Factory Farming and the Environment

Factory farming is not only a horrific experience for the animals, but also has a tremendous effect on the environment. People waste resources carelessly due to factory farming. A few of the most commonly wasted resources are land, food, and water. About 80% of the farming land in the United States is used, directly or indirectly, to maintain animals and their prime needs. More than 250 million acres of forest in the United States have been cleared in order to grow the grain and crops that supply the factory farms with food for the animals. It takes sixteen pounds of grain for each animal to produce one pound of meat, thus causing people to over produce grain for animals. The grain is produced in such large amounts that sometimes all the animals cannot keep up with what is being fed to them, and all the ounces of wasted food grow until the world is left with thousands of pounds of animal leftovers ("Wasted Resources").

Water is yet another wasted resource. Yes every animal deserves to drink water, but the amount of water consumed by the crops that are farmed for the animals to eat and for the animals themselves is enormous. Since cattle, birds, and pigs are so over produced, people use such a high quantity of Earth's water raising them in farms. In fact, about one half of the fresh water in the United States is used in factory farms: not only for each individual animal, but also for the slaughtering process ("Wasted Resources").

Other environmental problems, such as pollution of the water and air, are having catastrophic effects in the world that people and animals share. Since animals in factory farms produce 130 times the fecal matter of humans, one can imagine where all this fecal matter goes. Well, most of it piles in fields nearby factory farms. The ground becomes a manure pit and when it rains, fecal matter gets washed into rivers and streams causing sever pollution. Breathing the air pollution can cause severe bacterial infections in the lungs, which can possibly develop into cancer ("Pollution").

The effect of the fecal matter in the air we breathe is far more severe than the pollution of the water. Since laws exist that enforce the control of fecal matter in rivers and water, when the farms' cesspools become full, the farmers, instead of letting them drain into the river, will spray "liquid manure" into the air. Anybody who lives near these farms is in danger of breathing in these toxins from the fecal matter and suffering from extreme illnesses ("Pollution").


"Pollution." Peta. [GoVeg]. 1 May 2008 http://www.goveg.com/environment-wastedResources.asp

"Wasted Resources." Peta. [GoVeg]. 1 May 2008 http://www.goveg.com/environment-wastedResources.asp