7 Reasons Not to Eat Factory-Farmed Food

By Rachel Cernansky, Planet Green

We’ve all heard about the evils of factory farms, but sometimes it’s useful to take a look at things from a comprehensive perspective. Maybe you know about the risks of salmonella, but figure if you cook your food well enough, you won’t have to worry.

Here are seven reasons to avoid factory-farmed or industrially-produced food, and to seek out other options—as always, your local farmer’s market is a great start—a little more regularly.

Better Nutrition

If you’re going to eat products like meat and dairy, studies have found that these foods are more nutritious when raised sustainably than when they are produced by industrial agriculture. (And just this week, it became official even in a U.S. court: hormone-free milk is better.)

If you’re vegetarian or vegan, the same is true for organically grown fruits and veggies. (This is a hotly-debated topic, but if you think about it from a basic, non-scientific perspective, it’s not hard to believe that applying chemicals to intentionally kill living organisms will also deplete the soil of nutrients necessary to grow a healthy crop.)

Better Taste, Healthier Taste Buds

There’s an increasing understanding that processed foods, many of which come from factory-farmed meat, dairy, and industrially-grown wheat or corn, are killing our taste buds, making us physically less able to taste and enjoy the naturally-occurring flavors in fresh foods. Anyone who’s tasted a home- or locally-grown tomato knows what a difference those flavors make.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Michele W.

1:39AM PST on Jan 9, 2012

Thank you

send a green star

jayasri a.

5:38PM PST on Jan 3, 2012

Great article! Thanks

Past Member .

9:44PM PST on Nov 18, 2011

Gee Monica, the photo of the chunk of corpse on the link you provided is enough to make people become vegetarian.
I'm vegan and the sight of that made me nauseous, so did the article. There is no such thing as "humane" or "ethical" meat. There is NOTHING "humane" about murdering animals. The article merely promotes the oppression, exploitation, suffering and murder of animals just to end up on the plates of those who choose to eat their corpses. The author emits ignorance right to her last line: "You can remain in the rabbit hole and keep eating your salad". She obviously was never a vegetarian, or at least not a well informed vegetarian, and she obviously lacks compassion as well as concerns for the abundance of resources needed/wasted in animal agriculture. That article may have actually made more people become vegetarian/vegan.

Don't buy into the humane myth:

www.humanemyth.org

Monica B.

7:29AM PDT on May 27, 2011

ahh! people are reading this and talking about going vegetarian! read this and instead support small local farms that make tasty ethical meat! http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2011/jan/19/vegetarian-animal-cruelty-meat

Jen W.

3:23PM PDT on May 6, 2011

Great article! Thanks.

colleen p.

12:56PM PDT on May 3, 2011

they factory farm plants too huh? what environmental effects it has? some people(i think) do not believe forests get torn down to grow veggies. or so they make me believe they do

Janice L.

8:17PM PST on Dec 12, 2010

I grew up on a farm. We grew tomatoes, potatoes, butterbeans, green beans. There's nothing better than a tomato that you wash off with the garden hose and eat right there in the yard, while it's still hot from the sun.

Danell A.

6:47PM PST on Nov 28, 2010

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Eternal G.

5:03PM PST on Nov 21, 2010

HEAR HEAR!!

Silvia G.

12:44PM PST on Nov 11, 2010

En mi niñez consumíamos de nuestra propia huerta,y ya considero desde hace años la selección de alimentos en lo posible sin procesos industrializados.