The real cost of factory farming is unimaginable. A report entitled Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, finds “The present system of producing food animals in the United States is not sustainable and presents an unacceptable level of risk to public health and damage to the environment, as well as unnecessary harm to the animals we raise for food.”
What is Factory Farming?
Factory farming is the practice of raising animals in “factory farms” – large warehouses where they are confined in crowded cages, pens or in restrictive stalls, as if animals are food producing machines. The competition to produce inexpensive meat, eggs, and dairy products has led animal agribusiness to treat animals as commodities. Commonly practiced in the U.S., this is the worldwide trend.
History of Factory Farming
Factory farming began in the 1920s immediately after the discovery of vitamins A and D. These vitamins are added to feed so that animals are no longer required exercise and sunlight for growth and could stay permanently indoors. As a result, a disease outbreak was the biggest problem until antibiotics were developed in the 1940s. The introduction to mechanization and assembly-line techniques allowed farmers to increase productivity and reduce the operating costs.
Consequences of Factory Farming
Factory Farming has brought some benefits - cheaper food. But the Pew report concluded it has brought unintended consequences. As thousands of animals kept closely, diseases spread quickly. Animals on factory farms have had their genes manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics, hormones and other chemicals to encourage high productivity and prevent the spread of diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from food borne illnesses. A large number of food borne illnesses, such as salmonella, E. Coli, campylobacter, swine and bird flu, and mad cow disease, are linked to factory farming.
Industrial Farming Practices: Birds
Dr. Peter Cheeke, Oregon State University Professor of Animal Agriculture, was quoted in Why Vegan? saying: "Virtually all U.S. birds raised for food are factory farmed." Inside the densely populated buildings, enormous amounts of waste accumulate and the resulting ammonia levels commonly cause painful burns to the bird’s skin, eyes, and respiratory tracts, according to Why Vegan?. Chickens also experience crippling leg disorders and lameness, as their legs are not capable of supporting their abnormally heavy and large bodies.
Egg-Laying Hens
Hens can become immobilized and die of asphyxiation or dehydration as they are packed in cages. Decomposing corpses are often found in cages with live birds, according to Why Vegan?. By the time hens are sent to slaughter for low production, many suffer broken bones during catching, transport, or shackling.
Pigs
“Real-life ‘Babes’ see no sun in their limited lives, with no hay to lie on, no mud to roll in. The sows live in tiny cages, so narrow they can’t even turn around. They live over metal grates, and their waste is pushed through slats beneath them and flushed into huge pits,” said Morley Safer on 60 Minutes.
Cows
The majority of cows spend their lives on overcrowded feedlots and standing ankle deep in their own waste, eating a diet that makes them sick. “In the summertime, when it is 90, 95 degrees, they are transporting cattle from 12 to 15 hundred miles away on a trailer, 40 to 45 head crammed in there, and some collapse from heat exhaustion. This past winter, we had minus-50-degree weather with the wind chill,” said Dr. Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinarian. The U.S. Department of Agriculture finds workers typically shock the animals with electric prods, which increases the incidence of “downers” – animals too sick or injured to stand.
The problem seems to be that many people believe animals raised for food are not sick or dying.
“For modern animal agriculture, the less the consumer knows about what’s happening before the meat hits the plate, the better,” said Dr. Cheeke. “If true, is this an ethical situation?”
Sources:
Mercy For Animals, Vegetarian Starter Kit, Chicago
Pew Charitable Trusts, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, 2008
Vegan OutReach, Why Vegan?, Tucson, 2009
Miki Garcia - Miki is a freelance writer from San Francisco. After obtaining her master’s degree in journalism from City University London, UK, ...
