Climate Change And Factory Farming Essay

Why Climate Change and Factory Farming is Terrible for Our Planet

The Cambridge dictionary definition of factory farming is: “a system of farming in which a lot of animals are kept in a small closed area, in order to produce a large amount of meat, eggs, or milk as cheaply as possible.” The main errors in this sentence are “small closed area” and “as cheaply as possible”. This means that the animals will most probably never see the daylight. Their living environment will be horrendous and they won’t be given the proper food and nutrition that they need. Considering that the farmers will keep the animals inside, this means that they’ll be using electricity that they don’t need and this also means that the gas emissions from the animals will

Factory farming produces 18% of all man-made global gas emissions. It also produces 37% of the global methane and 65% of the nitrous oxide emissions. This is a colossal number. Methane and nitrous oxide are made in large quantities and released into the air by factors such as animal waste and fertiliser. It also releases greenhouse gases through the supply chain. Deforestation for growing crops and animal feed lowers vital carbon sinks and releases gases that were previously stored in the soil and vegetation. Does this seem necessary? We’re slowly suffocating our planet for the sake of saving a few pounds. In fact, data shows that we need to lower greenhouse gas emissions in first world countries by at least 80% by 2050 if we want to prevent an average temperature rise of 2 °C. Although 2℃ doesn’t seem like a lot but in Scotland, this means that we won’t get snow in winter anymore and in summer we will get scorching hot days that are followed by torrential rain. Considering factory farming does produce 18% of global gas emissions this means that if we reduce them now we would most probably be able to lower greenhouse gas