http://www.care2.com/greenliving/whats-factory-farming.html
What’s Factory Farming?
By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Green and Healthy Living
It’s National Farm Animals Awareness Week. I wanted to write a sweet post about going to a happy family farm and showing some farm animals a little love, but every time I write the words “farm animals” that brain of mine ambles right on over to the dark side. Words like “battery cages” and “gestation crates” pop up and I realize that frolicking farm animals are not the ones who need our awareness. So, for National Farm Animals Awareness Week I do hope you’ll go pet some rolling-in-the-mud pigs somewhere, but in truth, those aren’t the pigs that need our attention right now.
According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) nearly 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for food in the United States annually. That’s 10 thousand million animals. (Just for some perspective, 10 billion inches is equal to 157,830 miles.)
While there is increasing awareness and consumer demand for animals raised humanely, the sad truth is that most of those animals raised for food in the United States are routinely mistreated on industrialized factory farms. What’s a factory farm? As defined by Webster’s dictionary, it is a “a system of large-scale industrialized and intensive agriculture that is focused on profit with animals kept indoors and restricted in mobility.” At factory farms, profit is the focus and it is attained by intensively confining animals and breeding them for rapid growth; it isn’t pretty.
There are no federal laws to protect farm animals. And although every state has animal cruelty statutes, they are rarely applied to agricultural practices, no matter how cruel those practices are. And cruel they are. The three most common and barbaric practices are battery cages, veal crates and gestation crates.
Battery Cages
At any given time, according to the HSUS, nearly 280 million laying hens in the United States are confined in battery cages. These are cages so restrictive the birds can’t spread their wings. Imagine not being able to stretch your arms! Laying hens are unable to engage in any of their natural behaviors, including nesting, dust bathing, perching, and foraging. More animal-enlightened countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Austria have banned battery cages. The entire European Union is phasing them out by 2012.
Veal Crates
Did you know that the veal industry is a direct byproduct of the dairy industry? Veal is a famously cruel food. In order to produce veal, baby cows are taken from their moms (dairy cows) several hours to several days after they are born. They will be slaughtered at four months, and leading up to that they are typically tied by their necks into crates so small that they can neither turn around nor lay down comfortably. In the US, nearly one million calves are raised for veal. The European Union banned the use of veal crates in 2007.
Gestation Crates
Breeding sows (female pigs) are forced to spend their pregnancies confined in two-foot wide metal stalls. These gestation crates are so small that the animals cannot even turn around. (Like being pregnant isn’t uncomfortable enough.) Gestation crates can lead to crippling joint disorders and lameness, as well as tremendous emotional suffering–don’t forget that pigs are highly intelligent. The European Union banned gestation crates effective 2013. In the United States, the use of these crates remains customary practice.
How to Help: The 3 Rs
The first thing that comes to mind: Go vegan. But that isn’t necessarily an option for everyone. The HSUS offers these important pointers to help minimize the problem:
Reduce
Every hour in the United States, 1 million animals are killed for human consumption. If each one of us cuts back on our animal consumption by only 10 percent, approximately 1 billion animals would be spared a lifetime of suffering each year.
Refine
If you do continue to eat animal products, know that not all animal products are equal when it comes to animal welfare. Each industry has its own abusive practices, and some are much more cruel than others. For example, the chicken, egg, turkey, and pork industries tend to be far more abusive to animals than the beef industry. And a growing number of producers are raising animals without intensive confinement. Refining your diet by choosing cage-free animal products, instead of the conventional factory farm products that fill most supermarket shelves, will help to reduce animal suffering.
Replace
Each one of us can help prevent animals from suffering in factory farms simply by choosing vegetarian options. It’s never been easier to replace animal products with readily available vegetarian alternatives. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Vegetarian diets can meet all the recommendations for nutrients.” The American Dietetic Association goes even further to state that vegetarian diets “provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”
So I’m thinking the best way to celebrate Farm Animals Awareness Week is with a slew of vegan recipes. Here are some winners from the Care2 recipe archive:
Crabless Crab Cakes
Vegan Potato Leek Soup
Vegan Thumbprint Cookies and “Milk”
Let the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) know that supporting sustainable farms rather than factory farms is a win-win situation by signing this Care2 petition.
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38 comments
add your comment »I really shudder thinking how calves are taken from their mothers and killed cruelly. Cows have maternal instinct like humans. And being a mother myself I cannot let my baby be away from me for even a second. Don't you think cows mourn too. They know that babies are dead. God has given them 6th sense unlike humans. How can anyone-anyone eat a veal. You are eating a baby. Think about it when you put the first morsel in your mouth
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A slaughtered animal is a slaughtered animal. It doesn't make any difference what conditions it's raised in.
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Slavery is still slavery, no matter how 'good' the conditions.
Free range chickens still have their beaks clipped with a hot knife and no anesthetic.
I honestly dont know how anyone can justify the animal ag buisiness in any way. To me that is the same as defending slavery and the holocaust. Animals have their own lives to live and do not need our interference. A lot of them were here before us.. and if we dont end up killing them all..they will still be here after us.
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Yes, water use must also be considered. Meat production generally has higher water use per kg of produce, but energy production for this water use is much higher than for fruits and vegetables. Beef: 2500 MJ/L. Potatoes: 65 MJ/L. Apricots, grapes, cabbage, carrots and rice: 160-200 MJ/L. (From: http://www.clw.csiro.au/publications/water_for_food.pdf) Meat production figures are generally calculated for animals fed on irrigated pastures.
Calculating the carbon emissions from the production, processing, packaging and transport of food is often referred to as food miles. This is only one calculation of the sustainability and ethical production of food. Intensively farmed produce would actually have low food miles despite peoples ethical objections.
Decisions about food come down to individual preference, and I think we all need to consider both sides of the story before we make our judgements.
Just another interesting fact; when plants are stressed they can show physiological responses that are almost identical to that of animals.
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Studies of free-range hens have shown that they prefer to stay indoors than to go outside. One study showed that only 15% of a flock (20 000 birds) would be outdoors at any one time. This was attributed to avoiding the stresses of being in the open. Battery cages have been redesigned to allow for more movement, dust bathing, perching and nesting. Unfortunately the use of these cages is not compulsory but they have been adopted by some producers. Feather pecking and cannibalism can be avoided by using such cages. In properly monitored situations battery hens do not suffer. I do not believe that it is fair to attack producers that meet welfare standards.
“The amount put in, far outweighs what comes out” – It takes approximately 2kg of feed to produce 1kg of chicken meat. This meat contains 5030 MJ of energy, and the grain taken to produce it contains just 26 MJ of energy. This meat not only contains more energy and protein than these grains, but also a good combination of vitamins and minerals. Chickens have a feed conversion efficiency second only to fish.
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It frustrates me that people do not seem to realise that the bad parts of factory farming do not apply to all farms. I am not defending every intensive farm or farming system, I am trying to show that there are two sides to this story.
Some farms do have terrible practices and do not meet acceptable welfare standards. In these farms unnecessary and terrible things happen to animals, these are the ones that should be shut down. Legal requirements set minimal welfare standards. Perhaps governments should be lobbied to control and monitor these standards better instead of attacking an entire industry?
For animal welfare standards to be acceptable they must meet the 5 freedoms:
“freedom from hunger and thirst, by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain
full health and vigour; freedom from discomfort, by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area; freedom from pain, injury and disease, by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment; freedom to express normal behaviour, by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind;
freedom from fear and distress, by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid
mental suffering.” (From: http://www.fawc.org.uk/reports/pb8347.pdf)
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free range is still promoting death of animals and a terrible waste of resources and land. Educate yourself-be compassionate-go vegan. Great article.
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you forgot to mention that in battery cages,the skin of the chickens feet grows around the the wire of the cages.
Buy free range,and don't buy more then you can consume.How much of the food produced simply goes to waste?How many animals lives are needlessly ended?
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Thank God someone is FINALLY talking about stopping this tragedy by eating vegan! How can compassionate educated people still eat meat????
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What happens to the animals in this places is EVIL, but you don´t have to believe me...just watch this and then make a responsible decision....
http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=-8655541224775286050
My friends, remember that we all share the same planet, therefore we all are earthlings, we don´t have the right to take a life, or being cruel to anybody, regardless the species.
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