Robert Kenner

FACTORY FARMING NEEDS TO STOP

“The average American eats over 200 lbs. of meat a year.” 1 Take a moment to visualize the slab
of meat on a scale that weighs 200 lbs., and realize that this amount is considered ‘normal’ for a
gross amount of the population. People tend to believe that they truly need meat in their diet
in order to maintain a healthy weight and body, but they could not be more incorrect.

While a juicy, McDonald’s hamburger seems like the right idea after a long day of work, and no
groceries at home, this decision could cost you your life. Fast food chains like McDonalds are
supplied by factory farms that slaughter thousands of animals a day. This may not seem terrible
to meat-lovers, until the uncleanliness, immorality, and lack of food standards at factory farms
begins to sink in. Every day in the largest slaughterhouse in the world, Smithfield Hog
Processing Plant in Tar Heel, N.C., approximately 32,000 hogs are killed. 2 32,000 hogs a day is
considered a mass murder of animals. With this extent of killing in these factories, the
standards to upkeep become harder to watch over and keep. Back in the 1900’s, when the FDA
was established, the codes were more difficult to change, and farmers were expected to follow
them. Eventually politics became involved in the FDA and things were never the same.

It is recorded that in 1972, “the FDA conducted 50,000 food safety inspections. In 2006, the
FDA conducted only 9, 164.”3 The dramatic drop in food safety inspections led to factory farms
that chose how to run their factory without any cleanliness or hormone standards. Meat
coming from these farms are more likely to contain bacteria, like E.coli. The treatment of the
animals before they are killed are extremely nauseating for audiences. As seen in Food, Inc. big
companies such as Tyson keep their chickens in coops that are extremely small, have no grass,
and no sunlight. The farmers won’t allow them to roam free, which results in hormone-pumped
and obese chicken. At some point, chickens won’t even be able to hold themselves up anymore
and collapse due to their weight so that consumers can have bigger dinners. For pigs, they are
so crammed and so obese that they sometimes crush and suffocate their babies.

Sadly, much of this information is available to consumers through documentaries, books, and
the companies themselves but there is no change of heart. People will continue their days
eating what they feel, without realizing the consequences at hand. Resources like PETA tend to
use a shock method to influence their audience with gory images of animals being beaten,
killed, and skinned. If you won’t help make a change for health or dietary reasons, refuse to
support factory farms because of your future and your children’s futures.

Along with the gross mistreatment of animals in factory farms, these farms are also major
contributors to greenhouse gases. Squeezing big herds of animals into small cages or barns with
no sunlight leads to a buildup in gases. Farm Sanctuary reported that, “animal agriculture is
1
Food, Inc.

2
Food, Inc.
3
Food, Inc.
responsible for 14.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.” 4 These
greenhouse gas emissions are one of the leading reasons our ozone layer is beginning to falter
which would have catastrophic effects on humanity. Much of the land that could be growing
food to supply our own families is now being used to grow cheap crops like corn to feed all of
the trapped animals in factory farms.

While this issue may not seem to affect you, sooner or later it will affect your health and your
future. With 10 billion animals being murdered each year in the U.S. alone for human
consumption, if we don’t slow down, it may be too late.5 These animals that are being tortured
and killed for profit have hearts, minds, and souls. They needed to be treated as such and not
as a cheap meal. The health costs, land, and effects that factory farming has on our daily lives
should not be the compromise for sticking to old ways.

Robert Kenner is a filmmaker, writer, and television producer. His most famous work is the
documentary Food, Inc. which takes a look at the reality behind closed doors of factory farming.

4
Farm Sanctuary.org
5
Farm Sanctuary.org