Many people question whether or not the morality of treating animals in a humane way outweighs the morality of cheaper food for a nation where 1 in 6 people are facing hunger, and/or starving in any way. Back in the day, a while after World War II, industrial agriculture was applauded as a technological success that permitted an ever growing population to practically feed themselves. Now, many farmers and scientists see it as a blind alley, rather made for factory work. The way we are going in a population that is constantly
It’s been years since water came out of my faucet and days since my last drink of water. Even if I did have water would it be worth the risk? Our people have become diseased. Our animals are suffering and we have to walk miles and miles until we find “adequate” water. How long will it be until that nonprofit comes back? It’s not even safe to bathe in, but we do anyway. Skin diseases and infections. When will it stop? We can’t just not have water. But today is the day anyway.
“The more exposure people have to the realities of factory farming, the more we will see people rejecting it. It's already happening”(Jonathan Safran Foer). Factory farming has been going on since the 1900’s. Factory Farming is the production of livestock in large quantities for uses such as food supplies. Factory Farming is damaging to the animals, our bodies, and the environment.
Most humans do not think of the consequence that processed foods have on our bodies. The big name food producers have manipulated the youth by offering products that go along with their favorite television show. The farming aspect of food production is horrible. The animals are treated very poorly. The process of slaughter is unsafe and very unsanitary. The farmers are treated poorly by the big name companies. The health in the United States is declining severely, 16% of children are obese,have diabetes, and other major health problems.
What many people overlook is the fact that without livestock half the things we have today would not be here. For example, we would have no glue, make-up, detergent, and anything you could possibly think of. People refuse to admit that the livestock industry is a way of life. It’s something that has been done for many years, and maybe even decades by now. Without livestock we would not have burgers, hot dogs, or steak, and we all know we can’t go a week without a sweet, juicy steak creeping up on our taste buds. People have become too ignorant to realize that there is so much more to offer than just “abuse” to live stock. It’s a way of life, and it has been for a while now and changing that is going to be pretty
Michael Pollan’s alternative to Factory farming has given a huge insight into a better ethics on food. In “The Animals: Practicing Complexity” Michael Pollan writes about a polyface farm and how it works. The goal of a polyface farm is to emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhance agriculture. Everything on a polyface farm has the potential to be helpful to something else on the farm. Pollan states “The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, as I was about to see, feeds the pigs and the laying hens” (Pollan 345). This chain of profit very beneficial to farms because overall they spend much less money and have more money to spend elsewhere. There 's
For example, Miyun Park, the vice president for farm animal welfare at the Humane Society, explains, “Today, economic growth and development around the world are leading to a rise in the demand for animal products. According to the World Bank, increased global demand caused total meat production in the developing world to almost triple between 1980 and 2002- from 45 million to 134 million tons” (Park). With only an abrupt time to adapt to the demand, farmers don’t have time to improve their farms. Also, they need more animals to slaughter. So, the farms are usually overcrowded and unsanitary because the farmers are not thinking about what's best for the animals; they only think about the production speed and if they are slaughtering enough animals to pacify the demand. Also, in the article, "The Globalization of Animal Welfare”, it explains that, “the average person in an industrialized country still consumes far more animal products each year: 181 pounds of meat, 459 pounds of dairy, and 29 pounds of eggs, as compared with 68 pounds of meat, 110 pounds of dairy, and 18 pounds of eggs for each person in the developing world” (Park). An abundance of animals have to be slaughtered because people are “dependent” on meat. Farmers are not doing there job to their full potential. Farmers only care about quantity, if they are producing enough, rather than quality, if the
Factory farming is not a good thing because the animals suffer, the animals are treated with antibiotics, and factory farming affects the environment. The animals suffer because of the living conditions that they are in. The animals are treated with antibiotics that they don’t even need. The environment gets polluted with all of the manure. People should go and buy meat from the local meat market because those animals do not go through all the cruelty that they go through in factory
People say factory farming is good because it’s cheaper and gives people more jobs. But some people don’t know what happens in factory farms. They don’t know that animals are stuck in cages all day. That they are packed into incredibly small areas, often indoors, and fed additives in order to fatten them up (Apecsec.org). Antibiotics are used to make animals grow faster and to keep them alive in the unsanitary conditions (Factory Farming Misery for
Many of us, nowadays, eat and enjoy eating meat but many would agree that this is actually not an ethical action. Michael Pollan, in his persuasive style article “An Animal's Place" published in The New Work Times Magazine, on November 10, 2002 intends to persuade his audience that humans should respect animals and as long as they are treated well in farms and give them a more peaceful life and death it will be fine to eat them. According to Pollan, in today's huge industrial farms, cruel and unbearable things happen that are against animals rights. There is a high possibility that in the future these actions will stop as already some protest for animal rights have begun, because animals have feelings and farms take advantage of them thinking that they are mere machines, making them suffer. The solution to this conflict according to the author who supports friendly farms that respect and give a fun and secure life for animals. I believe that the author is convincing because he first makes clear what the argument is about, he then presents both moral arguments and
Due to the conditions the animals are held in and how many animals are in each farm, “food is produced at lower costs as compared to smaller farms.” (Harri Daniel). This being said, consumers would benefit as well because the produce would be priced lower at your local grocery store compared to that of other farms. Some individuals think factory farming is okay because “Animals don 't have any rights because they don 't have the mental capacity to make moral claims, or make moral judgement, or have any inner conscious or free will” (Carl Cohen). Since he feels animals do have have the ability to speak up for themselves, he believes factory farming should be allowed and morally
Agriculture is the modification of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of plants and animals through the cultivation of plants and animals to obtain economic gain. It was also a key development for the rise of the domestication of animals. Although, its origins cannot be documented for certainty because agriculture began before recorded history, scholars believe that it was started in Southwest Asia. Also, agriculture entails selective breeding of animals with combinations of inherited characteristics that benefits humans. Around the world, agriculture’s steps are the same, but the type of animals that were raised or cultivated differently. Agriculture is the human control of the environment.
Not just for our health but also for animal’s welfare, we need to be aware about what procedures animals are passing by and how they are being treated. Many of the most fatal sicknesses that affect humans can be prevented if we involve more in those harsh procedures that they suffer and try to look for new solutions to make it stop.
Although people irrefutably need sustenance to survive, humans have developed an unbalanced reliance on creatures like cows and chickens as their main food source. “In the United States, about 35 million cows, 115 million pigs, and 9 trillion birds are killed for food each year” (Vegetarianism). This constant demand for meat illustrates the endless cycle of breeding animals and then slaughtering them. However, many first-world countries hold a surplus of provisions that supplies more than enough to feed their people, making the use of livestock pointless. On the other hand, certain animals can produce “low-cost, high quality food for humans” (Tripp 24). A fact such as that can help impoverished countries that lack a steady source to provide nourishment. Without the improvement
At one point in your life, have you ever thought to yourself how was the meat on your plate produced, and why is it so cheap? Billions of farm animals are consumed every year in the U.S. at cheap costs and endure in conditions that buyers wouldn’t acknowledge. A large portion of our meats originate from meat industries that produce, abuse, and process meat for the public from farms that abuse animals unless the animal was raised organically. The meats that are produced are a necessity for a us omnivores because we eat meat on a daily basis as a source for protein and fat, unless you are vegetarian, or vegan. Now since it’s a necessity for us living beings, is cruelty in animal agriculture worth the outcome for better for our economy? Looking through an economical viewpoint, animal abuse in the meat production is beneficial for consumers that buy meats from the market, farmers that produce the meat due to job creations, and trading with other countries. Without abusing farm animals in the process of producing meats, the economy for the meat production will be slowed down due to the delay of organically raising farm animals such as pigs, cows, chicken, etc...