What Effect Does Factory Farms Have On The Environment

Decent Essays
To begin with, Factory farms harbor more animals than manageable, leading to huge detrimental living conditions for not only the faunas but for our ecosystem. With harboring such large amounts of animals come unruly conditions such as fighting large amounts of manure produced. With poor sanitation regulations, companies who embody these factory farms dispose of this compost lead to contamination to our major water supplies. Research review states that “In 2011, an Illinois hog farm spilled 200,000 gallons of manure into a creek, killing over 110,000 fish” (445). This alone proves that the establishment of Factory farms led to the spread of unsanitary regulations that not only affect humans but other forms of biodiversity. Averagely the world

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Polyfarm Summary

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    At factory farms there is only one animal. Every by-product from that animal is gone to waste. The chickens at the farm are feed grains, the chickens defecate. The feces is cleaned up by humans and the cycle is repeated Pollan, 377). At factory farms individuals are needed without humans the farm would crumble (Pollan, 380).…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    First, I will cover industrial farming. More specifically, the industrialized meat industry. The truth is, animals in the industrial food system are raised with little regard for health, and this is a detriment to the animals and their consumers. According to Paul Solataroff's article "In the Belly of the Beast", "A minimum of 40 diseases can be transferred from farm animal waste to humans." The article goes on to state, "[Industrial meat cows] are three times likelier to harbor a potentially deadly strain of E. coli, and at higher risk of carrying salmonella bacteria and transmitting bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, as it’s quaintly known.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When animals were let to roam around in the open fields, their waste was “regarded as a precious source of fertility on the farm” (190). Today, factory farm animals spend most of their lives up to their ankles in their own waste and “are one of America’s biggest sources of pollution” (190). Because there is no way to easily get rid of the waste, it becomes possible for…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Omnivore's Dilemma

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Cows bathe in their own manure waiting for trucks to feed them grains instead of grass, in which the risk of harmful microbes can develop into diseases. Not all farms treat their animals like this, but it does put the industrial agriculture in the bad light, so one may say organic is better but is it really? Some may argue that organic farms are better, but those that only change the living quarters of the animals are no different. An example would be as seen in Pollan’s book: chickens who are allowed out of their quarters once a day or week to stretch their wings, aren’t very different from industrial farms who leave them in cages… Yet, there are some farms that allow their animals to wander about, while also making sure the animals do not affect the environment…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Worldwide adoption of the American diet would require "more grain than the world can grow and more energy, water and land than the world can supply"” (Gussow 1994). The affluence related to this consumerism is a relatively recent formula of factory farming. We can thus fairly establish that concerns for the environmental effects are a recent phenomenon and therefore, it must be the newer more intensive methods of animal farming as applied in affluent nations like the US that are…

    • 2037 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Author Matthew Scully states, “With no laws to stop it, moral concern surrendered entirely to economic calculation, leaving no limit to the punishments that factory farmers could inflict to keep costs down and profits up”. No longer are animals cared for. No longer do animals have to opportunity to run, or play, or live a healthy life. Factory farmed animals are confined to steel cages, often overcrowded with many roommates. Like crops in a field, they are “grown”.…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Factory farming has affected our environment because of the massive amounts of animal waste. The massive amounts of animal waste has affected the environment through pollution. For instance, in the book it states, “So much shit, so poorly managed, that it seeps into rivers, lakes, and oceans, killing wildlife and polluting the air, water, and land in ways that are devastating to human health”(Foer 174). Author Jonathan Safran Foer explains in this quote how animal waste from factory farms has led to pollution that affects the environment and humans. He supports his first quote by also stating, “The polluting strength of this shit is 160 times greater than raw municipal sewage waste”(Foer 174).…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Factory farming is heavily prevalent in todays society. Most nearly all of the meat and by products of animals come from animals raised in factories, robbing them of living and fulfilling a full life. I one hundred percent agree with Blake Hurst that “only ‘industrial farming’ of meat can possibly see the demand for an increasing population and increased demand for food as a result of growing incomes”. The world today is growing at a way too rapid pace for natural production of animals. The days of animals happily roaming around Grandma’s farm are over.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By watching the documentary, we learn that when cattle and pigs are kept in small spaces where their waste develops into a pollutant rather than a fertilizer. This is because the animals do not have enough room to graze. Along with that, industrial farming is bad for the rural environment because it Clifton air, water and soil, reduces better diversity and contributes to global climate change. Large companies have required their factories to use chemical fertilizers, but these chemicals are exposed to the outside world, resulting in pollution damage to farmlands. These factory farms emit harmful gases and particles that can contribute to global warming and harm the health of those living or working nearby.…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Factory farming is a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions. Factory farms control the U.S. food production. According to Safe.org.nz “Factory farming began around the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies with the popularity of fast food” (paragraph 2). It created the ability for companies to buy larger quantities of meat for a lesser amount of money. Factory farming also affects the earth’s environment and contributes to global warming by creating fossil fuels, carbon emissions, water and air pollution.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alistair Norcross believes that supporting the factory farming of meat as consumers is wrong. He uses the example of Fred, to further clarify his argument. Fred’s neighbors call the police because they hear terrible noises from Fred’s basement. The police come and see several mutilated animals specifically puppies in his basement. Fred is arrested.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As I walk into my local Stop & Shop or Market Basket I am overwhelmed by my choices. I look at some of the products and sometimes I find pictures of small farms with wide green pastures. That is how the industrial food system wants us to interpret it, although I know this is far from reality. Most of these industrial farms do not even have animals, and the ones that do are simply awful. In the essay “The Future of Food Production, the author, Sam Forman mentions that as soon as food production became industrialized, the concern for the environment and the livestock diminished.…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Another action that pollutes the water is the lack of manure management in factory farms (Harrigan, Davis, Jacobs, and Rose 2). In the article, Animal Agriculture and the Environment, elucidate that a majority of factory farms do not have any updated manure management plans, and seventy-two percent of those farms were not following the recent plans they had (2). The article also states that in Ohio, there were…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Factory Farming

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “People may hope that the meat they buy came from an animal who died without pain, but they do not really want to know about it.” (Singer, Animal Liberation). Factory farming is an industrialized farm in which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors in conditions intended to maximize production of minimal cost. The practice of factory farming is unethical for many reasons, more specifically, because of health issues. During factory farming, the animals are treated poorly and put in terrible environments.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Veganism And Environment

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Animal agriculture continues to use up land, water, and fuel in order for people to eat an animal supported diet. In result there is a staggering amount of pollution and waste, worsening the environment surrounding the factory and the overall climate. The factory farms emit harmful greenhouse gases and pollute the air, land, and water which affect the quality of life of those who live in the surrounding communities (Farm Sanctuary). Not only does animal agriculture have a negative impact on the environment, but it also has an unfortunate impact on those who live in the surrounding area. In result of the fast pace farm factories have to produce products there a shocking amount of waste every day.…

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays