Factory Farms - Research Paper Example

? Introduction Factory farms are places where a great multitude of animals are crammed into tiny spaces. They should be avoided at all costs, for a variety of reasons. The first reason, and, perhaps the most important reason, is that they are unnecessarily cruel to animals. For instance, chickens are so overcrowded that they must have their beaks cut off, because, if they do not, they will peck one another to death. Pigs are in tiny pens that are so small that the pig cannot turn around, and they are stacked in pens, one on top of the other, so that the animals above them deposit their wastes onto the animals below them. Since pigs are, by nature, clean animals, this is no doubt abhorrent to them, yet this is how they must live, for years, until they are carted off to go slaughter. Cows are cruelly branded with a hot iron and crammed into feed lots. The fate of these animals is abhorrent to anybody with a conscience. These animals can feel pain and fear, and to put them into these conditions is beyond barbaric and cruel. Beyond this, factory farms are also bad for the environment. The animal excrement causes pollution that runs off into the water. Taking the animals off the farm and onto the feed lot deprives the farming soil of fertilizer, which means that artificial fertilizer must be used, and this means using fossil fuel. Moreover, land must be clear cut to raise food for these animals. In short, factory farms and the proliferation of animals on these farms is a very inefficient use of resources. Regular methods of farming, in which animals are free to roam the land, and graze on grass, and have a natural life, must be brought back. This would not only be good for the environment, but it would result in much less cruelty to animals. Even though factory farms produce a large quantity of food, and the food is ostensibly necessary to feed a growing planet, farmers should make innovations that make their operations less cruel to animals and more kind to the environment. A. Cruelty to Animals Animal rights activists and animal lovers everywhere are clear that animals should not be subjected to needless suffering. The evidence regarding factory farms indicates that animals suffer needlessly, so these factory farms are violating everything that animal lovers and animal rights activists stand for. James McWilliams, author of ?hy Free-Range Meat Isn't Much Better Than Factory Farmedstates that the basic argument against factory farms is that ?nimals held in confinement are denied access to the basic preconditions of happiness the freedoms to move, make basic choices, have sex and socialize. The fact that animals are transformed into the moral equivalent of machinery, rather than respected as living creatures, will stike any sensible observer as fundamentally wrong...thoughtful consumers do not want animals to be needlessly hurt(McWilliams). And ?eedlessly hurtis exactly what animals are on the factory farms. For instance, chickens are kept in extremely overcrowded conditions. According to Freedman & Barnouin, chickens have to have their beaks cut off of their faces because, in their overcrowded conditions, they would peck each other to death if they did not (Freedman & Barnouin, p. 84). Chickens are also given hormones that make them grow so rapidly that their hearts and lungs cannot keep up with the growth, and they die of heart failure. Cows are branded with a hot iron without anesthesia, and can live on the range without shelter or veterinary care. Cows may also live for months in an overcrowded feedlot, where they are fed growth hormones and rich grains. The rich grains sometimes causes the cows intestines to ulcerate and rupture. These factory farms have so many cattles that they often have downed animals which are lame when they come to the slaughterhouse. These animals are often beaten and prodded to get them to move (Factory Farming Animal Cruelty is Standard Operating Procedure for 95-99% of Animals Raised For Food). Pigs also live in deplorable conditions. Naturally clean animals, they are forced to live in tiny cages, two feet wide, one cage on top of the other, so that the animals above them deposit excrement into their cage. They live among this animal feces. They are also completely confined and unable to do anything that comes naturally to them, such as rooting, playing and exploring. This causes many pigs to go insane, and the lack of exercise results in leg disorders. They are also given hormones that cause them to grow so rapidly that their legs cannot support their bodies. They never see the sunlight or fresh air, often living in these conditions for a period of 3 to 4 years, at which point they are sent to slaughter. Sadly, the day that they are loaded for slaughter is the first day that they are able to see the sun. Sick pigs are also left to die without food and water (Factory Farming Animal Cruelty is Standard Operating Procedure for 95-99% of Animals Raised For Food). B. Bad for the Environment Factory farms are bad for the environment. Why they are bad for the environment is explained by Michael Pollan in his article ?armer in Chief. He states that animals were driven from the farm to the feedlot, due to the cheapening of corn, which is fed to the animals. This has driven down the price of meat, so that we are now eating much more meat the average American east 190 lbs a year, which works out to a half pound every day. This over-consumption of meat that is made possible to factory farming practices is harmful to the environment because, according to Pollan, the animal waste is no longer a source of fertilizer, but, rather, simply a source of pollution. The reason why this is is because removing animals from the land, and putting them into a feedlot means that the animal manure is no longer being used to fertilize soil, but is being wasted. This, in turn, means that land is being fertilized with fossil fuels instead of manure (Pollan). Thus, if farms treated animals the way that they have for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, then we wouldn't need fossil fuels to fertilize our land, because the animals do this naturally. And we wouldn't have a pollution problem that is being caused by extra animal waste that is being used for nothing. So, the factory farms pollute our environment in two different ways by necessitating fossil fuel for land fertilization, and by turning manure into nothing but pollutants. Factory farms cause problems for our environment in other ways as well. According to Dwayne Miller in an editorial in the Joplin Globe, factory farms deplete groundwater. For every 100 chickens, 7.7 gallons of groundwater are used. Factory farms, with its overabundance of animals, also require a lot of feed, therefore, a lot of land is used to grow food for these animals. To obtain this land necessary to grow food for the animals, forests have been clear-cut. This further depletes the soil, and erodes the soil that we already have. All of this poisons our waters, as well, as the manure gets into our streams and the chemicals which are necessary for the farming that feeds the animals also gets into the water, and this overburdens the water supply (Miller). The counterargument is pretty simple, in that the abundance of animals which are raised on these farms and sold to the population is necessary to feed a growing world. As the world's population reaches 7 billion people (Levs, 2011), there is an argument to be made that farms must produce a massive amount of animals to keep up with the demand. Moreover, there is the profit motive. If these farms have to change their practices, then there will be fewer animals raised on these farms, therefore less profit to be made, and this would inevitably be damaging to the shareholders, so this is another argument in favor of factory farms. However, these arguments are not legitimate. Pollan notes that factory farming is not only unnecessary, but inefficient, and we could actually produce more food for a growing planet if we would revert to the ?ld fashionedway of farming, which consists of animals grazing on land, fertilizing the land and growing crops on that land. He contends that this method would mean that less land is used for farming, and that more food can be produced in less land (Pollan). The profit motive, while strong, does not mean that anything goes to create a larger profit. There must be ethics involved, or we completely lose our sense of humanity. After all, slavery produced a large profit margin, and if we still had slavery today we could have enormous profit margins for businesses, and shareholders would be very happy. This may be an extreme example, but the point is that ethics should be the backbone of business, and businesses should examine their practices and make sure that their practices are as ethical as possible. Conclusion It is clear that factory farms are an abomination on so many levels. Farmers evidently have no regard for the lives of their animals, and for the fact that these animals have thoughts and feelings, including sensations of pain and fear. It is wrong to confine animals in small pens for years on end, never letting the animals see the sunshine. It is wrong to brand animals with hot irons, and leave animals to die of hunger and thirst. It is wrong to cut the beaks off of chickens. It is wrong to give animals hormones that make them grow in such a rapid rate that their hearts explode or their legs cannot hold their weight. It is counterintuitive to take animals off of the land, as they used to supply needed fertilizer for the land, and this is how the farmer would fertilize his crops. Now, because the animals have been taken off the land, the farmer needs to use fossil fuel to fertilize his crops, and this is not only bad for the environment, but it also keeps our nation dependent upon foreign fossil fuel. The proliferation of animals also causes other problems, such as depletion of groundwater, and the necessity of clear-cutting forests to make way for grazing lands. Our environment cannot sustain factory farms. For environmental reasons and for ethical reasons, factory farms should be put out of business, and the only way to do this is for everybody to vote with their dollar and refuse to support them, until they agree to make changes to their practices. Sources Used “Factory Farming Animal Cruelty Is Standard Operating Procedure For 95-99% Of Animals Raised For Food 22 Oct. 2011 Freedman, R. & Barnouin, K. Skinny Bastard. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2005. McWilliams, J. ?hy Free-Range Meat Isn't Much Better Than Factory-Farmed. 7 Dec. 2010. 20 Oct. 2011. Miller, D. ?AFO Is A Bad Word?The Joplin Globe 22 April 2008. 22 Oct. 2011. Pollan, M. ?armer In Chief. The New York Times 9 Oct. 2008. 20 Oct. 2011. Rollin, B. ?he New Ethics for Animals and the Dairy Industry. 1995. 20 Oct. 2011. Read More