THE IMPACTS OF FACTORY FARMING
We rear and slaughter an estimated sixty five billion farm animals worldwide every year. Nearly 2 in every 3 of them spend their lives in factory farms – farming systems that prioritise maximum production above all else.
This modern phenomenon creates vast quantities of seemingly cheap meat, milk and eggs. But it comes as a cost. Animals are treated as commodities and are often raised in intense confinement. factory farming is highly dependent on large quantities of limited resources such as grain-based feed, water, energy and medication. In short:
• Factory farming is dangerous, threatening our health and wellbeing, and the welfare of farm animals
• Factory farming is unfair, threatening rural livelihoods and exacerbating poverty
• Factory farming is dirty, threatening the planet and its precious natural resources
The drought that ravaged East Africa in 2011 was reported by the BBC to be the worst in 60 years1. As the rains failed and the ground became parched, tens of thousands of families set-off in search of food and water for themselves and their livestock, struggling to find places that were better than where they had come from. The BBC reported that an estimated 100,000 people died from the famine caused by the drought. Severe weather events such as this are forecast to become more common as the effects of climate change worsen2. The farming of livestock, at the vast scale that factory farming allows, is a major contributor to climate change, causing 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions3.
The Term Paper on Factory Farming is cruel to animals
... farm animals in the modernity of the factory industry. Generations of farmers will grow up without the first-hand experience and knowledge of farming ... practices that severely abuse animals, puts an enormous strain on our natural resources, and threatens the Nation’s health. Factory farms provide cheap meat that ...
‘[O]ne woman, called Fatuma… had walked from her home in Somalia for a month and a half with her four children aged between three and 10 to reach a Kenyan camp. She said: “The weather was very harsh. It was so hot, and there was very little shelter. I left my husband in Somalia. I do not know if I will see him again… We had 15 goats. But they died one by one because of the drought. We had a well in my village, but it dried up. Then the one in the next village dried up.”‘
The Independent, 20114
‘Hindiya is 10 years old… her father and siblings are on the move, wandering wherever they hear there might be water… By the time we caught up with them, they’d been walking for 17 days, almost nonstop… Eating is a luxury. Hindiya’s family didn’t have any food this morning, and they have nothing to eat tonight… Herders – like Hindiya’s family – who used to settle down for six months at a time are now lucky if they can stay somewhere for a month. And in between settled stints there’s hunger, poverty, dying livestock and walking, walking and more walking in search of water.’
CNN, 20115
”[U]nless something is done [to tackle climate change], the current suffering offers a grim foretaste of the future – temperatures in east Africa are going to rise and rainfall patterns will change, making a bad situation worse.’
The Guardian, 20066
OUR SOURCES
1. BBC, 2011, Save the Children Says East Africa Appeal Best in History
2. IPCC, 2007, Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
3. FAO, 2006, Livestock’s Long Shadow
It’s not just farm animals that suffer from factory farming – our health is also put at risk. The provenance of our meat and dairy products can affect their quality and nutritional values. And with their focus on high numbers and confined spaces, factory farms can be the perfect breeding grounds for infectious zoonotic* diseases.
The Essay on Animal Cruelty on Factory Farms
We can promote humane treatment of factory farm animals by prevention through education, by enforcing humane laws by being an example of humane animal treatment, and by donating and/or volunteering at local humane law enforcement agencies. Cruelty and abuse of animals on factory farms cause loss to the business. Animals at the farms are injected with growth stimulants so that they can grow ...
Bad meat, bad health
Some factory farmed products have been shown to be less nutritious. Recent studies1 have shown that meat from intensively farmed animals can have lower levels of beneficial omega-3 and a less favorable ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. An inadequate intake of omega-3 and an unbalanced ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 have been linked with cardiovascular disease and certain cancers2. A recent Compassion in World Farming report shows that extensively farmed animal products often contain higher levels of antioxidants, iron and lower levels of fat3. The rise of factory farming and ‘cheap’ meat has also led to significant overconsumption problems in many countries around the world; heavy red and processed meat consumption has been linked to a number of serious health-related conditions, including obesity, diabetes and cancer.
Heavy red meat consumption can increase the risk of some cancers developing by as much as 43%.
World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) (2011)4
Food-borne illnesses
The conditions on a typical factory farm – where animals are forced to live in close proximity to one another in cramped spaces – facilitate the spread of bacterial pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella. These can cause gastroenteritis in humans and, in extreme cases, death.
A large-scale UK survey found that battery-cage farms are six times more likely than non-cage farms to be infected with the strain of salmonella most commonly associated with food poisoning.
Veterinary Record (2010)5
Animals and workers crammed together
Cramming animals together in their hundreds or even thousands creates the perfect conditions for diseases to be transmitted and even to mutate into more dangerous strains (Pew Commission, 20086).
Farm workers can play a role too; according to an article in Environmental Health Perspectives (20097), industrial farm workers are a key risk for zoonotic infection as a result of their ‘routine and intensive exposure’ to the farm animals, potentially serving as a ‘bridge population’ that could transfer infections from animals to the wider public.
Fifty years ago, a US farmer who raised pigs or chickens might be exposed to several dozen animals for less than an hour a day. Today’s confinement facility worker is often exposed to thousands of pigs or tens of thousands of chickens for eight or more hours each day.
The Essay on Animal Farm Dystopia
Animal Farm Dystopia Humans are just as bad as animals, or is it the other way around? True equality between societies can never be accomplished because of true human nature leads societies to become dystopias. Animal Farm by George Orwell is the perfect example of a dystopia for three main reasons. One, propaganda is used to control the citizens of the society. Two, a figurehead of concept is ...
Pew Commission (2008)8
Antibiotics overload
Antibiotics can form an important part of good animal husbandry, preventing sick animals from suffering. However, there is an extreme overuse of these drugs in many factory farms9. Antibiotics are often fed to factory-farmed animals to offset the disease risks posed by overcrowding – this is carried out regardless of whether the animal is infected or not. In some countries, antibiotics are even used to promote growth**. The rampant use of antibiotics in farm animals may well be harming us, driving the development of drug-resistant bacteria, which can reduce our ability to recover from a wide range of food-borne illnesses and diseases10.
Nearly 80% of the total antibiotics distributed in 2009 in the US were for farm animals.
US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) (2009)11,12
* Zoonotic diseases are those diseases that can pass between animals and humans
** The use of antibiotics to promote farm animal growth is outlawed in the EU but legal in a number of countries, including the United States
But don’t just take our word for it
Eating large amounts of red and processed meats increases exposure to toxins and is linked to higher rates of heart disease, cancer and obesity.
Environmental Working Group (EWG) (2011)13
Animal waste from large factory farms is threatening our health, the water we drink and swim in, and the future of our nation’s rivers, lakes, and streams
National Resources Defense Council (2001)14
Seventy-five percent of the antibiotics used on livestock are not absorbed by the animals and are excreted in waste, posing a serious risk to public health.
Worldwatch Institute (2011)15
FDA believes the use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals for production purposes (e.g., to promote growth or improve feed efficiency) represents an injudicious use of these important drugs.
The Essay on Continuity and Change in Chinese Nationalist Ideology World War I to Present
Since the beginning of the First World War to the present, nationalist ideology within China has caused change and continuity in several aspects of this nation’s society. One major change in China from the First World War to the present is its foreign relations with other countries due to factors such as communism and neocolonialism. Although China has changed in this way, it has remained one ...
USFDA (2010)16
So what?
Factory farming threatens our health. By taking action against factory farming, we are not just creating a food and farming revolution; we are also creating a healthier world for ourselves.
THE EFFECTS OF CLIMANTE CHANGE ‘NB’
It is the world’s poorest people who are hardest hit by devastating droughts, floods and other extreme weather events. This is a massive injustice – climate change is caused by the world’s richest countries.
Around the world, Practical Action is working in different ways to tackle both the causes and effects of climate change, including
• Working with communities to reduce their vulnerability to the disasters made worse and more numerous by climate change, and to help them adapt to the longer term challenges which a changing climate pose.
• Working with other organisations to share our learning of what works well and what can be done to make programmes of work with poor communities even more effective.
• Working with national and international bodies around the world to create and strengthen policies which reduce emissions and encourage funding and focus on adaptation to climate change.
• Working with schools and teachers to encourage the delivery of effective, exciting climate change lessons which engage today’s young people in the issues of climate change, creating a generation of global citizens who understand the impact of their actions on the environment and people around the world.
• Launching and supporting campaigns designed to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities, and enabling them to take tangible action to support strong and urgent change at the local, national and international level.
SYMPOSIUM SCOPE
Since the beginning of life on Earth, oceans have influenced the fundamental processes of our planet. From their role in the global carbon cycle to providing the habitats that sustain marine biodiversity, oceans provide the living resources and services upon which humans depend. They create opportunities for economic development, for societal well-being, and for quality of life. But we are changing the World Ocean to an extent that is unprecedented in millions of years. Greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, affecting the global carbon cycle, and changing the chemical composition of the ocean. These fundamental changes can have serious consequences for oceanic productivity and species composition. Marine ecosystems are being disrupted by overfishing and pollution at various scales so the consequences for Earth, as we have known it, might become serious. There is general agreement that our understanding of the role of oceans in the ecology of the planet is in its infancy. While many adverse effects of climate change have been described to date, they are likely a fraction of what will become apparent in the coming years. These changes are described and debated in regional or thematic symposia and workshops, but a comprehensive view of the current state of the global ocean and comparison between regions demands an international symposium program that reaches for that scale. ICES, PICES and IOC joined forces in 2008 for the first global ocean symposium (Gijón, Spain) and it attracted 400 scientists from 48 countries. This second look at the “Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans” will lead us through many issues of the role of climate change on the oceans: sea level rise, changes in thermo-haline ocean circulation, acidification, oligotrophy of temperate seas, changes in species abundance, distribution and phenology, loss of biodiversity, all of which will have serious implications for marine living resources, etc. This symposium aims to bring together experts from different disciplines to exchange observations, results, models and ideas at a global scale and to discuss the opportunities to mitigate and protect the marine environment and its living resources.
The Essay on Speech On Global Warming 2
In the recent past, you have read about natural disasters such as hurricanes on social or print media. Do you know what the major cause of these natural disasters is? Are you aware that we can reduce their occurrences and prevent the possible loss and damages? I will inform you about the cause of these calamities, some of their effects and show you how groups or individual efforts are important in ...
