Ban factory farming now

Factory farming, otherwise known as intensive farming, is an integral part of industrial food production.  The first factory farms were started in 1920s USA, and started in the UK during the late 1940s.  In order to get really cheap (and I would say unnaturally cheap) food, animals in factory farms are kept in really terrible conditions.  Factory farming is cruel to animals, damages animal health, damages our health through factory farmed produce, and damages our environment with pollution.  Lots of hidden costs, which are not reflected in the price of the factory farmed goods.  This type of farming is also heavily subsidised too which is also reflected in the cheap price.

I would recommend seeing the Food Inc. video, if you have not already done so, because it illustrates perfectly the disturbing truth about intensively farmed food and food in general, among other issues.

Video: Food Inc. (trailer)

Food Inc. is a film made by filmmaker Robert Kenner, which looks at the hidden and disturbing facts about the food industry in the United States (but still relevant to the whole world).   The film also looks at the working conditions that workers have to endure, and health problems resulting from the type of food produced by mechanised and factory farming, including E. Coli related illnesses and the widespread childhood obesity and adult diabetes in the United States. 



I would highly recommend watching this video.  It is available to buy on DVD, and the book is also available.  There is also a social action campaign for Food Inc. which campaigns for change, by advocating healthier school lunches, menu labelling laws, farm worker protection, and promotes organic and sustainable farming. .

Factory farming is cruel

Animals in all factory farms, whether they are raised for meat, dairy, and eggs, are living under dreadful conditions.  Whether it is animals kept in cages or crates or kept confimed in indoor sheds for a lifetime, they are often prevented from moving naturally and behaving as they would in the outdoors and inappropriate flooring can also injure them too.  Poultry birds are debeaked (which is in itself cruel) to prevent them from pecking each other, instead of keeping them outdoors where they have a lot more space and can use their beaks to find food naturally. Creatures that are deemed as "uneconomical" such as male chicks are slaughtered, and male calves many of which sadly get either slaughtered at birth or sold as veal later.  In factory farming, animals are basically treated as mere "commodities" to be "exploited", and all this cruelty just so someone can make a profit.

Factory farming is bad for animal health

Given the quite frankly stressful conditions animals are kept under, it is no wonder that the animals are in very poor physical health, very prone to disease, and highly stressed out.  The overcrowding that happens in a factory farm is a major cause of the stress. Often animals can also be overworked in factory farms too (such as dairy cows and egg-laying chickens), and lameness can be a real problem too, along with other health problems. To illustrate how animals get overworked at factory farms, the poor cows are kept pregnant constantly, and after they have given birth they are forced to be milked several times a day, and cows in factory farms are often slaughtered after a very short lifespan (just 5 years, compared to their natural lifespan of approximately 20-25 years). For a fuller description of the conditions you may read this article.

Bovine TB is more likely a result of the conditions cows and bulls (I refuse to use the word "cattle", it sounds derogatory) are kept in intensive farms, I am not convinced that is not a result of the badgers (the badgers are being made scapegoats, or should that be "scapebadgers"?).  Other diseases have their origins in factory farming or similar conditions, such as BSE (which causes vCJD in people), foot and mouth disease, harmful E. Coli, salmonella, campylobacter, and antibiotic resistant microbes (so-called "superbugs") such as Methycillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (better known as MRSA, and in this case pig-MRSA).  Bird flu and swine flu which made a lot of media headlines, also have their origins in factory farms.

Indeed harmful microbes are getting resistant to antibiotics, which have extensive usage in factory farms due to all those diseases mentioned, and to grow the animals quicker as well. Indeed 70% of all antibiotics manufactured is used in factory farming.  The same antibiotics also destroy the animals' intestinal health (and hence harmful e-coli and other bacteria gets root) - remember that antibiotics destroy all life in the small intestines (including friendly bacteria, not just harmful microbes). Because of the constant use of antibiotics, chickens are ready to be slaughtered in half the time, again way short of their natural lifespan.

In industrial farming, when the animals are slaughtered, the parts they can't sell (such as the spinal cord and brain for example) are "reprocessed", boiled, and dried to make meat fillers in human food, or are fed to animals in the form of animal feed which was the cause of the BSE outbreak in the UK.

Factory farmed food is bad for our health

Given the routine usage of antibiotics and pesticides in intensive farming, that's a lot of chemicals that accumulate in our bodies.  Pesticides are already linked with numerous problems such as cancer. These chemicals accumulating in factory farms ultimately end up in our bodies too (e.g. in eggs).  New strains of the harmful E. Coli appear (as shown in the Food Inc. video) and cause illnesses in humans, and the same is true of other harmful disease-causing bacteria in the animals subjected to ill treatment, which is one of the reasons for the routine usage of antibiotics in factory farms in the first place. In the United States, rBGH is even used on dairy cows in factory farming.

How can there be no difference in quality from produce from more relaxed animals raised in organic farms, and in animals horribly treated in intensive farms?  That is impossible.  Indeed, organic milk for instance has already been shown to be a lot better for our health, having more nutritional value, and not to mention free from harmful chemicals (such as antibiotics) and pesticide traces.

Factory farm workers are at risk of respiratory and other illnesses too, and could also be exposed to MRSA as well.  And factory farming waste entering our water supply is also a serious risk to our health, even in small amounts.

Furthermore, any animal manure from factory farms often contains the said harmful bacteria like e-Coli, and has been responsible for e-Coli outbreaks even in spinach or lettuce for example, in those cases manure from factory farms was used, the 2006 North American e-Coli outbreak was an example of this.

Factory farming is bad for the environment

Factory farming releases a lot of farmland runoff, contaminated with e-Coli and other bacteria.  This highly toxic and polluting runoff is harmful if not fatal to wildlife in the water, and can enter our water supply.  There is also the risk of eutrophication, which is when the runoff enables algae blooms, which is when there is so much algae in the water that the oxygen supply in the water is severely reduced, which is fatal to fish and other aquatic wildlife.

Factory farming is also a heavy user of fossil fuels, especially in the production of fertilisers, and in the transport of animals (often long distance, and the animals themselves are often kept in very bad conditions), and there is air pollution as a result of factory farming activities.  A lot of methane and carbon dioxide is also emitted, and methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide which gets all the publicity. 

In factory farming, GM soya and corn are also often fed to animals (cows, chicken, and pigs for example), which has been linked with e-Coli due to these not being the natural foods of the said animals.  And GM soya for example, especially "round-up ready" GM soya can cause health problems in both animals and humans (including infertility in the second generation), the full effects are unknown, could be irreversible, and GM is definitely not worth the risk. The risks of GM are shown in more detail in one of our previous articles, here.

As well as GM crops, intensive farming is also notorious for water usage for large scale irrigation, usage of agrichemicals (pesticides, herbicides, and fertilisers), and large scale monocultures, which ruins biodiversity and threatens species within the local area.

Indeed, the amount of land that has to be cleared (including the Amazon rainforest) just to have vast monocultures of soya and corn (for example) to feed the animals in factory farms is huge.  For example, it is estimated that 2 kg of feed is required for every 1 kg of chicken, 4 kg for every 1 kg of pork, and 7 kg of feed for 1 kg of beef.  In addition for every 1 kg of beef, an estimated 100 000 L of water is also required. More information can be found here.

What can you do?

First thing you can do is to try to eat organic produce.  This is a point mentioned in our previous articles here and here.

Stop eating in fast food restaurants, McDonalds in particular are notorious for their reliance on factory farmed meat.

If you are not vegetarian, try to restrict your meat intake (and only organic and naturally fed of course, grass-fed for example), and avoid beef.

If you can, try to go vegetarian or vegan.  I would recommend going vegetarian at least, and stick only to organic dairy produce from grass-fed cows, goats, sheep, or buffaloes, and try to stick to organic honey too.  If you eat eggs then stick to organic eggs only.

Go to your local farmer's market, and buy local produce.  If this is not easy, then look for local produce in your local shop or supermarket.  If possible, you can also grow your own produce (or rear your own animals if practical).

Write to your MP, deputy, representative, or whatever your representative is called where you live, calling for an end to factory farming.  If nothing else, your local representative will know that they have at least one citizen who would like to see an end to the ghastly practice of factory farming.

There is a threat in the UK (and by definition all of Europe) looming of US style megadairy factory farms.  This needs to be stopped, to prevent this appearing anywhere in Europe.  The other proposals might have been defeated for now, but the campaign continues.  For more information on the campaign against the US-style megadairy in Lincolnshire, please click here.

For a more detailed explanation on the points raised in this article, you may have a look at the resources and further reading for the sources.

Resources and further reading

• Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) - Campaigns to end factory farming worldwide
• The Food Inc. movie official site
• Sustainable Table - Issues caused by factory farming
• Farm Sanctuary - Factory Farming
• Factory Farming vs Sustainable Farming
• Humanist Vegetarian Group - Help save the planet: Vegetarianism and the environment