When you think about the future, what comes to mind? Do you envision a world with smarter technologies, more innovative companies and more robust job opportunities? Or do you see only the negatives?
It’s clear that we need to modernize our agricultural systems.
Factory farming has come to stay in order to feed ever-growing global populations. However, this future is not necessarily rosy for the economy. In fact, some economists are convinced that implementing stricter regulations on factory farms would have a disastrous effect on the U.S. economy as a whole.
Factory farming is not just bad for the animals, it’s bad for the economy too. There are many reasons why factory farming is harmful to our economy and environment, but the primary factor is that it costs a fortune to raise farm animals.
That’s why there are so few who can afford to raise them in an old-fashioned way. In fact, raising animals in small facilities or on pasture produces a return of $5 for every $1 spent, while factory farming returns only 16 cents for each dollar invested. This means that factory farming is actually more expensive than other methods of rearing livestock. With that in mind, here’s why raising animals in factory farms is bad news…
Factory Farming is Bad for the Environment
Factory farming is bad for the environment for a few reasons. For starters, it produces more greenhouse gas emissions than small-scale farming and it’s also a more energy-intensive method of rearing livestock. In fact, it takes a whopping 9 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of protein in a factory.
There are also harmful runoff and contamination issues associated with large-scale production. Animals raised in confined spaces produce more methane gas, while also requiring a lot more water to produce. Both of these factors contribute to a lesser quality of life for animals, but also for the environment as a whole.
Factory Farming is Bad for Animals
Factory farming is bad for animals for a few reasons. For starters, it takes a significant portion of the cow’s lifespan to reach slaughter weight and most animals don’t even make it to slaughter. This means that the majority of an animal’s life is spent suffering in a way that’s not natural for them.
Many animals raised for food suffer from lameness, as well as severe infections because factory farms are not required to minimise these health issues by law. These conditions lead to an increase in the frequency of illnesses like Salmonella and E. coli throughout the food supply, which is obviously bad for humans.
Factory Farming is Bad for People
Factory farming is bad for people for a few reasons. For starters, it makes people sick. A study performed at the University of Minnesota discovered that people who consumed food that was grown in a highly-controlled environment were far more likely to get sick than those who ate food that was grown using more old-fashioned methods.
The study also found that people in Colorado, who consumed food grown using old-fashioned methods, had lower blood pressure and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than people in other states, who ate the same food. This means that the more we rely on factory farming for our food, the sicker we become as a country. This is not a good thing.
Factory Farming Costs a Fortune
Factory farming is bad for the economy because it costs a fortune to produce a pound of meat. While it’s true that grass-fed meat is more nutritious than grain-fed meat, it’s also twice as expensive. That’s because factory farming is not efficient, but rather, it’s designed to make as much money as possible.
In order to make that happen, producers need to keep the animals in cages or pens and feed them huge quantities of grain to make up for the fact that they’re not eating many actual plants. The problem with this is that food grown in these unnatural conditions is also less nutritious. This means that people need to eat more of it to get the same amount of nutrients as they would from eating meat from animals that ate natural grasses.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that factory farming is bad for the economy, harmful to animals and it costs a fortune to produce a pound of meat. That’s why it’s not rearing livestock the old-fashioned way. It’s important to remember that factory farming is bad for the environment and harmful to animals, while it costs a fortune to produce a pound of meat.
