Facts About Factory Farms

Factory farming is not cheaper. The tax payer pays for these corporate farms in the form of government subsidies. Without these subsidies these corporations would not be able to support themselves- they are too wasteful and the toxic chemicals required to keep them functioning are too expensive. The government must subsidize organic small family farms instead, we would have cheaper food than we have now- except it would actually be food, both healthy and sustainable. (1)

Factory farms destroy the environment. World Watch, the Sierra Club, the Pew Commission, Greenpeace, and other major environmental watchdogs have singled out factory farms as among the biggest polluters on the planet. There is now a scientific consensus that animal agriculture is the single largest contributor to global warming—outstripping even the transportation industry in its production of greenhouse gases. (2)

Factory farming is cruel. 80% of the antibiotics manufactured in this country are fed to livestock so they can survive in a cage, standing in their own feces unable to turn around or lay down. Animals are thinking feeling beings and here is only one example of what is going down in factory farms: With 309-330 cows per hour coming by on the “disassembly” line, there are many who are still fully conscious with eyes wide open when skinned and cut apart. They die literally piece by piece. (3)

Antibiotics administered to people in the US annually to treat diseases: 3 million pounds

Antibiotics administered to livestock in the US annually for purposes other than treating disease: 24.6 million pounds

Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13%Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1988: 91%

Reason: Breeding of antibiotic resistant bacteria in factory farms due to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock

Response by entire European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: Ban. The US is still doing this. It must ban these too!

US pigs raised in total confinement factories where they never see the light of day until being trucked to slaughter: 65 million (total confinement factories are banned in Britain)

US pigs who have pneumonia at time of slaughter: 70%

90% of US chickens are infected with leukosis — chicken cancer — at the time of slaughter.

 

 

Solution: Support organic and humane family farms!

 

sources:

1. http://www.sustainabletable.org/859/industrial-livestock-production

2. http://www.farmforward.com/farming-forward/factory-farming

3. organic consumers association.org, Transcript of New York Times full page ad published June 22, 2001 detailing the horrors of our modern-day slaughterhouses: http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/shortlist031604.cfm

 

 

Related info:

GMO’s and Science: Scientists are reporting suppression of scientific data and are calling for a law mandating transparency of study results: https://kimcampion.com/organic-farming/gmos-and-science/