Not only this, but “the farmers profit margin dropped from 35% in the 1950 's to about 9% today.” (Mckibben, 54) This means that “to generate the same income as it did in 1950, a farm today would need to be roughly four times as large.” (Mckibben, 55) As a result of this perpetual growth and centralization, problems like “huge sewage lagoons, miserable animals, vulnerability to sabotage and food-born illness”(mckibben, 61) have become commonplace. Not only this, but “we are running out of the two basic ingredients we need to grow food on an industrial scale: oil and water.” (Mckibben, 62) The situation has become so dire that “we are now facing a near simultaneous depletion of the underground aquifers which have been responsible for the unsustainable, artificial inflation of food production.” At this point of realization, Mckibben begins indulging the reader in a large number of facts that promote a more localized form of farming as the solution to a seemingly endless number of issues. Initially the point is raised that “sustainable agriculture leads to a 93% increase in per-hectare food production.” (Mckibben, 68) The next idea raised is that, “since World War 1, it has been cheaper to use…
When technological advancements gave possibility to mass production, also called Fordism, the American agriculture system has ushered in a new era of rationality and standardization in production. In a profit-driven and efficiency-oriented, farming was gradually getting mechanical, chemical, and biotechnological. In addition to delivering the knowledge and techniques to farms, economists found “it was necessary to decontextualized the farm enterprise from the community and household setting in which it was embedded” (Lyson, 2004). There used to be mostly family labor in family farming. In order to overcome the problems in labor division and transform farming into a fully functional assembly line, social relations must be separate from the production and viewed as “externalities”. Thanks to three agricultural revolutions, in late twentieth century an increase in production can be finished with less labor as well as less…
Agriculture plays a crucial role in the life of an economy; governmental support programs provide U.S. families with…
eat. When we think about farming, we think red barns, green grass, free-roaming animals, etc. Farming, now-a-days, is far different than the image the industry has lead us to believe. Farming has become a highly industrialized and mechanized business. The reality is our food is no longer coming from farms; it’s coming off assembly lines in factories, just like automobiles.…
The Peta website provides information and facts against animal testing. It contains practices that are done on innocent animals for research such as cosmetic, scientific, experimentation, and drug purposes. The animals that are used for unethical research consists of fish, mice, monkeys, dogs, birds and rabbits. The website describes the unethical procedures that they do on innocent animals. Animals are forced to breath in very toxic fumes and have their head drilled before they die. The innocent animals are treated inhumanely since they are treated as lab equipment rather than animals.…
The general public as well as animals are put at a severe disadvantage as a result of the rules created by the politically elite. Those who are vulnerable in society: animals deemed useful and people who are economically disadvantaged, experience the most severe injustice, in part due to inadequate representation. There is no perceptible correlation between legislature, and mercy. The social justice movement is as strong as ever, and the discrepancy between laws passed and the need for basic human and animal rights has become more ubiquitous in modern culture. Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, Una Chadhuri and Holly Hughes’s Animal Acts, and multiple articles that identify key issues pertaining to animal and human rights. As illustrated through…
Additionally, the authors’ provide a more detailed outline of industrialized farming and the many forces and dangers involved in putting food on the tables of consumers, from food cultivation to distribution. Cultivation involves planting, fertilizing, and growing, which involves seeds, land, soil, fertilizer, and farm workers, but also includes GMOs, chemicals, air, water, and soil impurities, and workplace hazards. Harvesting and processing require further farm labor and factory work, which includes additional workplace hazards and…
Although people have worked in agriculture for more than 10,000 years, advance in technology assisted with maintaining and protecting land, crops, and animals. The demand to keep food affordable encourages those working in the agriculture industry to operate as efficiently as possible (Newman & Ruiz, pp. 33-47).…
It is brutal and immoral to kill animals for food while there is a plenty of rich nutritional non-animal food. All animals are warm-blooded beings that have emotion and feeling therefore, they can experience fear, shock, and pain. Animal slaughter is a significant issue. “In the United States about 35 million cows, 115 million pigs, and 9 billion birds are killed for food each year” (Procon.org). How can so many people want to kill animals just because of their tasty meat? For example, bacon is one of the most common foods that every household has in their refrigerator. They usually have a crispy bacons plate for their dinner, and nobody can deny its delectable taste. But how many people actually know where the bacon comes from? First, the pigs will be delivered to the…
Humans are animals, but they are very different than any other animals. Many things can prove us that humans are one of a kind, like their intelligence for example. Even though humans and animals have many activities in common (sleeping, eating, mating, and defending), human beings have a fifth faculty: the intelligence to inquire into the truth of our existence (Butler and Guru). The following text will explain why human beings should be considered unique and why they should be in a different category from all the other non-human animals.…
According to a U.S.D.A. census published in 2009 small farms notably those with sales less than $1,000 increased significantly since 2004 going from “580,000 to close to 700,000.” This growing number of small farms is shocking compared to the years before 2004 when small farms were not on the rise as large factory farms began to take control making the farming industry a place for corporations not the traditional family owned farm. These same corporations continue to put pictures of the quaint little red barn farms, with large silver silos glistening in the sun, surrounded by fields of golden wheat ready for harvest, on the sides of milk cartons and meat packages. However, this is far from what they’ve become and part of the reason why America has seen an increase in small farms as everyday people put in the work to realize just how cruel the industries methods have become. When…
The state of Iowa has many farmers. Iowa is known for thier crops, but what if the farmers are not taking the responiblity of taking care of the crops or are just plan out lieing. Some, not saying all are feeding us “the world” with facts that are not even correct, or do not seem right. Farming is hard, everyone should know that, not just anyone can say they wanna be a farmer it takes absolute dedication, money, and a fair amount of luck. It takes long days and long hours to farm,if they are leasing some land, they need to have equipment, some farmhand, seeds, and of course water!…
In “The Future of Food Production,” Sam Forman brings attention to the unsustainable state of our growing industrialized food system. In the shadows of each bite we take lurks hidden costs not only economically but environmentally, socially and healthfully. As consumer’s demands in North America increase, farms have moved away from integration and instead to specialization, also known as “the industrial food system.” The deep divide between these two systems is a clear display of the rapid change in today’s demand-driven market, which begs us to question the sustainability of our new system. As large industrial farms maximize their land and resources for profit we stray farther and farther from the natural balanced process and in turn throw the ecosystem wildly out of harmony. Livestock…
Transition: Now that we have talked about the shelters, I 'm going to tell you about the animals.…
Over a hundred years ago the idea of farming and food consumption was very different then it is today. Regulation, education about health, research and technology, food processing, marketing, and wholesale has changed the food industry and the agriculture itself. Before going to the market or grocery store meant going to your back yard where you knew where everything was being grown and how it was being taken care of. Nowadays the majority of people do not raise their own animals or grow their own vegetables they go to a big chain or even a smaller local store to buy their food. When it comes to food safely and food production large farms and small farms are being negatively affected in many different areas. The current issues dealing with food safely and food production are, because there are a few big plants running are production of food its causing nation wide food poisoning and contamination, the public wants more regulation and centralized on farms which is then putting financial pressure on local farms, feedlots for animals, and our food is subject to terrorist attacks because only more then half our nations food is produced in the same place. I believe the way to fix our problem is to be informed and get involved.…