More handpicked essays just for you.
Research paper on animal agriculture and the effects on the environment
Essay on animal agriculture impacts
Essay on animal agriculture impacts
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The fast food industry also hurts environments around farms in general. It has created an unsustainable cycle that farmers cannot escape. In order to feed themselves and their family, farmers play it safe and buy more fertilizer than needed. When the farmers do not use all of it, they must dispose of it, because that fertilizer will not be as effective next year, so they dump the fertilizer in the areas surrounding their farms. But what this causes is too much nitrogen in the environment because too much nitrogen can kill plants and throw the nitrogen cycle out of balance, in turn hurting the environment.
The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans”
This was the beginning to the destruction of the environment because the farmers did not consider the affects that over farming would cause. A major problem that over farming has caused is an increase in population, then the over farming isn’t enough, which them causes farmers to produce more and we go back and forth in a never ending roller coaster ride between increase in food supply and increase in population. The world has yet to meet our carrying capacity, and when we do the world will have a major population decline. The other major problem that over farming has caused is the destruction of our environment. The more food we produce,
Many large scale farms produce hundred acres of genetically modified monoculture crops. With so many crops to take care of, many pesticides and other chemicals are put into the soil; which then leads to runoff and pollution. The overarching problem with industrialized farming and the people that support the “industrial machine” is that the prices are reduced to get more people to buy the products. But the true costs such as the strains on the environment, keeping livestock from living the way they always have, and overproduction, are not factored into the barcode price at stores such as
According to John McDonagh, the author mentioned that ‘our understanding of changing land use, ownership practices and exploitation of rural resources, ultimately determines how poverty, hunger, population growth and environmental issues are addressed (McDonagh 2014, pg. 838). I felt uncomfortable while viewing the data provided which clearly shows that most common food we consume daily is affecting our environment globally. I was stunned by the figures shown on the film and at the same time, having this deep thought about our environment, that almost half of the world is now covered with animal products being harvested for consumption. Looking at how the Earth’s population have grown at a faster rate for the past decades, we know for sure that we will need a lot of land as it is a basic necessity of life. However, I felt disheartened that this is not the practice in some countries because people have been forcibly displaced from their own land.
The family members have been working for the meat industries, and have learned all their schemes. They describe the many inhuman and gruesome things that occur in the factories. “…The beef had lain in vats full of chemicals, and mean with great forks speared it out and dumped into trucks, to be taken to the cooking room.” (Sinclair 69), the factories found ways to mix spoiled meat with regular meat to sell, one being the amount of different chemicals used to relieve of the stench. They also state that there were rat problems and when the rats die they were usually proceed with the rest of the meat.
The film, “Food Inc.,” from Director Robert Kenner revealed that conventional farms can be heartbreaking in the sense of the farm animals’ living conditions, however it also mentioned how efficient the farms were when it came to producing food and making money. As shown in the film, chickens are raised in half the time and are twice as big as they were 50 years ago. This means that farmers do not have to raise as many chickens, which also means that if the meat meets or surpasses the demand, consumers will pay a lower price for the product. This rule of supply and demand gives conventional farming the upper hand because organic farming cannot produce as much meat with its more humane methods, leaving low-income families to choose conventionally farmed meat because of its low cost and
Today we face criticism for nearly every decision that is made, and with the growing number of environmentalists and vegans/vegetarians,the cattle industry is no exception. As people in our society become more and more environmentally aware, they are beginning to take shots at the food industry. The argument at hand is that of whether or not cattle farming is an ethical idea. Today I am here to tell you why the cattle industry is a key part of America’s economy, but how it can potentially be better for the environment, contrary to popular belief. One of the larger reasons most cattle farmers present to defend their business is the profit made off of beef.
Food production was one part of the environment that I knew pretty well, however this class gave me much more. In the textbook we read, there were two articles that I found most interesting and did a good job of reinforcing my thoughts on food production and the environment. In the article “The World Food Supply: The Damage Done by Cattle-Raising,” Coffin talks about the effects of cattle-raising on the environment. Coffin touches on the amount of water used to raise the cattle, the amount of feed that is needed as well as the greenhouse gasses that are released. When one looks at this issue just as an issue of the environment, it doesn’t seem as bad as when one uses an ethical frame of mind.
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.
Factory farming is an abusive way towards animals to achieve a goal of lowering prices of food. The methods of factory farming is not only hurtful to the animals but to the environment and even human. You may ask humans? Yes.
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.
Animal agriculture is a topic that has been argued over many years, after watching the two videos, “Cowspiracy” and “Defending Beef” I now realize that this is a problem that needs to be fixed before things get much worse. Many people do not realize the problem that is going on, as us humans continue to eat animals of any kind it is hurting our Earth, and it is killing millions of innocent animals. As we continually eat meat the slaughter of millions of animals is growing more each and every day. Animal agriculture water consumption ranges from 34-76 trillion gallons.
John’s Meat Market In contrast to the millions of people that relocated to obtain jobs constructing roads, or building ships, or were prematurely cast into the role of managing a farm, substantial numbers of people continued working at their prewar occupations. Nonetheless, the war altered their lives as commodity shortages and rationing affected everyone; even imposing adjustments to the daily operations of main street businesses as inconspicuous as John’s Meat Market in Almelund, Minnesota. Traditionally, John’s merchandise included various cuts of beef and pork, along with chicken, and butter. His customers either purchased the goods with money, or bartered for credit with live chickens or hogs, which John could butcher and sell to his patrons.
Vegetarianism is not as perfect as it seems as it results in habitat loss and excessive damage to the environment. As producing plants in mass quantities require large amounts of farmland and many cycles of planting, and harvesting, the land goes through constant ploughing (Archer 2). This ploughing is the main factor that the topsoil around the world is fading fast. The nonstop ploughing of the land is taking “ U.S. soil ten times faster than natural regeneration”. The dust which results for erosion also causes diseases within humans such as tuberculosis and anthrax.
