Environmental problems of mass farming

            Each year Americans eat roughly 270.7 pounds of meat, which is about 8.5 billion pounds of meat. But the EPA says more than 37 million tons. What most people don’t see when they are eating let’s say a quarter pounder is that to make in that one “meal” you are actually consuming fossil fuels. And the fact that cows let out methane gases when they digest their food is even less thought of.

            Because so many animals produce methane when they digest, they account for between 14 and 22 percent of the roughly 36 billion tons of carbon emission and other greenhouse gases produced each year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The EPA states that an increase in Carbon Dioxide could increase productivity in livestock animals, such as cows, pigs, chickens, and so on. This increase could be looked at in a good way but there is a high likelihood that it would decrease the quality of the animals’ meat. This could possibly be due to the fact that cows and other animals would have to begin eating more foods, which would lead them to have to digest more and would produce more methane gases.

            Another thing that contributes to the production of more methane gases is the grain animals are feed while living in factory farms. There is a debate that has been going on for awhile between grass fed animals and grain fed but it all boils down to one thing: what can they digest easily? Basic research of cows, or just spending time on a farm, will show you that cows eat faster when they are eating grass compared to grain or corn. The corn that is fed to cows is very tough and usually not meant for even human consumption, unless it is ground in to corn meal and other types of corn products. But cows are not designed to eat this so why feed it to them? Because it is cheap and grass or hay may not be accessible in a place that is just simply concrete slabs.

            Grain is so cheap and so fattening for cows that they can be fully grown and killed in about 14 months, give or take depending on where they are. That’s a huge difference than the lifespan that they should be having, which is about 15 years depending on the type of cow. But a cow has to reach a certain weight for it to be ready for meat production, again depending on the type of cow. But this just means that people are finding other ways to make the cows meatier and it does tend to make the meat tougher than grass fed is. But that doesn’t mean there is more of a call for grass fed, generally speaking people don’t care. More and more Americans are eating their weight in meat each year.

            There had been a decline in heads of cattle over the years but that is possibly only due to the fact that people are using more of the cow now than they use to. But this decline is being fought with the growth of factory farms and the use of mass production to get every thing humans can out of things. It is not known exactly how many factory farms there truly are, some say 20,000 in the United States back in 2009 but that number grows every day, and it’s clearly noticeable. Throughout the world rainforests are being cut down to make more pasture land for even more factory farms. So that makes many wonder why cut down something that is good for the planet and replace it with some thing harmful?

            There’s truly no real answer to that question, at least for now. May be people are just too greedy. They can’t really be that hungry. And they clearly are not thirsty for water. Water and air pollutants are other issues in the factory farm debate. They create so much animal waste that it surpasses human waste. The EPA estimates that factory farms produce anywhere between 500 million and 1 billion tons of manure, that’s about three times as much as humans in the United States produce. This amount does change with different organizations. And all of that manure is going in to the waterways that the EPA is supposed to be protecting. 

            As of early 2014, environmentalists were still urging the EPA to set stricter regulations on factory farms. But right now factory farms are being allowed to keep the tanks, or even lagoons, full of manure next to the buildings and places that animals are kept and people are continuously working at. This is obviously not very healthy as the animals and people are breathing in the gases from the fumes, which any smart meat eating person would know is clearly going in the very meat you are about to consume. This is not just about the pollution to the animals’ and the people breathing in so close of proximity to the tanks, but it also affects any one who lives or works in a close range of these farms.

            There are so many different types of air pollutants from these farms that it is clear that the workers and people living near them will get extremely sick. Factory farm air pollutants are responsible for health issues such as asthma, bronchitis, irritation to eyes and skin from ammonia from the animal waste, and so on. Almost 70 percent of workers experience a form of bronchitis from working on the farm. There have been at least 12 documented cases of workers dying from the gases in certain parts of the farms, most likely the manure pits. And communities near the farms have experienced respiratory problems and even diarrhea in some cases.

            Not only do factory farms cause significant air pollution problems they also cause problems to the waterways.  These farms have to put their manure somewhere so they often put them in either tanks or in lagoons, which are open to the air and effect the ground water. These lagoons are often at least as big as a football field and can easily leak and spill over in to waterways. These spills and leaks have been attributed to killing 10 million fish in one accident and causing fish industries to slow down.

            It is not just the manure that can pollute the waters around the farms. Some farms are even allowing cow carcasses to sit around on the properties rotting and letting them leak in to the waterways, according to the NRDC. But animal waste can do more damage than just killing fish. Manure has been linked to creating dead zones in some of the oceans around the world, meaning that no life can even be created there. This is a scary thought now that more of these farms are being created throughout the world.            

            But the truly scary thought is that there are hardly any regulations to these types of farms and the majority of people don’t seem to be truly noticing the problems that go along with allowing these farms to exist. But there are some people who are trying to make the lives of these animals better and to make sure that they are putting something “good” in to their body. More people are requesting to eat grass fed beef, which is better for the animal but some people still don’t realize that even if that animal is fed grass it may not have a truly happy life. And people are so use to how cheap regular, grain fed beef is that they get upset when they see the price difference of the town. But there are no regulations for meat that are to be upheld by the USDA. The only thing that is truly regulated is organic foods, which cannot be labeled organic unless they have gone through a certification.

            Currently, factory farms do not have to tell communities where they exist and which water sources they should avoid. It is easy to spot some of these farms. Purdue is a major fact in this. Driving on any US highway in Kentucky and not spotting one of their large chicken homes is a feat in and of itself. But the communities around these places don’t think twice about them. They swim in the water near them and live across the street from them. People simply don’t think about what they have to live with. And they probably don’t think about that nice lake over there and what’s really in it. But the simple truth is the people should have to wonder about what is going on. They should be informed by these farms.

            There has to be more regulations for these farms and they must obtain permits before allowing manure to spill over and infect the community’s water. Most farms do not pay for the clean up of these spills either and do not pay for the hospital bills that people have to pay because they have bronchitis or something even worse. These farms simply aren’t taking responsibility for their actions and it is time to demand they do.

            Currently, factory farms can pop up where ever they can, depending on county land regulations. So locals and their governments are not informed and have no say in whether or not to allow a farm to be built in their community. And the locals are not told how they dispose of any thing. May be these locals don’t care and would prefer not to know but they should know so they can take precautions. The locals should be allowed to say when a farm is in a violation or not. But currently, there is no regulation for that.

            Of all the things a local community could do to make these farms safer for everyone is demand that they try to reduce their use of pathogens in a more environmental way. That is one thing that makes these farms so dangerous; they are in no way environmental. No matter how much they want to claim their meat is natural or organic. But there are better ways to making sure that you have good clean meat than allowing yourself to accept that someone like Purdue has become a natural company.

            Many people think it is enough to simply buy meat that is natural when in reality this is just another wording for a over crowded animal, in some cases. There are no regulations for the word natural. The animal can simply be fed grain with natural ingredients that are found in the natural world. But this doesn’t mean the feed was made for that specific animal or that it should eat it. So these farms can use these grains and still call their product natural. This is not really a very ethical way of thinking on their part and it is honestly sad to have to believe this.

            America is a label looking country. We love to read them no matter what they say, even if we can’t understand half of the ingredients. But we don’t read the ingredients on meat because we can’t be sure what those animals are being fed. That’s why your best bet, if you are very cautious of what you eat, is to go to a farmers market and meet with the farmers who sell meat. They usually can tell you all about their practices, right down to how they kill the animals. Plus, it’s nice to have a friendly face behind your meals. There is a very obvious taste difference in a burger made from grass fed beef and grain fed beef, as stated before. But what is really the difference between some grass fed beef and organic grass fed beef. Well one has gone through a certification process and paid a lot of money when they other has not yet, depending on where you are getting your meat of course. Generally speaking these cows have had good lives, if you have researched the company they are coming from well enough, and you can feel a little more environmentally ethical while eating their burgers.

            But there still aren’t enough regulations on why these farms are being allowed to operate the way they do. Perhaps it’s because America is a place that wants things and for very cheap and doesn’t care if it is going to harm them in the long run. But hopefully one day more people will demand that the EPA have regulations be set in place for these farms so that they Earth isn’t harmed more because of them.