humans’ health. It mentions how factory farming fails to provide humane treatment of animals. The article also talks about how that modern agriculture like factory farming is responsible for about the twenty percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas production.
“That today’s system of political economy, referred to here as modern capitalism, is destructive of the environment, and not in a minor way but in a way that profoundly threatens the planet; people will therefore demand solutions, and the current system will not be able to accommodate them; so the system will be forced to change, perhaps in the unfortunate context of sometime of environmental crisis or breakdown.” (3:Gus Speth: “Capitalism vs environment: Time to take sides.” ). There are probably thousands of ways our environment is affected by capitalism. Turning attention to our natural resources we shall focus on one of the major environmental issues: bottled water. One of the
A Comparison of the Paleolithic and Contemporary Diets. Dorothy E. St. Louis Sci/241 The beginning of the industrial revolution, agriculture, and domestication of animals began the changes in the human diet. Prior to this change, Homo sapiens were hunter-gatherers with food sources from hunting wild game, and digging tuberous roots and nuts with very little grains and no dairy products at all. While some individuals claim that since we are more knowledgeable today, we are more conscious of our health, other's claim we are unhealthier today than ever before. There are individuals who claim in the media that we need to return to the way our ancestors consumed food, the Stone Age Diet or Paleo-diet is one such claim.
There is no doubt about the benefits of eating plants which promote health. However, back to livestock products. It had become industrial and has been marketed heavily, creating unnatural demand. Therefore, people are affected by this problem. According to the author Jennifer Goldberg who wrote ‘4 reasons why you overeat’ (n.d.), there are four main explanations why we eat too much food, including meat and meat-free products: The first reason is we are in the habit of overeating.
There is no guarantee that raw ground beef or sprouts will be free of certain harmful bacteria. These foods provide a favorable environment for bacterial growth, whereas, the production process does not include a step to reduce these bacteria, such as cooking or pasteurization. For these foods, irradiation provides a bacteria-killing step. However, one association disagrees that the issue and claims that irradiation only covers up problems that the meat and poultry industry should solve, increasing the fecal contamination that results from speeded up slaughter and decreased federal inspection. Per Organic Consumers Association, Irradiation is a ‘magic bullet’ that will enable the company to say that the product was ‘clean’ when it left the packing plant.
The Effects of Factory Farming Kathleen Zylinski PHI 103 Informal Logic October 8, 2012 The Effects of Factory Farming Society as a whole is becoming more and more concerned about profit. There are always new methods or products that can be developed to get the most out of everyone’s money. This seems to be the biggest concern and mission in every industry across the world. Not only how big of a profit they can make but also how cheap they can produce the goods that we eat. It is one thing when industries cut corners and produce inferior products for a to use, but then it is another thing when that product is something that we eat and that we feed our children.
Food additives can affect food positively and negatively. Food additives have become more popular in foods because a large number of societies do not cultivate their own crops. Additives in food are growing in the world because of demanding life styles, no time for “homemade” meals, and just plain and simple laziness. Technology is also a key factor in the production of food additives. Although some people may be against the concept of a food additive, scientists do very thorough testing on each individual additive.