How Can Feed The World?

The demand for meat in America is on the rise while the number of family owned farms is declining. The farming industry has had to change century old practices like free-range grazing to keep up with the mass amounts of meat that Americans and other cultures have become accustomed to. A process known as factory farming is controlling the farming industry worldwide. Factory farming is an unnatural and inhuman way to raise mass amounts of livestock. Unfortunately to keep up with demand, small farmers around the world are struggling to survive and are being pressured to work for large corporations raising animals using theses factory farming strategies rather than the natural alternative. As described by Wenonah

The food we eat and the quantity of it is what industries base their investments on; they use this to their advantage and produce more quantity than quality for us to consume, without taking into consideration the effect this might have on us or on the world as a whole. In the article “When a Crop Becomes King” written by Michael Pollan we see what the excessive use of a crop can do to our health and the environment. The vast production of products made with corn has made it the crop which is grown more than any other in the United States, but the process of adapting to the high consumption of corn came at a high cost. While corn is the easiest and cheapest substitute for sugar and animal food it is also linked to the cause of chronic diseases and serious, long-lasting damage to our ecosystems. The production of certain things is something we might not have control of but what we should have control of is our health and what better way than denying anything that we know might give us a hard time the power to do

After learning about the statistics of how much agriculture consumes our planet, I was appalled to see how destructive it is. Jonathan Foley put into perspective the increase and rapid demand for food. Agriculture alone consumes 40% of our land surface, 70% of our irrigation system, and

To continue, agriculture and farming is essensial because we need food to survive and it helps with a regions economic growth. This human activity however, is creating

Robert Paarlberg examines the rapidly growing Western obsession with organic food in his article “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers” published in Foreign Policy magazine in 2010. In his article, Paarlberg addresses the current issues of global hunger and food crisis, particularly in Africa. He argues, contrary to popular belief, that slow, organic, and sustainable agriculture is an ineffective method to correct these issues. Paarlberg instead states that conventional and modern farming techniques, along with industrialized food production, are the solutions to solving this epidemic of hunger. In his article, Paarlberg uses the combination of ethos, and presenting one-sided evidence (i.e. stacking the deck) in an attempt to convince his audience of the ineffectiveness of the slow agricultural movement as a solution to end the world hunger crisis.

Factory farming is an efficient and profitable way to make and sell meat. But there are a myriad of consequences to this system. Factory farms do whatever they can to be cost-efficient. This leads to a waste of energy, harmful effects on the environment, cruel animal treatment, and negative effects on human health, and therefore, factory farming should be abolished.

Most people thinks of a farms as a place where people shove as many different kind of livestock in a small area to make the most for the space they’ve. This isn’t true in most cases of farming, and for the few factories that process to run this way makes the other farms that produces a large amount of livestock looks as if they are using the same technicians. Factory farming and open range farming are two completely different ways of growing and rising livestock. I have raised livestock for 7 years now as well learned everything I know about livestock from a family who have been farming for 6 generations. Factory farms have larger numbers in smaller space when open range is more space per animal two different ways of raising animals yet, neither of these technically wrong way of producing.

www.farmsanctuary.org Factory Farming and the Environment describes some of the concerns that come about with large scale farms. Factory farms need very large numbers of acres to keep the cows fed and the people in nearby communities fed also. Factory farms need millions of gallons of water to water crops and for all the animals. The farms also produce large amounts of manure which are generally collected in large pits until it can be transported into the fields. The fact is large amounts of manure are used to help crops grow and rarely go into oceans or rivers because there are many regulations and inspections that deal with the movement of manure. When there is a disaster and large amounts of manure does get into oceans and streams, many animals and other living things are affected and or killed. Methane from all animals is a big greenhouse gas and many environmentalists believe having too many farm animals is adding to the effect on the climate change. www.ciwf.org.uk.com Compassion in world farming is where I found a lot of information about this subject. Without large scale farms there would not be enough food to feed the billions of people in the world. People either don't know how to or are too lazy to grow food for themselves. If more people would raise their own food it would ultimately reduce the

Even though higher yields are met for demand and human consumption, factory farming is cruel to animals due to the fact animals are often subject to harsh living conditions, more susceptible to diseases and injuries and are treated inhumanely during the slaughtering process. Unfortunately, with an increase in human population worldwide, the strain on farmers to meet the demand increases as well. This in turn causes more animals to be subject to this cruelty.

Factory farms have become an ingrained part of our society. They are depended on by people daily. However, it is not generally a fact people ponder often. A large portion of the average Americans food comes from factory farms. What individuals also do not realize is the damage these farms are doing to them daily. However, recently it has become a more prominent problem that many Americans and individuals around the world have started to recognize and raise concern about. Many are now considering this fact every day. Factory farms, specifically in the U.S. are a growing social problem that contributes to animal abuse, the deterioration of our environment, and damage to the local economy.

This would lead the plant farming to increase the amount of product they are producing to keep up with all the people who only take in nutrients from the plants. This might not be as possible as it seems, but also when thinking about only the united states this would not account for enough of the jobs loss because of it. If all the factory farms had to downsize the amount of product they would not be able to pay their people as much and they would have to cut jobs. This alone might make it impossible for factory farms to ever completely be gone, because those who work in these industries would not only buy the product, but also push others to as well.  There is also the fact that plants are expensive. Going to McDonald’s and getting a hamburger cost a lot less than paying for the same amount of nutrients from plants. Yes, people might feel sorry for the way that the animals are being treated, but a mother has to feed her family somehow. This can lead to the cheapest quickest option, which is fast food and most fast food places sell meat products cheaply, unlike the plant based alternatives. Fast food companies also are looking to buy their meat from the cheapest option, which most of the time will be factory farms that do not treat their animals that humanly. In conclusion, the inhumane treatment of animals is horrible, but it is not enough to change the eating habits of many

Throughout the years of society our views on factory farming have drastically changed. Many people used to think that our biggest problem with factory farming was how we would mutilate and torture innocent animals. Animals would be put in a situation where they would be force fed, and sometimes beaten by humans, the unthinkable has already happened and now we have to think about the long term effects of Factory Farming. However, as significant as the ethical argument is, people are also ignoring the fact of it being so bad for your body. Cancer, H1N1, and  Avian Flu are the main health problems due to Factory Farming. On top of that we have 3 million people getting diagnosed with obesity from all the antibiotics there putting in from the the meat. The amount of people it is affecting is outstanding, not only for the meat but the factory farming also affecting our water. The thing that we thought that was the safest for our bodies in the one thing we have to worry about most, for our generation to the next this is a issue we can’t ignore.

However, some believe, that a shift in the way we produce food may have some unintended consequences. They contend that poverty in nations such as Africa and Asia, is caused by the low productivity of the unindustrialized farm labor. The U.S. Agriculture Department projects, without reform, there will be over a thirty percent increase in the numbers of the ‘food insecure’ people in those nations over the next decade (Paarlberg 179).

Factory farming in my opinion is bad. Why is Factory farming bad? For one factory farming are bad for the economy, people, and the planet. What is factory farming you may ask Factory farming is where large numbers of livestock are raised indoors in conditions intended to maximize production at a low cost to affect all of us. Factory farms rule U.S. food production, employing abusive practices that increase businesses of the agricultural gains at the expense of the environment, our communities, animal welfare, and even our health (farmsanctuary.org).

Whenever I had the opportunity to visit a factory farm, I got to see how unhappy the animals were and how they were literally stuffed into an area that was only for their types of animals. Cows in one area that are literally crying for help and chicken feathers all over the place because of the chickens that were trying to escape the horrid place they called home. They also would inject the animals to fatten them up to speed up the process of getting them off the farm and into the slaughterhouse. Whenever I think of this way of living I think that the situation is wrong and should be stop before it too late and more diseases start