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Factory Farming Research Paper

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When one pictures a farm they probably imagine a wholesome family with a red barn and a chicken coup, regrettably that is not what the average American farm is nowadays. Modern farms are enormous, impersonal, and industrial. These “factory farms” have been America’s main source of meat and dairy for half a century and are ever-growing. The vast majority of meat - 78% of cow products, 95% of pork, and 99% of poultry - sold in stores today are from factory farms. Unlike freely wandering livestock on the picturesque farm alluded to earlier, the animals in the industrialized system are packed in and only seen as a product. The exponential growth of these modern farming practices has had negative effects on more than just the wellbeing of the animals. The environment has been negatively impacted. Waterways and the atmosphere have been polluted. Resources are being redirected to livestock instead of going straight to the people. Factory farming’s impact on the environment via …show more content…
Vitamins allowed animals raised inside to live longer and healthier (“History of the Animal Science Industry”). The use of antibiotics and vaccines reduced the rate of death and disease, allowing livestock to be kept in denser living conditions which would have previously promoted the spread of disease. With these advancements most farms started to look more like the feedlots of today. Originally only the most common farm animals - cows, chickens, and pigs - were produced in these facilities. Although, later sheep, fish, and even rabbits started being grown using this system (Mason and Singer 18). The streamlining of the animal agriculture business led to less workers required to run each farm. As of 2002 only 1.5% of Americans were employed in the agriculture business, which is small compared to 39% of the population in 1900 (“Farm

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