Where Is Our Food Coming From?
We eat food every day. Eating food is a basic need for life. With all the labels and numbers and lists we think we know what we are putting into our bodies. But we only know what the food industry wants us to know. Behind the veil, there is a whole different picture than what that happy family farm on the package looks like. Since the food system has become more industrialized the animals that are raised for food are mistreated and abused, the crops are all company run, and the food has become unhealthy and dangerous for consumers. It is very important how we take care of our bodies. The food we eat has a major impact on our health, physically and mentally. More importantly, the source of our food has a major …show more content…
According to…. It is a featured hallmark of the industrial animal production system that large amounts of animals are kept together in close quarters to each other, stuffed into cages, and tethered to walls and ceilings. Large animals like cattle are kept on dry feedlots and fed corn and other grains before being taken to slaughter. Small animals such as chickens never see daylight and are held inside in the dark and have to endure unhealthy living conditions. Everything about is almost completely automated, the human interaction with the animals or the conditions are very limited. The animals are fed food to fatten them up before slaughter, the food that cattle are fed mostly consists of corn to help them gain weight quickly. The conditions are poor; filthy living conditions, the animals are abused and mistreated, and are slaughtered in a cruel manner. According to USDA statistics, 9.7 billion animals were killed for food in the year 2000 (this does not include aquatic animals like fish.) Many animals die before even getting to the slaughterhouse due to disease, injury, suffocation and much more due to today’s factory farming practices. These practices are even harmful for the employees that work there; many people are injured working with the animals or slaughtering them, diseases from the animals spread to the …show more content…
The dairy cows are treated similarly to beef cattle, but the dairy cows are kept inside most of the time. Since the cow’s sole purpose is to produce milk, the cows are always pregnant and the unnaturally high amounts of milk production cause mastitis, a painful bacterium in the cow’s utter. It has been recorded by the ASPCA in 2016 that today’s dairy cows produce about 100 pounds of milk per day, which is 10 times more than what cows a decade ago were producing. This is due to bovine growth hormones, unnatural diets, and selective breeding for massive milk production (“Animals on Factory Farms”). Tail docking, the removal of two-thirds of the tail generally without painkillers, is a common practice in the dairy industry because it is thought to keep the utter cleaner. This theory has been disproven but tail docking still continues. When a dairy cow’s milk production has slowed or she has become too ill to continue in the industry, at just two to five years of age she will meet her end at a slaughterhouse and will be killed for
We eat food every day. Eating food is a basic need for life. With all the labels and numbers and lists we think we know what we are putting into our bodies. But we only know what the food industry wants us to know. Behind the veil, there is a whole different picture than what that happy family farm on the package looks like. Since the food system has become more industrialized the animals that are raised for food are mistreated and abused, the crops are all company run, and the food has become unhealthy and dangerous for consumers. It is very important how we take care of our bodies. The food we eat has a major impact on our health, physically and mentally. More importantly, the source of our food has a major …show more content…
According to…. It is a featured hallmark of the industrial animal production system that large amounts of animals are kept together in close quarters to each other, stuffed into cages, and tethered to walls and ceilings. Large animals like cattle are kept on dry feedlots and fed corn and other grains before being taken to slaughter. Small animals such as chickens never see daylight and are held inside in the dark and have to endure unhealthy living conditions. Everything about is almost completely automated, the human interaction with the animals or the conditions are very limited. The animals are fed food to fatten them up before slaughter, the food that cattle are fed mostly consists of corn to help them gain weight quickly. The conditions are poor; filthy living conditions, the animals are abused and mistreated, and are slaughtered in a cruel manner. According to USDA statistics, 9.7 billion animals were killed for food in the year 2000 (this does not include aquatic animals like fish.) Many animals die before even getting to the slaughterhouse due to disease, injury, suffocation and much more due to today’s factory farming practices. These practices are even harmful for the employees that work there; many people are injured working with the animals or slaughtering them, diseases from the animals spread to the …show more content…
The dairy cows are treated similarly to beef cattle, but the dairy cows are kept inside most of the time. Since the cow’s sole purpose is to produce milk, the cows are always pregnant and the unnaturally high amounts of milk production cause mastitis, a painful bacterium in the cow’s utter. It has been recorded by the ASPCA in 2016 that today’s dairy cows produce about 100 pounds of milk per day, which is 10 times more than what cows a decade ago were producing. This is due to bovine growth hormones, unnatural diets, and selective breeding for massive milk production (“Animals on Factory Farms”). Tail docking, the removal of two-thirds of the tail generally without painkillers, is a common practice in the dairy industry because it is thought to keep the utter cleaner. This theory has been disproven but tail docking still continues. When a dairy cow’s milk production has slowed or she has become too ill to continue in the industry, at just two to five years of age she will meet her end at a slaughterhouse and will be killed for