Factory Farming & Environment Links
Protect the Earth One Bite at a Time
Ruin on the Range · Contaminated Water · Compromised Air · Ransacked Oceans · Mismanaged Resources · Works Cited
 "Cattle production and beef consumption now rank among the gravest threats to the future well being of the Earth and its human population." --Jeremy Rifkin |
- Legally permitted within the National Wilderness Preservation and National Park Systems and subsidized by taxpayer dollars to the tune of $100 million a year, livestock grazing is one of the most ecologically destructive forces of the modern era. (1)
- The main contributor to desertification in the Western United States, livestock grazing transforms fertile land into a desert-like environment by decimating native vegetation and accelerating soil erosion. (2)
- In the United States alone, livestock grazing adversely affects twenty two percent of federal threatened and endangered species, including the desert tortoise, pronghorn and numerous bird species. (3)
- Perceived as "threats" to human activity, vast numbers of coyote, prairie dogs and other wild animals who "interfere" with livestock are killed every year by the Federal Government. (4)
- More than fifty percent of forests and rainforests worldwide, including 300 million acres on American soil, have already been cleared for livestock grazing or animal feed crops. (5)
- American factory farms produce an estimated 788,000 tons of manure per day. (6)
- Manure from these operations contains multiple pollutants, such as heavy metals, antibiotics, pathogens, and nitrogen and phosphorous. (7)
- Through manure lagoon leaks or spills and run-off from saturated fields, these contaminants enter into the environment and threaten water quality across the country. (8)
- Often
finding its way into the ground water supply, manure contamination can
lead to dangerous levels of nitrate in our sources of drinking water.
(9) Among other serious health complications, high nitrate levels can
greatly harm infants by reducing the amount of oxygen carried by their
blood. (10)
- "In 2001, the EPA forced five hog factory farms to supply bottled water for local residents because activities at the farms had contaminated the local drinking water." (11)
- By robbing
water of oxygen and killing off aquatic life, nitrogen and phosphorous
found in manure can also severely harm river and stream ecosystems.
(12) Currently, sixty percent of rivers and streams are adversely affected
by agricultural run-off. (13)
- "A 'dead zone' of 7,000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana can no longer support most aquatic life because of severe oxygen depletion from animal manure pollution. 80% of U.S. farms are on or near waters that drain into the Mississippi, which ultimately feeds the Gulf." (14)
- Agricultural
runoff can also introduce disease-causing pathogens, including parasites,
bacteria and viruses into surface waters often used as sources of drinking
water for both humans and animals. (15)
"Those who claim to care about the well-being of human beings and the preservation of our environment should become vegetarians for that reason alone. They would thereby increase the amount of grain available to feed people elsewhere, reduce pollution save water and energy, and cease contributing to the clearing of forests"
--Peter Singer
- When re-deposited
into the environment, atmospheric ammonia from factory farms can also
adversely affect aquatic ecosystems, soil quality and several species
of trees and plants. (17)
- Studies in the North Carolina region where hog factories are clustered show that that ammonia measured in rain has doubled in the last decade. This is the same period during which large hog operations grew dramatically in North Carolina." (18)
- Particulate
matter, formed when gases like ammonia react with other compounds, can
lead to respiratory and cardiovascular complications, even premature
death and increased hospitalizations. (19)
- In 2001, EPA inspectors detected disturbingly high releases of ammonia from Buckeye Egg Farm in Ohio. Some Buckeye facilities were churning out 700-800 tons of particulate matter per year-- far in excess of the federal air-quality reporting standard of 250 tons." (20)
- Volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) from factory farms can lead to the formation
of ozone. Responsible for decreased visibility, ozone can affect both
humans and the environment by harming forests, crops and respiratory
tissue. (21)
- Released
from manure lagoons, hydrogen sulfide is another toxic gas that can
irritate the eye, nose and throat, cause headaches and lead to other
health complications or death. (22)
- Hydrogen sulfide monitoring at a medium-sized CAFO in Minnesota revealed regular emissions high enough to cause nausea, headaches, and diminished quality of life among neighbors." (23)
- Livestock rearing also results in the production of methane and nitrous oxide, two gases known to contribute significantly to global warming. The EPA estimates that one fourth of the nation's methane emissions come from animals raised for food. (24)
 "One of the greatest gifts you can to the planet is to choose to become vegetarian, or even better a vegan." -- Julia Butterfly Hill |
- The human appetite for seafood is driving species to extinction. In fact, overfishing is responsible for the depletion of about seventy percent of fish populations worldwide. (25)
- Referred
to as "bycatch" by the fishing industry, tens of thousands
of dolphins, turtles and other marine animals become entangled in fishing
nets and are killed annually by wasteful and devastating fishing practices.
(26)
- Fish farming, or aquaculture, for which thousands of crowded, disease-susceptible and antibiotic-treated animals are raised in confinement, has also led to the further disparagement of our delicate aquatic ecosystems. (27)
- Like livestock farming, acquaculture pollutes bodies of water with run-off containing potentially hazardous chemicals, drugs and pathogens. (28)
- Fish farmers typically feed wild fish, most of which come from our already ravished oceans, to farmed ones. It takes approximately two to three pounds of wild fish to grow only one pound of "farmed" shrimp or salmon. (29)
 "The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to the planet. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs. The results are disastrous." --David Brubaker, Ph.D |
- Over seventy percent of American grain and eighty percent of American corn is fed to farm animals. (30) According to a Cornell University study, the amount of grain consumed by animals could feed approximately 800 million hungry people. (31)
- Valuable
water resources are also squandered for meat production. Produce just
ten pounds of steak requires the same amount of water as is used by
an average household for an entire year. (32)
- An estimated 4,000 gallons of water is needed to produce a one day, animal-based food supply for an average American; a one day, plant- based food supply would only require about 300 gallons. (33)
- Intensive animal agriculture is a vast user of fossil fuel, mainly for the production of feed. A grain-fed steer who ingests twenty five pounds of corn a day and lives to reach a weight of approximately 1,250 pounds, consumes almost 284 gallons of fossil fuel throughout his life. (34)
 "Our food system takes abundant grain, which people can't afford, and shrinks it into meat, which better-off people pay for." -- Frances Moore Lappe |
