Factory farms have both a good and bad side. In order to understand this, it helps to know what factory farming is. Factory farming is “a large, industrial operation that raises large numbers of animals for food” (ASPCA, 2016). Factory farming is something that the public does not necessarily like to think about. They do not like to think about it because they assume that something in the United States that provides so much food for people has to be done both safely for the consumption by humans and humanly for the treatment of the animals. However, this may or may not be what really happens in factory farms. Like everything in life, there is what benefits it and weakens it. It is up to each individual if they agree more strongly with the strengths
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Every benefit of factory farming is possible due to all of the bad of factory farming. Meat, mainly cattle, is able to grow so fast and so big due to the fact that they are basically force fed corn and other grains. Cows are not meant to eat corn, they are meant to eat grass which most living things cannot digest because they do not have rumen in their stomachs like cows do which allows for the digestion of grass. The only somewhat human thing about humans feeding cows grain is that we start them off with mixtures of it not just complete grain, however, this is mostly done so they are less likely to get sick. Getting sick for an animal in a factory farm seems like something that cannot be prevented because the animals are already given antibiotics, but all of the animals are just so close every animal ends up getting sick. The sad truth is that “upwards of 75 percent of the antibiotics fed to farm animals end up undigested in their urine and manure” (Farm Sanctuary, 2016). All of these antibiotics are now on the ground and when it rains, it moves to larger bodies of water and contaminates them and it seeps down into the ground and makes its way into the water table. People end up drinking this water and eating these sick, antibiotic filled animals. That does not seem very healthy and applies perfectly to the saying, you are what you
Every benefit of factory farming is possible due to all of the bad of factory farming. Meat, mainly cattle, is able to grow so fast and so big due to the fact that they are basically force fed corn and other grains. Cows are not meant to eat corn, they are meant to eat grass which most living things cannot digest because they do not have rumen in their stomachs like cows do which allows for the digestion of grass. The only somewhat human thing about humans feeding cows grain is that we start them off with mixtures of it not just complete grain, however, this is mostly done so they are less likely to get sick. Getting sick for an animal in a factory farm seems like something that cannot be prevented because the animals are already given antibiotics, but all of the animals are just so close every animal ends up getting sick. The sad truth is that “upwards of 75 percent of the antibiotics fed to farm animals end up undigested in their urine and manure” (Farm Sanctuary, 2016). All of these antibiotics are now on the ground and when it rains, it moves to larger bodies of water and contaminates them and it seeps down into the ground and makes its way into the water table. People end up drinking this water and eating these sick, antibiotic filled animals. That does not seem very healthy and applies perfectly to the saying, you are what you