Livestock and Factory Farming Practices Damage Americans

There's the lacto-vegetarian son. We have the beginning vegetarian 19 year college student who thinks that means no red meat, but anything else goes, including donuts and potato chips. We have one, "I'll eat anything as long as it's homemade and prepared well with interesting recipes and high quality ingredients." And then, there's the executive chef son. Yeah, try cooking for a gourmet Iron Chef winning chef. I don't even try to impress him. But the most difficult to consider is our youngest son and his partner who only eat Raw Food. That's right, nothing cooked.

Fortunately there is one food category that never, okay-rarely, finds it's way to our dining table. Red meat, which includes pork and all processed meats. We do eat pork that we purchase from a local farmer that has been raised with the intent of lean pork production, and on a small farm setting. No factory farmed meat for this family.

We stopped eating red meat last year after my research led me to believe that two of my sons were right in their belief that it was the correct thing to do. Why would a farm girl from Indiana deny herself bacon, pork chops, hamburgers and pastrami on rye?

Because the overwhelming evidence of the detrimental effects of factory farming on our environment and on our health could no longer be denied.

Health reasons to not eat red meat and processed meats

In March, the results of a 10 year study by the AARP (American Association of Retired People) demonstrated the negative impact of red meat consumption by Americans. During this 10 year study, researchers and doctors studied 500,000 participants and concluded that those who ate five ounces of beef, pork, or processed meats daily had a 30% higher chance of developing heart disease, cancer or diabetes than those participants who ate less than five ounces a week.

Barry Popkin, director of the Nutrition Epidemiology Division, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health suggested instead that Americans limit themselves to just five ounces a week of red meat and processed meats. According to Dr. Popkin, the high levels of saturated fat contributed to these disease processes as well as the nitrites in processed meats.

His recommendation is that Americans receive their protein from poultry, fish, nuts, beans, soy and plant based proteins which are also offer cancer fighting minerals and omega-3 fatty acids.

Do we believe one study by one group of researchers?Consider Michael Thun, of the American Cancer Society, who says his research has found strong evidence linking high consumptions of red and processed meats to an increased risk of colorectal cancer and diabetes, as well as heart disease. He suggests that even deli turkey meats are dangerous and recommends that consumers look for nitrite free deli meats, like Applegate Farms, Hormel Natural Choice or Butterball Oven Roasted Turkey.

Of course, you could do what we do for those lunch time meals. Tuna salad, egg salad, real turkey or roasted chicken or salads made using those proteins. It is possible to eat very well and never eat red or processed meat. It was a sacrifice, but if you listen to the recommendations, they don't say never eat them. They say only once a week. So in twenty one meals, you can have them once.

Safety of American Livestock Meats

In addition to the disease causing saturated fats of these forms of meat, the consumer should also realize that the hamburger from today's cows bear little resemblance to that raised on farms fifty years ago. Factory farming has drastically changed the quality and safety of this food.

I grew up on what might be called a subsistence farm. We grew our own vegetables, fruits and raised our own poultry, beef and pork on our fifty acre farm. We grew the hay that fed the cows, the corn that fed the pigs, and the animals were raised in a grass pasture. Slopping the hogs meant feeding leftovers and diary from our own dairy cows. It was a strong circle of life where all the parts fit together into a cohesive and controllable system.

In the fall we butchered our own meat that had been grass fed for most of its life. Grass fed beef is still considered significantly lower in saturated fat and higher in the good fatty acids that help control cholesterol. But finding affordable grass fed beef is virtually impossible in today's America. At least it is for the average consumer in the suburbs or cities.

Our hamburger and chops today are cut from cows that are raised in tightly packed factory farms. There are a wealth of horror stories afloat on the internet about these practices and I challenge every American to know where their meat is processed. Visit the slaughter house near you. I challenge you. Really visit it. That's all I'm going to say. This isn't about humane practices or the mistreatment of animals that occur there.

It has become accepted that overuse of anti-biotics is contributing to strains of bacteria developing that are anti-biotic resistant. We wait to see what bacteria strain is developing that will become the next plague.

The Pew Charitable Trust has a webpage that documents the overuse of antibiotics and the detrimental effect on human antibiotic medicines. From their website, we read,

"During the 1990's, the same resistant strains of Campylobacter bacteria, one of the most common causes of diarrheal illnesses in humans, were discovered in chickens and humans chickens and humans. For years, poultry farmers had used a bacteria, fluroquinolones, on chicken flocks for prevention and treatment of respiratory disease. They would feed all their chickens the antibiotic in their drinking water, and soon resistant bacteria to the antibiotic developed in humans. Through molecular subtyping, various researchers were able to trace this resistant bacteria, found in humans, back to poultry. "

This is an ongoing practice in factory farm. Animals are fed enmasse antibiotics to kill bacteria that develops in the close, hot and dirty factory farms. Those antibiotics are passed on to us in the meat of these animals and the overuse of the antibiotic on such a large scale leads to bacteria resistant strains developing. The Pew Charitable Trust pioneered a study on this issue and states, "up to 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are used by factory farms on our meat supply." http://www.saveantibiotics.org/ourwork.html

We have went through the mad cow disease scare, the e-coli bacteria in our food, and the over-use of antibiotics in our meat supply. It's just time to accept that modern factory farming methods produce meat that is not safe nor healthy for us to consume. If you have a farm and want to grass feed your own cows and pigs, then do it! For most of us, the answer is simply to stop eating beef and pork and to be very careful to buy antibiotic free chicken and poultry.

Negative effects of factory farming on the environment

If factory farming's negative impact on beef is bad for us, it's even worse for our environment. In Nutrition's July issue, Dr. Barry Popkins tells us that it is now the world wide consensus amongst most environmental activists and experts that factory farming is at a global crisis. The 2006 United Nations report entitledLivestock's Long Shadow states the following facts.

Livestock are responsible for 55% of the erosion occurring in the United States.

50 % of the volume of antibiotics available for use in the United States are used by livestock producers.

18% of the greenhouse gases emitted can be traced to livestock production.

Livestock farming uses 1/3 of the world's grain production to feed its animals.

Domestic livestock in the United States uses 5 times as much as the human population.

At All Creatures, we read that we could feed an additional 800 million people if we converted the land that is used to raise grain for livestock to raising grain for people.

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/env-factory.html

1/3 of the farm land of the United States is used to raise grain for livestock production.

Livestock producers use 100,000 gallons of water to produce a kg of meat. You can raise a kg of rice with only 2000 gallons of water or a kg of potatoes with only 500 gallons.

We live in a time when our water resources in the west are being seriously depeleted. By 2025, the 2006 United Nations Report on Water Sustainability states that 2/3 of the world's population will live in areas where drinkable water will be difficult to procure or find.

The great Ogalla aquifer which provides the water for Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico has been depleted by 100 feet since 1942 and is in danger of running dry in the next fifty years. Factory farming is the largest user of this necessary resource and because of the changes in the climate, the Ogalla is not being renewed.

At All Creatures website, you can read about the negative impact of livestock farming on our water supplies and resources. I know that if our human population was allowed to treat the land as a public toilet, there would be a huge outcry, but yet, we allow factory farms to do this on a destructive scale much larger than human waste disposal.

Livestock produces 130 times the waster of the entire human population of the United States, but unlike human waster which we treat fastidiously in sewer systems, most animal waste winds up on the land or in our water. It is blamed for 72% of the pollution in rivers and 56% of the pollution in lakes, especially in the west and Midwest regions of our country.

49 states report high nitrates and pesticides, traced to agricultural farming for grain production for livestock farming, as the number one source for contamination in ground water in the west and Midwest.

Modern factory farming of livestock can no longer be viewed as a sustainable practice that benefits Americans, but as a detrimental practice that harms our health, our environment and our population.

What can we do?

What can each of us do? While I have great affection for farming, I am the child of a Midwest farmer, the facts suggest that the giant factory farms of today have damaged our land and our lives. It's time that better practices be put in place and that we make responsible decisions about what benefits us and what harms us.

Our family will continue to have an occasional pork chop, hamburger and even, my weakness, bacon and tomato sandwich. But like so many other old traditions, it's time we consider a future where livestock farming wanes or changes it's negative practices. You can help this situation by being informed, by making other choices in your meal planning and grocery purchases and by being aware of how precious our American land is. Let's preserve it for our great grandchildren and their children.

Research resources

Farmings Long Reach

American Cancer Society

Washington Post article on AARP health study

Food Politics

PEW Charitable Trust

All Creatures

Ogalla Aquifer