The Argumentative Essay: The Benefits Of Factory Farming

Imagine walking through a building that is crammed from wall to wall with thousands of chickens, making so much noise because of how little room they have to move around. “Corpses that have been in the cages for so long that their bodies have become mummified” (Humane Society of the United States). Walking on a floor that is caked with so many flies. Seeing the unsanitary location where the food you serve your family is coming from. You have just walked through a factory farm.
Throughout the United States, there are “over 7,800 facilities” (United States Department of Agriculture) where animals are held in horrible living conditions and treated unfairly. “Each full grown chicken in a factory farm has as little as six-tenths of a square foot

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

“We risk the creation of resistant strains of bacteria in factory farm animals” (Animal Freedom). Public Health is an important key to living a healthy lifestyle. We must ensure that we keep our environment as clean as can be for the sake of our own health and for the sake of future generations. “People are increasingly suffering from chronic diseases that are connected with eating too much of the wrong sorts of food or from diseases transmitted from animals to humans” (Green Times). Because these animals are held is such close quarters, many diseases spread quickly among them, ending up in the food that we eat. Since the animals carry diseases and we are eating it, human health has potentially decreased due to the increase of disease being spread.
Additionally, factory farms are having negative impacts on our environment. “Hog, chicken, and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states” (Organic Consumers Association). It is shown how these factory farms are contaminated the land around us due to the waste produced by these animals and the unsanitary dispose of such