Industrial agriculture

The Mechanical Reaper Before the late 1830s, farming was a strenuous and time consuming task. The land had to be broken up with a plow and then seeded. The plow, pulled by oxen or horses, had a sharp blade that cut into the earth and turned over the soil. The farmer had to keep the blade of the plow in the ground and had to be careful not to hit any large rocks, stumps or roots. Next, a harrow, a large rake-like object with rows of teeth, was pulled over the soil to break up the lumps and…

Plan I have had past experiences which led me to participate in a hog load out and soybean harvest. I really became interested in helping with a hog load out after learning that the ag450 farm had hogs. I say this because I have grown up around cattle only and have only handled pigs once where we were required to practice moving them at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. I also wanted to help with harvest because I have never have gotten a lot of experience with helping at harvest…

Some grocery stores have pictures of happy animals and beautiful farms adorning the walls of their stores. There are commercials depicting the same idyllic images, but what if the real picture was not as serene as it seemed? Milk, eggs, butter, meat, yogurt, and many other products sold in grocery stores come from industrialized farming operations. These operations are also called factory farms or confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The need and the desire for something like these CAFOs…

Tragedy of the Commons in the American West: The Cattle Boom Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons is a fundamental principle in the study of environmental science. Hardin’s classic example is the herdsman who desires to selfishly maximize their economic gain at the expense of their community’s shared pasture. In his example, the commons are a shared resource or the open range. Each herdsman is located in a society that prioritizes constant economic gain, while there are limited resources.…

Should it matter how animals are housed and treated if they are going to be killed for consumption later? The treatment of animals in slaughterhouses has been an on going controversy in the United States. Many individuals and animal organizations continuously voice their concerns on the treatment of animals in these facilities. The two major issues concerning these slaughterhouse animals are, the inhumane treatment of the animals, and the health hazards these factory-processed organisms have to…

The idea of animal rights has been an important topic around the world for a while, but it wasn’t until 1822 when the Ill-Treatment of Cattle Act got passed that the United States recognized it. The passed Cattle Act protected dogs from harsh care. Since that day, the idea of animal rights has evolved and has became a more complex system: there's now different classifications that fall under animal rights. Farm animal rights is one of those sub-categories. 98% of all animals being abused and…

of land that is used to create new plots. In addition, with the increase of cattle in the area, the swidden farmers have had to build fence around their fields to stop the cattle from trampling over their crop, despite the negative aspects of agriculture. The Maya also started to develop new ways of doing business. The have started to export aloe and trade fruit and vegetables at local markets in increase the flow of money within their families. In the Maya culture…

according to Zingula, they wouldn’t be able to produce nearly enough food to meet the current demand. Also, adding that factory farms are a necessity in today’s world, making the food less expensive and more affordable, opposed to custom raised agriculture.…

And because the animals are fed with natural and more digestible forages and their manure is returned to the environment, methane emissions are also reduced. Silvopastoral farming also results in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial…

There is no doubt about it, meat contains highly toxic substances that are responsible for many deaths and diseases. In the September 1999 issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases, approximately 76 million foodborne illnesses - resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths occur in the United States each year from improperly cooked or diseased meat(Licher). Vegetarians are much healthier when they substitute other nutrients for meat. Furthermore, on today’s factory farms animals are…