Imagine being born into a beautiful world full of opportunity, and then suddenly, life ends at at a shocking 6 months old. This is the life of a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) pig. This short and tortuous life is equivalent to a human living to the age of 26 months. CAFOs are used all across the nation for mass production of meat and dairy. An average CAFO looks like a regular warehouse from the outside. Little do consumers know that in that “warehouse” looking building, there might be up to 10,000 animals living on slatted floors with absolutely no grass.(Confined dining: A primer on factory farms and what they mean for your meat) These animals are used for one thing, and one thing only, profit. So if the profit from these CAFOs is so astonishing, then how come factory farming has so many negative attributes correlated to it? These negative attributes are traced …show more content…
Typically a pig CAFO will hold anywhere from 1000-3000 pigs. These thousands of pigs on average will get slaughtered before their first birthday. (Confined dining: A primer on factory farms and what they mean for your meat). Not only is the life of a pig short, but the life of a pig is traumatizing. “This intensive confinement produces stress- and boredom-related behavior, such as chewing on cage bars and obsessively pressing against water bottles.” (Pigs: Intelligent Animals Suffering in Farms and Slaughterhouses) The quality of a pig’s life is absolutely disgusting. Consumers need to put down the bacon and just open up their eyes. In reality, “Piglets are prone to stress-related behavior such as cannibalism and tail-biting, so farmers often chop off piglets’ tails and use pliers to break off the ends of their teeth—without giving them any painkillers.” (Pigs: Intelligent Animals Suffering in Farms and Slaughterhouses) This is why the the real price of bacon is so much more than just $4.95 at the nearest grocery
Eric Schlosser disproves that theory with his book titled Fast Food Nation (2001). About a hundred years after the mistreatment in the Gilded Age occured Fast Food Nation describes the same if not worse conditions of industries in America. In chapter 8, Schlosser uses rhetorical strategies to unveil the dark side of meat-packing factories. Schlosser begins by explaining what happens to the animals
“The disgust I felt was so strong I wondered how I could ever eat this animal now… some of the disgust I felt made sense. After all, part of the stench was from the waste of the pig’s intestines. But it was more than that. When we kill an animal, especially a big mammal like a pig, it cant help reminding us of our own death. The line between their bodies and ours, between their deaths and ours, is not very sharp” (Pollan 244).
To conclude, the authors argument in this book is that the meat industry is extremely flawed and it needs to be reformed to allow more ranchers, to fix the meat handling to become safer, and to fix the working
Following Michael Pollan’s view in his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he covers the realm of concentrated animal feedlot operations (COFAs) in his extensive spiel about the overarching concept of corn in our society. He discusses his purchased steer, number 534, as he accompanies its journey through the system. In the beginning 534 enjoyed his life on a green pasture with his mother for six months, until he became strong and bulky enough to get a change of scenery. He was then transferred to a lovely place called a backgrounding pen; where 534 learned to live in a pen, eat from a trough, and to consume a new diet. Pollan’s observational study lead him to find many complications regarding COFAs and their effect on the environment.
This industry is where the United States’ population gets a majority of their food intake, while the other portion comes from farming. While the consumers like to believe that their food is always clean, chemical free, and healthy, it isn’t. The food industry is now considered to be one of the most hazardous industries in the United States (McLaughlin). The animals aren’t the only things being abused anymore; the workers are now being abused as well (FOOD, INC.). Since the food industry is such a dangerous industry, the consumers are eating more than just their food sometimes.
I know a lot of people don 't know how to farm nor do they want to. But a lot of people forget on caring about where and how they got their produce as long as it is on the market for them to feed themselves or their families. What they don 't know is more and more these days the animals are living in horrible factories their whole lives. Which means they aren 't being treated wrong. They are neglected with the proper food and are being drugged with medications like steroids.
Did you know that in factory farms, the majority of chickens, turkeys, and ducks have their beaks removed to prevent cannibalism? What about that egg-laying hens are sometimes starved up to 14 days, exposed to different light patterns, and not given water to shock their bodies into molting? Many people live their lives not knowing of the cruelties that occur in a factory farm. Last year I had an older friend that worked at a factory farm specifically for pigs. One day when I was visiting him, I asked how he liked his job that he had recently gotten hired on to.
The dangers of Factory Farming in America Traditionally farm cows and chickens roam around the wild free to eat whatever they wanted and have unlimited space. But now in the need for more food for the fastly increasing population. Factory farms have taken over the lives and wellbeing of these animals. Now “Broiler Chickens” and farm cows are confined to little spaces and are being fed food that doesn't fit their diet.
Instead, big companies are choosing to risk their client’s health by feeding animals what they are not supposed to eat and pumping them with e Coli and stuffing them in a tiny barn where they can’t flap a wing and are forced to stand in feces which may or may not be their own . In The Jungle, they described how they treated dead animal meat, now just imagine how they must have treated the alive animals. This next quote is describing how they kept the meat . “Every Spring they did it; and in the barrels there would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water- and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast” (Pg. 143, The Jungle)
Introduction Perdue Farms is one of the largest producers of broilers in the United States. The company was started in 1920 by Arthur Perdue on his farm in Maryland. The company began selling eggs in the beginning and in 1925 the company built its first hatchery and began specializing in layer chicks selling. It’s not out of the ordinary for a company to experience controversies during their success. Perdue Farms is one of those brand names that has had many difficulties in the form of environmental issues, workplace safety, government-regulation compliance, operations problems, and more commonly animal-treatment controversies.
The rulers of the farm take advantage of the low reading skills that the rest of the animals possess and use that weakness against them, as the animals just believe whatever the pigs tell them to, as they have no reason not to. The pigs’ goals seem intact and they do
Rhetorical Analysis “Down on the factory farm” The last thing that comes to our mind when we order a piece of steak at a restaurant is how that animal we are about to eat was being treated while they were alive. According to author Peter Singer’s article "Down on the factory farm” he questions what happened to your dinner when it was still an animal? He argues about the use and abuse of animals raised for our consumption. In Singer’s article he states personal facts and convincing statistics to raise a legitimate argument.
For an example, the Smith field’s CAFO in North Carolina will put up to forty full grown two hundred and fifty pound hogs in one pin the size of a small apartment. Practically trampling each other to death, or causing serious injuries. For this reason I think they should move their pins to where there can be more room for the hogs. Sometimes when the pigs get sick they put as many drugs as they need to in order to be able to keep it alive enough in order to butcher it.
They say that is for their benefit, but really that they are selfish and they want the food and drink for themselves. Without it, they would not fulfill their duties. On page 52, the author states, “Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back!” The animals are being put in the position is which they fear the one that abused they came back.
Did you know that many cows in factory farms die before their 5th birthday? (Leader, Jessica. " 9 Facts About Factory Farming That Will Break Your Heart (GRAPHIC PHOTOS). " The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Mar. 2014.