The controversy over the meat production industry has been a long debated subject that no one really knows the answer to. People suggest that meat production industries should go on because not all Americans can become vegetarians. They say meat is needed in the world, and it should go on. Other people say that the killing of animals is wrong and should not be done and say that meat industries are ruining the environment. Meat production industries are wrong because they have so many negatives such as animal welfare, environmental impact, and food safety and health.
The article, “Factory Farming”, is about how factory farming is bad. It talks about the animals welfare, the environmental impact, and the food safety and health. In the article they talk about the animal welfare being bad. The animals are often overcrowded in a closed space. The animals are often fed additives such as growth hormones. Many female animals are mechanically impregnated. The animals are put into battery cages and don’t have too much space in there and often die of starvation or dehydration.
The article also talks about the environmental impact. The meat production industry affects the environment because they are a reason for climate change. They release a lot of greenhouse gases and consume a lot of fossil fuels and creating a major air and water contamination hazards. In the article, “Factory Farming”, it says, “According to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) study reported by Scientific American in 2018, the production of red meats like beef and lamb generates ten to forty times more greenhouse gas emissions than the production of widely eaten grains and vegetables”(Factory Farming, 9). The article also talks about the food safety and health.
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The food safety and health is affecting the people eating the meat from the animals. Animals are nourished through additives. These additives can affect a humans’ health. In the article, “Factory Farming”, it says, “Research has shown that the additive-infused foods used to nourish factory-farmed animals also increase the saturated fat content of the meat these animals yield, which is believed to be a contributing factor to the prevalence of heart disease and obesity in the United States” (Factory Farming, 11).
The article, “Vegetarianism is needed to reform Industrial meat production”, by James E. McWilliams is about how the meat industry does more bad than good to the community and that the animals are treated not well. In the article, “Vegetarianism is needed to reform industrial meat production”, it says, “The livestock industry as a result of its reliance on corn and soy-based feed accounts for over half the synthetic fertilizer used in the United States, contributing more than any other sector to marine dead zones. It consumes 70 percent of the water in the American West—water so heavily subsidized that if irrigation supports were removed, ground beef would cost $35 a pound.
Livestock accounts for at least 21 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions globally—more than all forms of transportation combined. Domestic animals—most of them healthy—consume about 70 percent of all the antibiotics produced. Undigested antibiotics leach from manure into freshwater systems and impair the sex organs of fish” (McWilliams, 7). The author is saying that meat production has less upside. The meat production industry is taking away valuable resources and ruining the environment. In the article it also talks about how the animals are suffering and are treated bad. In the article it says, “Domestic animals suffer immensely, feel pain and may even be cognizant of the fate that awaits them” (McWilliams, 11).
Pigs are castrated, milk cows are repeatedly impregnated through artificial insemination. The living conditions are terrible for these animals who are given additives and confined in a small fenced up land. The article also talks about how vegetarianism is the solution to this. The meat production industry would not be needed if we were vegetarianism. There would not be animal cruelty, the greenhouse gas emissions would be less, there would not be pollution, and the health of all the people would be better because the food safety would be better. The article, “Providing humans with quality food is more important than animal welfare”, by Justine Brian is about how animal welfare does not matter when compared to humans.
In the article it says, “Even if farmers were heartless bastards who were careless about animal suffering (which they generally are not), they have a strong economic incentive not to carry on feeding chickens that won’t make the grade at the end of the 40-50 days required to fatten them up. While humans may find conditions in a broiler shed crowded and boring, that doesn’t mean that those animals are suffering in any way”(Brian, 14). What the article is trying to say is that even though we think that the living conditions and the way that the animals are treated are bad it’s because we are comparing those conditions to us. Even though we think it is bad does not necessarily mean the animals think it is bad. If the author was to choose he said the human wins everytime. Comparing a chicken and comparing a human is not worth comparing because humans are more important to society and have a longer life.
Some critics might say that when you are comparing a human life to an animal, humans always win. For example in the article, “Providing humans with quality food is more important than animal welfare” by Justine Brian says, “Chickens are food, and producing food efficiently is not ‘unethical’. If we put animal welfare before human convenience across the range of meat products that we consume, as the likes of Fearnley-Whittingstall believe we should, the result would be that for many people meat would be a rare treat that they could only eat perhaps once or twice a week”(Brian, 15), but what a lot of people don’t know is the true cruelty that the animals endure and how bad the additives added to the animals truly are.
In the article, “Factory Farming”, it says, “Research has shown that the additive-infused foods used to nourish factory-farmed animals also increase the saturated fat content of the meat these animals yield, which is believed to be a contributing factor to the prevalence of heart disease and obesity in the United States”(Farming, 11). This statement shows truly how bad factory farming can be. Factory farming is bad for health and there is animal cruelty to it. The best solution is to just stop meat production industries.
Meat production industries are not good. The meat production industries have many negatives such as animal welfare, environmental impact, and food safety and health. Meat production industries treat the animals in a cruel way. The additives given to the animals are bad for human consumption. The industry also ruins the environment due to the greenhouse gasses.
