Intensive Animal Farming
Science has given people the ability to grow animals faster and faster, shortening the time from farm to table. Similar to the mass production of the automobile or clothing, meat needed to be mass produced to provide a less expensive product for the insatiable appetite for meat in the United States. Intensive Animal Farming practices began to grow in the 1970s and now account for almost 100% chickens raised meat, 97% of the chickens laying eggs, 99% of turkeys, 95% of pigs, and 78% of cattle (Pirello, 2012) Agribusiness companies control most the market in regard to meat and have been able to produce cheaply and efficiently while maintaining a uniform product across the nation. Selective breeding, antibiotic use and …show more content…
The environment takes the brunt of factory farming and is unable to absorb the negative effects. Intensive animal farming, more commonly known as factory farming, contributes greatly to the warming of the planet. Agriculture contributes to nine percent of all greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere (EPA, 2016). Compared to 26% of emissions coming from transportation, the gases emitted in the factory farming practices are still too high (EPA, 2016) Beef cattle are the highest contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 37% of all greenhouse gases(Reynolds, 2013). Cattle produce a high amount of methane through the process in which they digest their food called rumination. Ruminants, animals with multiple stomachs, digest their food through a multistep process of regurgitating and redigesting food to break down the plant matter that they consume. The rumination process causes fermentation to take place which produced gases like methane. The methane is even more dangerous due to the temperature at which it leaves the cattle; this heat emission only contributes more to the warming of the …show more content…
About 40% of the world is used to feed the growing population of the world but, over 30% of that area are used to feed animals to produce meat (Walsh, 2013). Three quarters of the worlds surface used for farming, is used to feed animals rather than feeding people. In a world with difficulty feeding its growing population, this gross misuse of land is deplorable. 795 million people, one in nine, do not have enough food to “lead a healthy active life” (Hunger Statistics, 2015). To top that off, poor nutrition is the cause of death for over 3.1 million children a year (Hunger Statistics, 2015). Due to the amount of feed needed to sustain the beef, pork, and chicken populations, people across the world starve. Much of this problem arises in the west, where the meat consumption is significantly higher. If the west lowered meat consumption, human grain production could increase. Then, people across the world can have food. Meat needs to be seen as a luxury rather than a
Science has given people the ability to grow animals faster and faster, shortening the time from farm to table. Similar to the mass production of the automobile or clothing, meat needed to be mass produced to provide a less expensive product for the insatiable appetite for meat in the United States. Intensive Animal Farming practices began to grow in the 1970s and now account for almost 100% chickens raised meat, 97% of the chickens laying eggs, 99% of turkeys, 95% of pigs, and 78% of cattle (Pirello, 2012) Agribusiness companies control most the market in regard to meat and have been able to produce cheaply and efficiently while maintaining a uniform product across the nation. Selective breeding, antibiotic use and …show more content…
The environment takes the brunt of factory farming and is unable to absorb the negative effects. Intensive animal farming, more commonly known as factory farming, contributes greatly to the warming of the planet. Agriculture contributes to nine percent of all greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere (EPA, 2016). Compared to 26% of emissions coming from transportation, the gases emitted in the factory farming practices are still too high (EPA, 2016) Beef cattle are the highest contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 37% of all greenhouse gases(Reynolds, 2013). Cattle produce a high amount of methane through the process in which they digest their food called rumination. Ruminants, animals with multiple stomachs, digest their food through a multistep process of regurgitating and redigesting food to break down the plant matter that they consume. The rumination process causes fermentation to take place which produced gases like methane. The methane is even more dangerous due to the temperature at which it leaves the cattle; this heat emission only contributes more to the warming of the …show more content…
About 40% of the world is used to feed the growing population of the world but, over 30% of that area are used to feed animals to produce meat (Walsh, 2013). Three quarters of the worlds surface used for farming, is used to feed animals rather than feeding people. In a world with difficulty feeding its growing population, this gross misuse of land is deplorable. 795 million people, one in nine, do not have enough food to “lead a healthy active life” (Hunger Statistics, 2015). To top that off, poor nutrition is the cause of death for over 3.1 million children a year (Hunger Statistics, 2015). Due to the amount of feed needed to sustain the beef, pork, and chicken populations, people across the world starve. Much of this problem arises in the west, where the meat consumption is significantly higher. If the west lowered meat consumption, human grain production could increase. Then, people across the world can have food. Meat needs to be seen as a luxury rather than a