I get frustrated too. I think one of the most effective ways to make a difference is just to make people aware. In effect we are speaking for those who can not. My personal mission is to help the factory farm animals. There are many voices for dogs and cats and even for tigers, whales and gorillas. The poor cows, pigs and chickens suffer beyond belief and because they are seen as food, they are commodities, not living feeling Beings. I know from personal experience that these beautiful animals are intelligent, loving and feel just as we do. It breaks my heart that they have to "live" like they do. I am up against an even bigger challenge because people become very defensive if I mention going on a meat free diet. When they become defensive, they shut down and close their minds to what I want to tell them. It is a very hard balance act to educate while keeping people receptive to the messages. I try to live by example and take one day at a time. I am thinking about starting and animal rights group in my area. Then I can work with other activists and maybe together, we can make a greater impact.
I think that Tumeria is right about the rights of the farm animals. People need to see that they are all living beings and they can feel, care and love like any other. Why are people so ignorant about this?!? Every time I am with my dad I watch the animal cop show just to remind me about the cruelty of the homo sapien. We are their voice I will try to help! Will you? Please help the animals, please help the human kind by first helping the animal kind which in turn, we evolved. We are one of the last hope for many species around the world we need to help! And NOW! Care in Colorado, JulFire
i thought i was the only one who cared or even knew about factory farming. And now i come here and i find people actually feel the same way! It ticks me right off when people go vegetarian just for attention which alot of people i know have done. But i care so hard for the animals especially cows for some reason i just love them passionately. Factory farming just kilss me i cry so hard butthe worst thing is that i dont know how to stop it what can i do what can i do what can i do!??!!?
i wrote an exposition on factory farming for my grade seven year (this year) i would love your advice on it any corrections or critiques! THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Factory Farming A disturbing truth
Factory farming has rapidly increased in the past years, taking the place of free range family farms. Only built to be immediately economically efficient, my exposition will hopefully convince you that they ignore the side affects on our environment, culture, lifestyle, and health. This agribusiness is so flawed that it will be the death of itself; our economy cannot cope long with the drastic results of these factories. When the business does collapse, evidence shows that it will be very expensive to find stable agriculture once again. Our world is simply not equipped for this exploitation and, in my opinion, it is insulting to people’s intelligence and morality. My first encounters with factory farming left me enraged and disgusted with the treatment of farm animals; but now I realize with dawning horror that it affects so much more than the quality of life of our livestock. I cannot believe it does not get more media attention, something so wrong and preventable, but we all seem to be totally ignorant or do we just look the other way? What have we become? It seems to me to be, quite literally, our own selfishness, cheapness, and excessive desires that make such unacceptable practises necessary. Factory farms pollute, they degrade, they torture, and they kill everything- people, animals, vegetation, and the atmosphere. So even if it does make economical sense at this moment, I hope to god people aren’t so far gone that money and a burger mean more than life, and sustaining its future.
Factory farms are designed to produce more animals to make more money. The farmers concern themselves with the cost of input and volume of output only. Efficiency does not depend upon the health or welfare of the animals, or care and precision of workers, but only the cost effectiveness of the machines and year end productivity. In this sense Factory farming does make for a good economy, they are necessary to produce enough food for today’s society’s expectations, that is, a lot, for as cheap as possible. You see, factory farms are not inexpensive, but the cost of maintenance compared to the amount of produce is questionably low, almost suspiciously. Let’s take a look at why this is the choice method of meat and dairy industry in the world today. These farms use little land when compared to the number of animals harvested, the cost of livestock feed is also incredulously low when compared, in fact, almost every aspect of the business is far from costly- housing, transportation, and even the slaughter of the animals, when compared to the volume of output. Yes, in fact, these farms are so efficient that it really matters not that up to 30% of the livestock will die before ever reaching the slaughterhouse. Therefore, looking at it from a business stand point, factory farming must be just dandy, accomplishing cheap and efficient produce in gross amounts. This can be appreciated by the consumers because if it takes less money to manufacture the product, and much can be produced at this price, it can be sold for a cheaper cost as well. This all seems very well but the reasons why these farms are able to accomplish what they do are dark indeed.
Less land is needed to factory farm, both on the actual lot and size of the buildings. No grazing pastures for the cattle, or outdoor chicken coops and pig pens are used when factory farming. All animals are kept inside for the entirety of their short life, though the exact methods of holding livestock depend on the species and particular farm, there are similarities throughout. In many egg factories you will see countless rows of chickens stacked to the roof in tiny wire cages that mutilate their delicate feet, sometimes 4 or 5 birds crammed into a cage of only 12”x18” to make use of all presented space. In a broiler factory, thousands of meat chickens are squished upon the feces covered floor. Swine and cattle crammed into metal barred cages too small to turn around in. Holding the animals this way is cheaper, the phrase: chickens are cheap, cages are expensive pretty much sums it up. The excess amount of livestock being utilized in today’s agribusiness calls for a ton of food to be grown for the animals. Though so much food is grown, it is actually a small amount when compared to the quantity of the livestock. This is because of the extras added to the feed to make it less expensive and highly effective. To compensate for the number of animals and their disgusting amount of waste produced, much of it is recycled into their own food without much filtering. Farmers ague that much of the food is not digested the first time around and good food would be wasted if it was immediately disposed of. Also to keep the produce alive and somewhat healthy, their food is heavily medicated, often with drugs unregulated for the job. Though an exact percentage cannot be pinpointed speculations describe that around 40% of antibiotics produced in the world are used in animal feed. These drugs are designed to fatten up the animals as fast as possible, regardless of the health problems caused. These additives to the animals feed enable farmers to spend less money of food than would and should be necessary. Though farming businesses pay millions of dollars for unsafe medication to make the animals plump up faster, they are unwilling to buy and distribute much needed medications in stressful situations for the animals. At times like giving birth, being branded, de-feathered and de-furred, and even when being slaughtered, animals are usually fully conscious with no painkillers or sedatives. The farming business saves money by having a very small staff. The average factory farm is not dependant on manual labour of workers, but of the efficiency of their machines, and the cost of their maintenance. Almost every task is done by the machines, feeding, sweeping the floor of waste products; even some forms of medicating the animal are accomplished by them. This brings about the problem of job loss, and limited occupational opportunities for farmers; though this is a minimal issue it is yet another flaw in the twisted design. Farms today must be able to produce enormous year end production if there is to be any hope of sustainability. Though food prices are steadily inclining, complications with land value, crop surpluses, transportation costs and labour costs, cause the monetary return to the workers to be surprisingly low and ever declining. The cheaper and faster the farmers can manufacture the meat and dairy products the more they will be paid. It is not as if these people create excess for greed, but need to receive sufficient income. They are all forced into expansion, cut labour costs and new equipment by the threat of debt and competition of other corporations. But I find it impossible to find any sympathy for the workers who are getting cheated out of ‘rightful payment’; not when the effects of their occupation are so devastating to our world and its creatures. The content of their cruelty knows no bounds, it is disturbingly wrong, the animals live (if you could even call it a life) a nightmare, a horror movie, but be not mistaken, it is very real… I think of the workers there as sick people, hardly people at all if they can become so detached from their morality, and human nature of caring and nurturing. To them the animals are no longer animals, but machine animal units, whose purpose is only to produce eggs or be eaten later. These people are sick indeed to bring themselves to do what they do everyday. Conditions in confinement houses are very unnatural. There is incredibly low artificial lighting; this is supposed to keep animals calm under their stressful conditions. Ammonia is thick in the air, thick enough to make you gag and coat your glasses. Now depending on the type of farm conditions and practises vary. Poultry and dairy farms are thought to be the most humane of all farms, while egg farms are thought to be the least. There are few to no laws protecting these animals even though some studies show that chickens are intelligent and caring creatures especially for their size. They make excellent parents and have a gentle curiosity for life, if a simple mind. On a factory farm, these birds will never do what is natural for them, no nests will be built, their young is removed from them at birth, no dust baths will be had, no sunshine will be felt. The medication and specialized diets cause the chickens to grow unnaturally large, too large in fact for their organs and feet to function properly. Many die before the slaughter date from heart attacks or simply being too crippled to reach food and water. Their growth enables them to be slaughtered at only 6 or 7 weeks of age. The egg laying chickens that spend their days in wire battery cages, stacked to the roof have not room enough to flap a wing. The chickens on the bottom of the stack are victim to the other’s excrement. Their beaks are cut off to prevent death by pecking. They are put under shock treatment by denying them of food and water; this makes them molt unnaturally to keep their egg cycles continuous. They are then shipped to the slaughter house, crammed into transports or trains if they’re lucky. Many of them will not make it there alive; this perhaps is a blessing to them. Once there the animals are boiled alive to scold off the feathers, then machines will slit their throats and it will finally be over. The worst thing in my opinion, Is the waste. So many will die and be killed. The male chicks produced by the laying hens are either crushed or suffocated alive; to be later made into pet food or be recycled into the livestock’s feed. This, I know, I will never forget, and every time I read it I am filled with a pulsing rage. How could they? How could they even think of that? Beef is next on the list, it is said to be the next best thing when it comes to human treatment. Cows have a special place in my heart; there is no doubting their intelligence and awareness of self. You can see in their big brown eyes that they are so kind and loving especially to their young. They will often call for days to their calves when they are separated from them. They at least are raised outside, though often in overcrowded dirt lots with no shelter. Their diets are very stressful to them and cause frequent health problems. The cattle are branded with hot metal, and have their horns cut off with no anaesthetic. Dairy cows are impregnated over and over being immediately separated from their babies until their bodies simply can work no more, and die. Meat cattle are transported regularly throughout their life from feed lots and eventually the slaughterhouse. Transportation conditions are very poor and the animals have no protection from weather. At the slaughter house they are shot, and de-haired, before their throat is slit; each animal dying at different stages of their degradation. “They die piece by piece’ said a worker in an interview with the newspaper. Even more haunting then the process of cattle harvesting is the veal industry, the calves that are made to suffer. On the product pyramid of acceptable treatment, veal is hand in hand with egg factories, thought to be the least human. Their feed is deficient in minerals needed for muscle development to keep their meat light and tender. They are deprived of light with the exception of 2 hours a day when they are fed. The babies are tethered to the floor so they cannot stand up, and isolated in stalls, all to keep their muscles soft for food. They will never enjoy their lives, have any experiences or even be able to complete their life. Pigs rank at the lower end of the pyramid. This saddens me as pigs are also sensitive outgoing creatures with an intelligence thought to be parallel to a small child. They are deprived of all natural tendencies such as cleanliness, rooting and exploring in their confinement cages. The female’s role in life is to keep producing until they can no more and be killed. Piglets have their teeth and tails removed to help against cannibalism. The mothers are brought to high stress delivery pens where there is no nesting material available, not even room to turn around. The baby pigs must suckle from under bars for the short time before separation. Up to a million pigs are lost in the delivery to the slaughter house, and so many more arrive crippled. Once there you probably know by know the routine, de-haired, and throats cut. This cannot be ethical, this cannot be humane, this cannot even be sane! It is so unbelievable that there are not more laws protecting the animals from such cruel treatments. The point is, economics aside, the rights of an animal are fairly straightforward, they are obvious to me and most people. We can see that they live and have at least some range of emotions and intelligence. But overall it is evident that animals have a nervous system and therefore are able to feel pain. We as beings in power need to appreciate the right of an individual life and enforce their basic needs as the animals cannot always do for his or herself. Needs of shelter, sufficient food and water, ability to perform a natural routine, freedom of movement, opportunity of exploration and play, comfortable socialization and boundaries should be met or at least attempted at. The farmer problem of needing to produce so much food to make so much money and supply the world with all its desires seems selfish and trivial to me when compared to the billions of wasted, miserable lives. A person can always find another occupation, but the animals has no choice in the destination of its life when in our hands. I am not saying that people should not utilize animals as a resource, but we must do so more responsibly and ethically in the future, hopefully the near future. As you have read, animals are put under conditions that cause much disease and are fed a lot of unhealthy additives. These are evidently harmful to the creatures but did you know that they can affect your health as well? Things like bacteria, antibiotics, dioxins, hormones and even mercury can be carried over into the meat and dairy products people consume. It makes sense, there is no way to completely filter an animal before consumption, and the drugs have been so heavily injected into the animal it is practically a part of its composition. To make things worse much of the bacteria that cover meat has adapted to extreme conditions and may be immune to regular antibiotics, making illness caused by these germs more dangerous. Some of the hormones fed to cattle are even known to cause cancer in people. The build up of dioxins in your body may be the most harmful of all, it has been found to cause not only cancer but depressed immune response, nervous system disorders, miscarriages, and birth deformities. These are pretty intense symptoms for eating meat. Tainted food aside, other health aspects are obesity, diabetes and overall eating in excess. America, which is struggling with these problems consume on average 70g of animal protein per year, hardly helpful when compared to the recommended 32g. There is an every rising tendency to eat out among people today. Many of the fast food industries are powered by factory farmed meat; this does nothing to help the situation of our world and your own health. There are healthy alternatives to all types of meat and dairy products that people should look into when trying for a well balanced happy lifestyle. If all this wasn’t enough, factory farming has a dramatic, negative affect on the environment in more than one way. Factory farms use a major amount of fertilizers to quickly grow crops for animal feed that are very harmful to the environment. Especially when used in such quantities the chemicals of the pesticides and growth promoters seeps into the soil. This grows questionable crops, feed to meat that then also becomes questionable, which we ultimately consume. These pollutants run off into bodies of water, which then enter the water cycle to continue the problem. Certain types of fertilizers can even contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer. Farming today also severely contributes to other global issues such as deforestation, habitat loss, animal extinction, loss of soil productivity and ecosystem destruction. An estimated 85% of U.S agricultural land is used to grow animal feed. All these in combination cause even more global problems; in a snowball effect factory farming is destroying our world. With society so eager to prevent climate change and global warming, I think fast food is one thing we should be willing to at least cut down on.
So in conclusion, even if factory farming does make for a good economy right now, it will not continue to do so for very long, as it is definitely unsustainable. In tragic irony, it will cause an economic crisis if we simply wait for our resources and time to run out. Resulting in evidential health risks, environmental deficiencies, and revolting morality issues, factory farming needs to decrease and ultimately desist, if we want to look forward to a healthier, practical future. Simple altercations can be made to help such as: eating less meat, checking for animal friendly labels on produce, and trying to discourage in everyway this method of harvesting animals. It is a complicated affair however, and there always seems to be some opposition to any suggestion of change, some problem to overcome before there can be any progress. I know factory farming is wrong, and I hope you do agree, but that does not mean I know what exactly is right. This I do know, to stop factory farming we must change the industry, and to change the industry we must first change society. Finding alternatives will take time, so why not start now? With these basic points and evidence I hope I have persuaded you to take a more critical look at the agribusiness in hope of saving the world, ourselves included.
P>S I LOST MY BIBLIOGRAPHY
This message has been edited. Last edited by: mod_kelly,
Hi Froglady07, Even though it was edited, it was still excellent. You have done some wonderful research! Please send me the unedited version, I would love to read it- tumeria33@waraw.org. I love cows too and had an adopted cow when I was young. You can read her story on my website www.waraw.og Go to the article section and click on Blitz' Story. Keep up the good work. Tumeria
it didn't origionally say 'ticks' me off :P i dont think anything else was changed 
