Factory Farm Cruelty
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Factory Farm Cruelty Farming started countless years ago, with families raising their own meat and produce. Farmer’s children would support the farm by feeding animals, cleaning stalls, taking care of the animals as much as they could, with dreams of hopefully getting the farm when the time was right. These were the good days, when eating was great because all of our meals mainly came from what we had grown. Meat, vegetables, and dairy products all tasted better because the animals or earth the food came from was completely “happy” and chemical free. Happy means that the animals were well taken care of with plenty of time in the pasture to stretch their legs and frolic around; plants weren’t doused with pesticides and growth hormones. Water from the stream was good enough to drink straight out of the stream, and the air was fresh to breathe. As time went on humans started to evolve around the world, we became smarter, greedier, and by human nature we produced more humans, tenfold. With the ever-growing population small farms contracted, the days of growing your own, for your own, became obsolete. People with bigger farms were forced to risk everything in order to provide enough of a certain type of product to support their town, state, or more. According to Midkiff (2005), farmers would have “to take out loans” in order to supply everything that was needed to produce as much product as possible. “If farmers couldn’t pay their loans because of crop failure or low prices, they lost their farms.”(88-91) This made it possible for bigger investors to take over the property, and do what they could in order to make as much money as they could off of the newly purchased (taken over) property. Factory Farming and cruelty consequently evolves. Factory Farms or CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feed Operation’s) house thousands of animals in one single factory. Because there are so many animals under one structure they must live in tight quarters which causes many issues, sickness, mad cow disease, pigs go lame. Factory Farming Cruelty stems from inhumane treatment of the animals by not providing enough space to live and not enough regulations on the State and Federal levels, but the problem can be solved by allowing for a more natural development of the animals and stricter State and Federal regulations for the Factory Farming Industry.
Animals being raised in CAFOs are forced to live in tight quarters, this causes many problems. But, owners of these farms don’t see it this way; they are making huge profits and have ways to get around the issues caused from these tight living quarters. Or so they think. Animals raised in factory farms are overdosed with antibiotics to try and prevent the spread of disease or cure illnesses if they are present. One of the problems with the overdosing the animals are the diseases they are trying to prevent or cure, become resistant to the antibiotics. This causes many issues for not only the animal; the consumer can also endure some of these sicknesses. In some cases the sickness can become deadly. In addition to the antibiotics animals go thru intense pain when they are very young. An article wrote by Brown, S (2011) clarifies these points.
Factory farming has been justified because it is a cheap way to raise lots of food and make a huge profit. Making food in such a cheap way comes with a big price for not only the animals, but the environment and consumers suffer as well. To produce meat the way factory farms do is “environmentally costly” meaning it takes a lot of land and huge amounts of water in order to produce just two pounds of meat protein. The other impact factory farms have on the environment is the huge amount of confined animal waste in the farms, the waste, if not properly handled, can get into our drinking water. In addition to getting into our water the concentrated amount of waste contributes greatly to the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. These animals endure intense pain when they are very young to prevent atypical behavior due to being confined. Hens raised for egg production “have the end of their beaks seared off when they are just a few days old” this prevents them from “feather pecking” which stems from living in tight quarters. Pigs that are kept in cages have their tales cut off to prevent them from chewing each other’s tails off. (23-26) This is just the gist of what comes from factory farming. People that live close to these establishments are prone for catching diseases, either from the air they breathe down to the water they drink. Consumers that live far away and just purchase the product from the local store are still prone to catching an antibiotic resistant illness that could become fatal because an animal was sent to the slaughter house with the infection and it wasn’t caught in the inspection. These are all serious issues, and they all emanate from the tight quarters these animals are forced to live in. State and Federal regulations for CAFOs are mainly concerned with the astronomical amount of waste coming from these farms. According to Lessing, (2010) factory farms are responsible for roughly “500 million tons of manure” (467). This is an unthinkable amount of waste that pollutes our air and water. CAFOs that do not discharge their waste keep it held in special holding tanks that are designed to keep odors and harmful pollutants from entering the air. However, nature has a different plan, the climate is steadily changing and these tanks even though they are well built cannot stand up to Mother Nature’s influences. Rain causes these tanks to overflow the waste back onto the ground which coincidentally ends up back into our air and into our water. Pontius, (2009) explains the regulations that CAFOs must follow in order to be in compliance with the USEPA
The USEPA started to govern waste discharge of CAFOs in the 1970s. CAFOs are labeled according to size, how many and what type of animal, and how long the animal will be confined for by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). New regulations were finally set in 1976. The 1976 regulations were not changed until Feb. 12th 2003. Under the revised ruling all CAFOs were required to obtain an NPDES permit unless they had no plan of discharging their waste. In addition to the permit farms also had to come up with a nutrient management plan (NMP). Finally after many changes the USEPA came up with a new set of rules that they propose will eliminate “56 million pounds of phosphorus, 110 million pounds of nitrogen, and 2 billion pounds of sediment from entering streams, lakes, and other waters annually.”(16-18)
It is apparent that these farms are big money makers if all the government is concerned with is keeping the air clean and water safe to drink. Nothing is ever mentioned from the 1976 ruling to the present concerning how the animals are treated despite all the factual evidence. Most areas don’t have a leg to stand on simply because of the “common law” practice which basically states as long as what the farms are doing doesn’t directly harm them, there is nothing they can do. CAFO owners see it as a business, and do what they have to do in order to be successful.
It has been proven that by providing more land for the animals to be raised on, is beneficial for the animal, environment, and consumer. Eating grass-fed or outdoor raised meat is better for your health because the meat contains more nutrients than that of grain-fed cattle. The environment would be a lot better as well; animals grazing on land spread their manure equally over the land which then turns into useful fertilizer, which in turn grows richer grasses. This way of raising animals is self-supportive. Unlike factory farms where large doses of grain, wheat, and soy are needed to keep the animals fed, which uses lots of natural resources to grow the feed and have it hauled in on big trucks. An article wrote by Robinson (2004) is a good example on how grass-fed animals are not only better for our health but also that natural ways are keeping up with the demand.
Robinson reports that there is a “healthier alternative to factor-farm meats” evolving. The back-to-the-pasture movement. This brought people from all over the U.S. to a small town in Montgomery, AL. The GrazeFest event was held for teaching others how to bring back grass-fed meats to the market. These animals are never stored in a factory, fed grain, or dosed with antibiotics. “Tilak Dhiman, an associate professor of dairy nutrition at Utah State University, presented research about the nutritional benefits of grass-fed meat and dairy products. Compared with conventional products, Dhiman said, grass-fed products are lower in artery-clogging fats but higher in beneficial nutrients, including antioxidant vitamins, polyunsaturated fat, omega-3 fatty acids, and the cancer-fighting fat CLA.”.(2004), 26 So with all this useful information why are we still harming our environment, polluting our air, staining our waters, and brutally raising animals for food. Is it the money? Is it politics? People hear how the USDA and the FDA are here to guarantee that the food being placed on shelves at supermarkets is safe, but still strains of salmonella, and E-coli are allowed to be bought by consumers. All or most of the diseases that come from USDA labeled meat happens because the animals are tested before being slaughtered, and when they get slaughtered their skins are covered in feces and urine which contain the virus, antibiotics, antibiotic resistant infection, when the animal is cut into these thing can be infused in the meat. This is yet another reason why a person will less likely (almost impossible) get sick off of a grass-fed cow, their skins are a lot cleaner than that of a factory cow. And the chances of getting an antibiotic resistant infection from a grass-fed cow are slim to none. CAFOs need to be governed more strictly on the State and Federal levels, not just for air and water quality, but for the general care of the animals and how they are treated. Right now animals are forced to live in tight spaces inside of large factories. This is wrong and as mentioned before is the cause of all the problems people having with factory farmed meats. One law the Government could use is: for x amount of animals the farm needs to be y, something like each cow would need 2-3 acres a piece for grazing. Rather than go after CAFO communities or soon to be CAFO communities could use Local Regulation to drive out or prevent a factory farm from moving in. Kaplan (2012) lists five tools a Local Regulation can use against CAFOs:
First, check with State Laws regarding agriculture. See if there are any laws that protect CAFOs in your state. If there are any laws regarding agriculture, find out what the limitations are. Secondly, if there are no laws protecting the farms or laws that can be worked around, a municipality could define a CAFO in such a way that speaks the goals of the municipality. Kaplan states that when doing this the municipality wants to be careful on how they define the CAFO as their definition could adversely affect the farms they want to keep around. Third, the municipality could implement a permit plan that could include certain high guidelines the farm must meet in order to build. Seems how these permits would be required by the town, town members could make sure the farm holds up to the permit rules. Fourth, towns could enforce a site scoring system. This could go hand-in-hand with the permitting system. With a scoring system a town would require a certain score to be held by the prospect buyer. The scores would be counted for the geographic location of the farm, air quality plans, water treatment plans, etc… Lastly towns could require that the perspective buyer to post a bond that would be sufficient enough to clean up the area in the event the farm went out of business. As well as the cleanup of any spills into the local water supply. (10-11) These are all great actions that any City affected by these monstrous industries could pursue. Waiting on the Government to do something about these farms, could take decades, or longer. Local city members need to get together and at least try to do something about the farms in their area. So long as State laws allow, local people do have a chance and need to be made aware of their choices against these farms. These farms are all over the world and because of this people around the world need to get together and do something about the cruelty these farms put on the environment and to the animals. Global warming, toxic gasses in the air, polluted water, animal abuse, drug resistant bacteria, all come from factory farming. People do have a choice. There are plenty of ways to get natural raised meats, buying naturally raised food not only helps slow production rates at CAFOs but will also help local townships instead of big corporations that probably have nothing to do with the town their farm is in. People need to get together and do something about these farms before there is no land, fresh air, and clean water for our future generations.

References:
Brown, S. (2011). Do They Not Bleed?. Canadian Dimension, 45(4), 23-26. Retrieved From: http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6491

8364&site=ehost-live
Kaplan, A. R. (2012). CAFOs: Five Essential Tools for Local Regulation. State & Local Law News, 35(4), 10-11. Retrieved From: http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=78122850&site=ehost-live Lessing, A. (2010). Killing Us Softly: How Sub-Therapeutic Dosing Of Livestock Causes Drug- Resistant Bacteria In Humans. Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, 37(2), 463-491. Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=8gh&AN= 51957534&site=ehost-live

Midkiff, K. (2005). “Get Big or Get Out.””NO”. Vegetarian Times, (328), 88-91.
Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=15526698&site=ehost-live
Pontius, F. (2009). CAFO Regulations Revised. Journal: American Water Works Association,
101(1), 16-19. Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/login.aspx?direct=tru&db=8gh&AN=36315737&site=ehost-live
Robinson, J. (2004). Cows, Pigs and Chickens Are Going Back to the Pasture. Mother Earth News, (207), 26. Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=8gh&AN=1511 3125&site=ehost-live