CAFO: The Contaminated Food System

      

The industrial animal factories are an intricate business, which supplies large quantity of meat to the consumers on cheap prices. But what this cheap meat actually cost us? is the big question. There are several kinds of things blended in the 'meat' which we take in without knowing or caring about the contents. Those things are dangerous chemicals such as: arsenic, ammonia, mercury, pehsticides, and synthetic hormones, antibiotics that may cause drug-resistant infections and many more health problems, which also means many more medical bills.

 The way the food industry processes, food is inhumane and improper. Animals like cows and pigs are killed and left bleeding profusely without any concern and care. Industrial Animal Factories confine animals under unnatural conditions, which not only are hurtful but also do a great harm to the consumers, the society and the environment. On the contrary, animal husbandry raises animals under natural conditions and gives proper care to animals. In reality, the animals raised as cattle by our meat industry lead a miserable and emotionally disturbing existence. They are forced to live in such conditions and are tortured to extreme.

         Noticing all my perspective on this subject matter made me question about the food I consume and its contents which are mostly obscure. The question is that "Can we trust the food in America by the food industry" where public has no right to access information about the food they are consuming. This system totally lacks transparency; no third party can inspect what’s going on in the CAFOs.  People are kept unaware of the fact about what they are eating.

     Also these industries produce a lot of waste which are dumped in lagoons that eventually contaminate the environment. CAFOs generates several different types of gases such as, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methane, and other toxic gases which are danger to human health and also a great hazard to Mother Nature. These animal industries are one of the biggest reasons of global warming. We need a system which is safe and healthy, not a system which causes disastrous effects for our present and future generation.    

In such businesses, government has no control over them. Many owners of the corporate businesses have the political powers with the help of which they run the CAFO systems. Many of such owners are not answerable to the society for any harm or spoiled conditions. Even though the consumption of such food is high, the society takes no action against them. The high demand for cheap meat products gives these animal industries the power to control the people. Because no matter what they produce and how they produce, it’s in demand and not many people are aware and concerned about the food they consume.

 In conclusion, over this semester, I have acknowledged a lot about the food systems, their terms and what goes in there. The society needs a change in the food system than being affected badly by it. Big change is needed in our eating habits to create a healthy tomorrow. CAFO system if weakening our ecosystem, our healths and our morals. Before CAFOs ruins our whole lifespan we have to put an end to this system. This is only possible if we go green, and adopt organic food culture in our life time or substitute animal industries with animal husbandries like happy old times. I’ve spread the word. Now it’s your turn to take a step forward and support the cause.

The Eleventh Hour, "The Hope is You"

             
              In this blog I will discuss the film ' the eleventh hour' produced and narrated by Leanardo Dicaprio, with contributions from well known scientists, physicist, environmentalists and politicians. In this film they together talk about problems faced by natural environment and the causes that led to such massive and traumatic change on planet earth.
              Global warming, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, change in climate, depletion of oceans all is mentioned and highlighted in this film. Before watching this film I just had a vague idea that global warming is dangerous and never took it as an alarming situation. I realized that I was aware of the changes taking place around me such as, change in climate; less snow, rise in temperature, increasing numbers of natural calamities, and loss of biodiversity (increasing no. of endangered species). But I never thought of the reasons why all this is happening. This was not the scenario in early times. As Dicaprio states in his film, right now "we face a convergence of crises"; we need to take precautionary steps to save our planet before it’s too late.
            Pollution is the biggest enemy of planet earth, greenhouse gases: it contains large amount of carbon dioxide and other poisonous gases. Which causes global warming: ozone depletion, ocean depletion, health problems, human rise ecology, global climate change etc. the damage created on earth by humans is immeasurable. the largest amount of greenhouse gases is produced by industries by burning of fossil fuels, cafo's and slaughterhouses are the biggest contributors in producing greenhouse gases emission, they generate millions of tons of manure every year and "produce ammonia (NH3) forms from the breakdown of manure and urine as well as wasted animal feed"(citation needed). Which then mixes with other poisonous greenhouse gases and is causing global warming. 'Global warming' is a strong word and no one can ignore it; this is problem which needs to be cured soon. Pollution created by these animal industries in large amount is taking away the natural from the nature which will soon result in end of the planet earth if everything continuous on the same pace.  Such practices like animal industries should be substituted with some other system like; animal husbandry, which is safer and healthier. All we need is to redesign our thinking in a way, where everybody takes planet earth as their responsibility and work together to keep it safe.
            As said in the film "people need to realize that there are things they can do in everyday life, everybody making a change adds up to something meaningful"; everyone can do a little something for the betterment of our nature and help our planet to recover from such such depletion. For instance everyone can follow the thumb rule of 'R.R.R', which is recycle, reuse and reduce the use of resources. Because resources are limited and want are unlimited and never ending, one should be careful and responsible in using the resources and should help in promoting sustainable development so our future generation can enjoy life on earth to the fullest without any scarcity of resources. But this is only possible if everybody realizes their potential and start acting in a right direction for a better and safe future.
             In this film the problems created by human being for planet earth is discussed from several viewpoints of experts. This film tries to aware general public about the current condition of earth and provides evidence and reasoning for such massive destruction. The film tells us that we are the last hope to save and protect our planet.

CAFO system and Overeating 'The double trouble'

            

     In this blog I will discuss the relation between the cafo system and overeating, and how they complement each other. Overeating is a prospering reason of obesity, and obesity is one of the leading causes of death in The United States, on the other hand there is cafo system which promotes overeating by producing large quantity of cheap meat and dairy products.  According to Dr. Kessler's research in his book 'The End Of Overeating' he concluded, "certainly food had become more readily available in the 1970's and 1980" readily availability of food here means: cooked food; that means no more homemade food and  mom's don't need to cook food at home because everything is easily available in neighborhood food outlets and it cost less. Eating out just became a culture in the United States, what happened that lead to a sudden change?  Something happened in 1970-1980, something abnormal that changed the entire food system of the United States. People who were doing well earlier started to gain weight, this was something new something beyond expectations, earlier they ate and never felt the need to think about the numbers of calories they consume, and never gained so much weight to be noticed and point out as 'fat' and ‘obese’ and if there was any weight gain it was a little and could be taken care of easily. Suddenly the people started to gain weight so fast that the number of overweight people was unbelievable that even the researchers were not sure about the figures they were looking at, they kept on rechecking their data to assure the accuracy of the numbers they had, again and again until they were sure. Such dramatic change of million and million pounds in the population of United States, seemed to be the output of the increase in all these fast food joints, restaurants and eating hubs; they started serving food in massive quantity and on very minimum price with the help of CAFO's which made everything easier, faster and cheap for US food industries. CAFO's and overeating go hand to hand, they promote each other and their existence depends on each other, the more people eat the more CAFO's produce, the more CAFO's produce the more people are going to eat. According to Dr. Kessler "we have larger portion sizes, more chain restaurants, more neighborhood food outlets and a culture that promotes out door eating". That leads to eat more and more, I guess mankind has a tendency to buy things on cheap price even if it’s not necessary or wanted at the time and once  one  buys  the cheap food provided in massive  quantity they ‘eat it’ without giving a second thought about the pros and cons of it.

            Most of the people 'eat' not to satisfy their hunger but to satisfy the ‘psychological urge; the craving for food. People eat food to feel good, the concept of eating have changed for many people over the years, now they consider food as 'reward' rather than necessity to survive. The main ingredients that make people addicted to food as a source for seeking pleasure are salt, sugar and fat. According to Dr. Kessler "Sugar, fat and salt makes us eat more sugar, fat and salt”, the reward system in our brain demands fatty food, demands high calories food: food which is high on sugar, fat and salt because after eating these, a chemical named dopamine is released in our brain which makes us feel good, the same feel one gets from taking other drugs such as: cocaine, marijuana, weed and are as addictive as these drugs. People desire more food for more pleasure  and they can’t stop eating. Resisting temptation is so hard that one can’t tell the difference between what’s good and what’s not, temptation becomes more powerful then health. People need to understand the importance of food in our lives and should know the difference between healthy and non-healthy food. So they can make better decisions and protect their health. Excess of anything is not good, same applies on food too.

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The bitter truth of Animal Industries.....

     In this blog I will discuss about the in-just with the animals and also its effects on consumers, in reference to 'The CAFO Reader' edited by Daniel Imhoff and 'farm to fridge' a video by the group mercy for animals.

     The current and prospering method of raw meat production in The United States is CAFO system (concentrated animal feeding operations). In other words 'Haunted Houses' where animals are confined to death after all the torture and harassment. These Industrial Animal Factories have taken place of barns and fields which was once run by a one farming family. These massive industries are owned by large corporations and are known as factory farms. In these factory farms animals are treated as mere production units with no feelings. They are kicked, stabbed, abused, tortured, caged and isolated from the real world; their natural surroundings. The people at these factory farms treat animals as their slaves (property) by keeping them in overcrowded tiny cages, removing their body parts which are not valuable in monetary terms, nothing matters to them except money. I wonder if they have any soul or emotions, to me they are some kind of psychopaths who can't see the pain and sufferings of other living-being. The whole-sole agenda of these factory farms is to produce 'cheap meat in large quantity’ no matter what it takes. Ninety-nine percent of the eggs, meat, and dairy products that the average american consumes come from CAFOs. This shows how much the society is dependent on such a wane and incompetent system. 

     This factory system is not only a pity for those poor animals who are slaughtered or being slaughtered continuously every second but it is a issue of concern for its consumers too. Consumers are not fully aware of the health issues raised by the increase in the factory farming, the meat we eat is not only flesh of animals but  part of it filled with is dangerous chemicals such as: arsenic, ammonia, mercury, pesticides, synthetic hormones, antibiotics that may cause drug-resistant infections and many more health problems. Over consumption of meat is the increasing cause of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, blockage of veins due to animal fat (cholesterol problem) and other endless problems. All these things proves the inefficiency of factory farming. Factory farming might be a convenient method to produce meat in our society but is not the appropriate method.

Industrial Animal Factories are not Farms! Animals are slaughtered at both places; the farms and the factories but the question is ; What they do to the animals in CAFO's beside just killing them?

The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories

In this blog I will discuss the tragedy of industrial animal factories, with reference to “The CAFO reader, by Daniel Imhoff”.

      I feel pity for those billions of animals, who had been tortured and concerned for those animals that are being tortured every minute of their lives, in these concentrated animal feeding operations known as CAFOs. According to statistics in the United States alone, nearly 10 billion domesticated livestock—mostly pigs, chicken, cows are raised and slaughtered annually. Even more alarming is that animal food production is expanding rapidly across the globe at a staggering pace. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that global consumption of both meat and dairy products will be double by 2050. Industrial animal factories isn’t just killing animals but keeping them away from their natural surroundings and needs. It shows a complete denial of the animal as a living being. Large number of animals are put into a confined place, with unhealthy and unnatural conditions, not even a window is provided for fresh air to breathe in. CAFO system is a inhumane way of dealing with these animals, animals are confined to such places that they can’t even turn around or move freely.  They are constantly showered, fed and injected with antibiotics, pesticides and artificial hormones to stave off diseases and boost feed harvests and promote weight gain. They have to live in filthy conditions surrounded by their own excrements, which is not only harmful for their health but also makes them unsafe for human consumptions.

     Imhoff in his book states that "corporate agribusinesses that have revved the economic engines of the global animal factories have reduced living creatures to mere production units of milk, eggs, and meat". we as humans should feel responsibility to provide them better hygienic atmosphere, and allow them to live freely in their natural surroundings as long as they are alive( not slaughtered ), which will also help them staying disease free, healthy and keeping them away from this filthy CAFO environment where they are only regarded for their monetary value.

  As a human being i would like to see animals being treated more humanely.