industrial pig farming[/caption]
Anna Roberts-----Lying between the vast urban landscapes of the west and east coasts of America is a significant threat to the environment, public health and global climate change. The millions of acres of farm land that accompany passengers travelling along the interstate have become home to a relatively new ecosystem known as the industrial farm.
Food production in the United States has evolved out of necessity into a large-scale, heavily subsidized process concerned primarily with producing the greatest amount of return per acre at the lowest possible cost. The EPA estimates that over 450,000 industrial farms are currently in operation in the United States. This system has been extremely successful with crop and animal yields at a level almost double what they were just fifty years ago. However, this extraordinary level of production carries with it both short- and long-term consequences.
Industrialized Farming
Industrial farming is a resource-intensive process that generates large amounts of waste. This is especially the case with operations whose purpose is to raise animals for slaughter. Known as confined animal feed operations (CAFOs), such facilities can house thousands of cattle, turkeys or chickens at any one time. In fact, a majority (54 percent) of the total feed animals in the United States are centralized in only 5 percent of the total CAFOs. Common features of these operations include overcrowded containment areas that function as breeding grounds for infectious disease, large lagoons of animal waste and a high concentration of nutrient and chemical emissions. Taken together, this represents a potentially devastating threat to the environment.
According to the EPA, animals held in confinement generate over three times the amount of waste as the average human. As this material is collected and stored largely uncontained in open areas, it is vulnerable to inclement weather and may wind up in public water sources. The pesticides and antibiotics used to decrease the incidence of disease in animals can also lead to soil erosion.
A global concern associated with industrial farming is the multitude of both fuel and nutrient emissions that are released into the air. Animal waste specifically is responsible for producing 37 percent of the total amount of methane gas added to the atmosphere each year. CO2 is another primary driver of climate change and a direct byproduct of burning fossil fuels. Worldwide animal production in confined operations is estimated to produce 90 million annual tons of carbon dioxide. The effects of climate change have already been documented in the reduction of polar icecaps, extreme seasons and a rise in the number of natural disasters.
Subsidies
An unfortunate truth of industrialized farming and the ecological damage associated with it is that the American public has directly financed these operations for decades. Government subsidies for agribusiness have been a staple of domestic policy dating back to 1930. At the time, this support was urgently needed as family farmers were suffering from historically low commodity prices and the beginning of the Great Depression.
Today between $15 and $35 billion dollars annually flows from tax payers into the accounts of mostly large, industrial farming conglomerates. Even most objective parties agree that these resources would be better used elsewhere, and President Obama has called for a reduction in farm subsidies. However, the powerful agricultural lobby that represents both the industrial producers and the industries they serve has been successful in maintaining financial support.
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"This article was provided by Anna Roberts, environmental studies major and earth-friendly consumer.