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Anapaula Piedra

Professor Brody Craig

English Composition I

4 November 2019

“What Is Factory Farming? Is It Good or Bad?” By Siri Undlin

The article “What Is Factory Farming? Is It Good or Bad?” written by Siri Undlin

explains the audience about the history of agriculture and how this practice has become the

biggest cause of animal abuse worldwide.

My interpretation of this article is that we are having a problem, which we don’t know

exactly how to fix. We are a specie that have an important primary need: to eat. Since ancient

times, the human being started to eat meat, first hunting the animals but after many years the

human being evolved, and our way to treat animals too. We become sedentary, in this stage of

history the raising cattle was born, and we use it till today. “If you value the health of the planet,

the civil rights of human beings, and you are against cruelty towards animals, there are really

no ifs, ands, or buts about it — factory farming is bad” (Undlin). In this quote, the author

explains to us how serious this problem has become, listing each of the areas in which livestock

affects the world. The author also highlights the importance of a way of thinking that most

people have, we are supposed to use factory farming because it has a great weight in the world

economy, it is also more convenient for farmers and cheaper for consumers. The only point that

we are not considering is that this modus operandi would work if we were a planet with

unlimited resources, but the reality is that we are not. “If we do not invest in a livable planet,

none of that matters” (Undlin). Because of the notorious effects of global warming people have

begun to take more into account the impact that this practice brings to the planet and some
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measures have been taken “A recent study shows that if Americans switch their diets from beef

to beans” (Undlin). Finally, I believe that the author tries to give a message to her entire

audience, that if we all contribute in some way to improve this problem, we can save the planet

and give a better quality of life to future generations.

I feel very related to this article because I have seen this kind of cruelty by myself. In

Ecuador I have a distant family, I remember visiting them just twice because they live far away

from my home. This family have a farm business, and they ask me if I would like to help them

with their duties, I said yes because I had a completely different idea of what I was going to do.

The moment I entered in that farm I felt sick and I wanted to cry because of the smell and what I

saw. I saw many chickens in tiny cages, some of them didn’t even move anymore, also pigs in

cages, the cows were trapped in some kind of device where they couldn’t escape because it got

their heads locked. There was a part in the farm were all the floor was full of blood and these

people just walked through it normally. I think I saw all of this in just a few minutes, then I got

out of there with those images in my mind. Since then, I have been doing different things to

reduce the meat consumption in my family. In Ecuador it is part of our culture that every meal

must have meat, otherwise, we don’t consider it a meal, so my family took the measure of not

eating meat two or three days per week. This text made me feel like there are so many others

things we can do to stop animal cruelty, like for example donate to organizations that help this

cause or become a vegetarian or vegan, but we must do something to change the conditions this

animals lives.

This text relates to my writing because it is providing information to my topic. I like this

article because it was easy to read it, the author uses an understandable type of writing for the

audience, in this way she can reach more people to learn about this worldwide problem. With
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this article, I learned that for this unit essay I need to inform myself well and have specific data

because in this article are facts that can be corroborated. This article also helped me to grow as a

writer because it showed me to see a way of writing where you don't always need to give your

own opinion to reach the public, if you use your information well and organize it in a way that

your audience understands the subject you are talking about, you will reach them with your

topic. In this unit, we are writing an annotated bibliography so I would like to implement in my

assignment the way in which the author synthesizes and uses the information because it is easier

to understand and is more concrete.

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Works Cited
Undlin, Siri. earth.com. 18 August 2019. 1 November 2019. <https://translate.google.com/?
hl=es#view=home&op=translate&sl=es&tl=en&text=agosto>.