Mystery Meat Magazine Issue 2 | Page 5

Factory farming is important for multiple reasons. When you go to the supermarket for your next visit look around at all the prices for the food you buy. CAFOs are a big contributor to keeping the prices down at your supermarket. It isn’t just supermarkets, CAFOs influence pricings for fast food restaurants, sit-ins, and many other food establishments. Imagine a world without CAFOs, food prices would skyrocket leading to a multitude of socioeconomic problems the scope of which cannot be measure. Another reason factory farming is important is the environmental implications of the practice of factory farming. Due to the concentration of animals into such small quarters the concentration of excrement is very high. Operations deal with this excrement by either putting it in a “manure lagoon” or underground pits. The problem with this is the potential runoff from these holding areas. It is estimated that 1 million gallons of waste was spilled into the water table, in Minnesota, off just one farming operation in April of 2013. Manure makes aquatic environments unsuitable for life, and under the Clean Water Act Farms need a permit for the holding of the animal’s waste. CAFOS also bring up key animal rights issues. It is socially acceptable to slaughter animals and use their byproducts for our own personal use, but in the contemporary world, some people have brought up the issue of how much an animal has to suffer in the process of being slaughtered. The Humane Slaughter Act is legislations in reaction to these animal rights concerns. It prohibits the mistreatment and mishandling of slaughter animals during the slaughter process. One key part omitted by the Act is the protection of chickens. They do not fall under the identification of slaughter animals set by the Humane Slaughter Act, which means that they do not have the same protection that other animals enjoy during the slaughter process. The final slaughter of the animals is only the end of a very arduous journey facilitated by factory farming. There are still many more aspects to factory farming that animals don’t get protection from. Factory farms do give animal antibiotics to protect them from diseases, but this does have its consequences. Bacteria, when constantly in contact with antibiotics start to gain an immunity from it. From the overuse of antibiotics by the CAFOs they are in fact creating stronger bacteria that in the future are resistant to the antibiotics we use today. These are all important reasons why factory farms are important to today’s society.

I think it is very important for people to have access to knowledge so they can be informed about the various facets of processed foods. Knowledge will allow a person to look critically at their own actions, and it allows them to make educated decisions with that knowledge. For instance, the buying of meat at a supermarket is a choice that indirectly supports CAFOs. My goal is for people to be aware of decisions like this and their implications. I hope the audience will consider this article on their next jaunt to the grocery store.

Mystery Meat Magazine: Issue 2

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