Industrial Meat Production
A.P. Environmental Science
What Are We Eating!?
In the last few decades, consolidation of food production has concentrated power in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. Many of today’s farms are actually large industrial facilities, not 40 acres of pastures, red barns, and rows of mixed vegetable crops that most Americans imagine. These consolidated operations are able to produce food in high volume but have little to no regard for the environment, animal welfare, soil and water quality, or food safety. In order to maximize profits, industrial agriculture oftentrades the health of consumers in rural communities as well as the nutritional quality of the product, for an economy of scale through consolidation and mechanization.
While there is no strict definition, industrial agriculture and factory farming refers to a modern type of agriculture which 1 ) requires high inputs of money, fertilizers, and eliminate jobs (industrial farms use “labor-saving” technologies such as pesticides in the place of weeding and heavy machinery for planting and harvesting), in the case of crop production and 2 ) for animal production is characterized by a dense population of animals raised on limited land and requiring large amounts of food, water and medical inputs. Factory farming and industrial agriculture are used interchangeably, although industrial agriculture tends to be used more to describe this intensive type of crop (plant) production and factory farms is used when referring to industrial animal production.
Is There A Solution?
Along with the industrial meat production, it causes so many real life problems, especially with the methane gas issue. Within our research we have found that thre are quite a few solutions that could possibly resolve this issue. The first is us using the money on the equiptment for the factories, we can use it towards creating a biofuel out of the live stock waste. We should create a "pill" design to reduce excessive fermentation which also regulates the metabolic activity of rumen bacteria. The last resolution that we could come up with is to feed the correct type of food to each animal. For instance if we give cows their typical eating habbits then this will be easier for them to digest. Also if we have more family famed livestock (the general concept of a family farm is one in which ownership and control of the farm business is held by a family of individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption) then there would be less of a build of of methane.