Livestock farming has really rocketed this past few decades in our lives. In today’s world the agricultural operations are only a handful of them in the US, which shelter the animals and raise them in confined situations. They also produce the foods we eat each day. There are many problems through the discussion of CAFOs, which impact the food on consumer health, workers, condition, and wages. Additionally, the impact these factories have on environmental and public health. These concerns have turned into problematic situations that soon needs to be stopped to better the food we eat, and the world we live in.
The production of factory farms had started with small farms and family owned farms to those large farms that these big-time corporates have changed to CAFOs. In fact, in Mr. Hribar CDC article had said “CAFOs raise tens of thousands of animals in confined cages or warehouses, fatten them with high calorie, protein rich diets, growth supplements, and antibiotics then ship them off to get slaughtered” (Hribar, 2010). Rather, than having animals graze in the outdoors. In, Mr. Hribar’s “Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” he explains all the formulated feeds to these animals, and the pharmaceuticals have indefinitely increased skill and productivity of animal agriculture. With the outburst of our population, the need for more meat is irresistible and its much rather than easier to buy cheaper foods. Not to mention, these technological breakthroughs in agriculture are causing unintentional unhealthy results for human health and the planet.
Dreadfully, these factory farmers are abusing the animals in CAFOs, which the animals are spending their whole lifetime in small restricted areas. According to the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project group, the animals “are forced to endure living on concrete in their own excrement with no access to pasture, fresh air, or natural light” (SRAP,2013). In the text SRAP, “In the profit – driven world of industrialized agricultural, animals are no longer viewed as living, feeling beings” they are justifying that the animals are treated as cogs and worthless, and they aren’t letting them be normal animals, as well as express normal animal behaviors. The abusiveness to these animals is cruel and should be stopped immediately before it gets out of hand.
Likewise, the way these farmers are processing the animal into our foods we eat is scary and sickening. In Dr. Mercola words, “over the past year, nearly 10 percent of the entire swine population in the US has been wiped out by a highly lethal virus called porcine epidemic diarrhea virus which has been—at least in part—traced back to pig’s blood used in piglet feed” (Mercola,2014). In Mercola’s text, the (PEDv) found in the foods we buy from our local stores the reasons have been because “Factories veer too far from the animals natural order of things” It’s because diseases like this are easily to occur when companies and factories are giving the animals all these drugs to the animals that we Americans’ are consuming. Events like this can be easily stopped if companies stopped doing what they are doing and drugging these animals because we are consuming them.
In today’s world factory farms are feeding the animals we eat antibiotics, which causes these animals gain weight faster while feeding them less. Companies and factories cued this idea to the diets of healthy poultry, cattle, and swine. The University of Purdue explains to us the agricultural use of antibiotics “it is widely accepted that antibiotic resistance in foodborne pathogens develops on the farm; the organisms do not persist long enough in humans for resistance to develop” (Ebner,2010). Mr. Ebner imposes that, “Antibiotic resistance in foodborne pathogens could be problematic if an infected person seeking treatment is administered the drug to which the pathogen is resistant”. He is implying that not everyone gets sickened, it’s those who are resistant to it and they get sick. Because of the impacts of this food on consumer health, things should be taken seriously and not sicken our people.
The factory farm workers, conditions, and wages are rearranged by the type of animal is being raised as well as the phase of production, which would accommodate the job titles to the employees. With being said, the Food Empowerment Project group (FEP) listed that “A large percentage of factory farm workers are people of color including migrant workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Physicians often encourage workers to leave their jobs, however, most feel they are unqualified for other lines of work. Motivated by the need to support their family, most workers choose to continue working in conditions that pose serious short-term and long-term health risks” (FEP,2018). Factory farms are employing these workers because they are easy to find and will be willing to do the work. Just, like how Mrs. Girshick the guest speaker had implied in her PowerPoint, “undocumented workers were always willing to do the job, no matter if the companies did not provide health insurance, because none of them could even be eligible to get health insurance”. It’s crazy because the workers are always inhaling hazardous fumes like hydrogen sulfide gases and ammonia, they are willing to do all the sacrifices in order for the families to even have food on their plates. It’s certainly okay for companies to pay, however,much they want to the workers, because regardless of the situation if the government comes and swipes the undocumented workers it’s easy to find replacements.
The environmental and public health have many issues with the CAFO system because of the enormous amount of manure they produce. Because, of the manure it carries contaminates such as disease transmissions. According to the Safe for Animals group, the diseases can be “transmitted from animals to humans, other diseases like mad cow disease'(BSE) is thought to be a direct consequence of industrial agriculture, as ground-up animal parts were routinely fed to cows as a protein supplement. Humans may contract the disease (in human form vCJD) by consuming infected beef” (Safe for animals,2011). In the CDC government article, the environmental health effects are also explained “Manure production can range between 2,800 tons and 1.6 million tons a year (Government Accountability Office [GAO], 2008). Large farms can produce more waste than some U.S. cities—a feeding operation with 800,000 pigs could produce over 1.6 million tons of waste a year.” Because of the various amount of production waste, it is almost 1 and half times more than the waste of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2008. Lastly, it remains that the factory farms are still up and running and no change has happened, when we know that CAFOs have huge amount of impact as well as the human health.
Sadly, The U.S. livestock industry is playing a big part of agriculture in this country. The conditions of CAFOs are still in full effect, as shown and talked about the cramped conditions of the farms have increased air and water pollution, moreover, the other types of harm that have occurred in the environmental and public health. All, the various problems can be easily cared for correctly. This must be done through the board of health and change everything for the better.
