Environmental And Economic Consequences Of Factory Farming

If the remaining 99% of the animals raised in factory farms in the United States were instead raised in a free range system the increase in resource demands would be incredible. For example, cows in todays factory system are raised on a supplemented diet of corn and therefore require no pasture land. If instead, all of the 30.2 million cows killed annually were raised on a natural diet of grass it would take over 60 million acres of pasture to accommodate the animals. That is a area of land roughly the size of the United Kingdom. Chickens and hogs are also fed on a supplemental diet of corn and would require tens of millions of additional acres to accommodate their resource requirements. In addition the raising of these hundreds of millions of animals in a free range environment would require enormous amounts of human labor likely requiring a percentage of population agricultural participation significantly higher than the current value of just over 1%. The increased physical and human labor resources required for this free range system would drastically
The manure waste of the animals often is not hastily removed and thus the densely populated animals become covered in their own waste causing disease and often contaminating the animal products. When removed the manure waste becomes mixed with the urine waste and is collected in large holding tanks. These tanks frequently leak and contaminate the water systems of local communities and businesses (Farm Animal Cruelty, 2015). The use of free range agriculture removes the need for waste holding tanks by allowing the animals to distribute their waste through their pasture land. This waste in tern becomes fertilizer for the plants that feed the animals. This system eliminates any significant potential water contamination and reduces the need for artificial ammonia based