What Is Cafos?

Concentrated animal feeding operations have industrialized a once natural process. Designed as large-scale agricultural and livestock operations, CAFOs seek to maximize production of meat, dairy, and eggs through low cost and larger profit margins. CAFOs are defined as animal feeding operations that confine a certain number of animals to a small space for up to or over forty-five days. Vegetation is minimal and the waste must be controlled into a lagoon or separate water supply. Farmers find benefits in the technological innovations and advancements provided by these farming practices that increase efficiency in overall livestock production. However, the large-scale confinement and mechanization pose large environmental hazards and public

All around the world we use factory farming as our main source of packaging and transporting food. But do you know what happens in the factories and farming facilities? This large industrial operation houses animals raised for food. They treat them with hormones and antibiotics to prevent disease and maximize their growth for food output. Then transported to the factories where they are killed if animals and put on a conveyor belt to be processed by workers.

In the past century there has been a substantial change in the way human beings raise and keep animals meant for food. While in the past there were great numbers of widely spaced small individual farms, now there are relatively few, but extremely large industrialized farms. And as the numbers of animals kept and slaughtered for human consumption increases, these industrialized farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFO's, are having more and more of an impact on the environment and people around them. The concentration of animals causes a major problem with the waste products they produce, as well as the gases, chemicals, and other types of byproducts. And the increased use of antibiotics in the animals is beginning to have a profound effect on the health of not only the environment but the communities that exist around these industrialized farms. CAFO's, and their secondary industries, are also a large consumer of oil, gasoline, and other fuels which can have an indirect, but devastating effect on the environment. Luckily there are some who have come to recognize the problems, and potential future problems, involved in this type of animal farming and have begun to inform the public to the dangers these farms pose. And in response to this information, the public is beginning to force changes in the way these CAFO's operate and the impact they have on the environment and

Factory farming is the industrial production of raising animals such as cattle, poultry, swine, and sheep for meat. Many questions and concerns within the field are based on animal treatment and the cleanliness of the factory farm facilities. These questions and concerns are needed to guarantee the safety of both the animals and consumers. The unhealthy living environments combined with excessive antibiotic use in factory farms causes concern in the meat processing industry.

Most of the animals under this condition will develop illnesses, abnormalities, go insane, or die before they make it to the slaughterhouse (Alfie, 2010). In the U.S., over 10 billion animals are raised and killed each year for food about 9 billion chickens, 250 million turkeys, 100 million pigs, 35 million cows. The vast majority of these are not raised on small family farms but, rather, in the major agricultural facilities called?factory farms, also known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The idea of factory farming originated in the 1920s with the discovery of vitamins A and D. When mixed with feed; farm animals were capable of growing without sunlight or exercise, which enabled them to be raised more efficiently in barns throughout the year (Fieser, 2015). Factory farming is a form of capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system that is privately controlled by owners for profit and self-interest (Fieser, 2015). Many philosophers have proposed the principle of equal consideration of interests, in some form or other, as a primary moral value; but, we shall see in more element shortly, not many of them have documented that this principle applies to members of other species as well as to our own. (Singer, 1989). In today society the consumer is much more interested in knowing how the chickens are raised, what they?ve been eating

America is a nation of meat eaters, consuming up to 25.5 billion pounds of meat a year, there are approximately one million farms with livestock, and about 212,000 confine animals and are defined as animal feeding operations (AFOs) under current regulations (USEPA, 2012a) in the United States. In 2015 majority of the population in our country does not actually know where their meat comes from, we can just walk into our local super market and walk out with a plethora of meat products for a relatively cheap price. All of our meat products are nicely packaged with a nice, green, sunny farm right on the front of the packaging. Is that really what our farms look like now? Not exactly, if you went to the farm your animal came from you would walk

The movie “Food Inc.” is a documentary created to shed light on the topic of industrialized farming of crops and animals. The video shows many scenes that display the poor methods of industrialized farming as well as the harsh conditions the animals have to endure while they are being farmed. This video however also takes a political standpoint on the topic and expresses many opinions on the matter. The movie is also filled with recent facts and statistics on the industry and compares them to how the food business used to be. “Food Inc.” also provides first-hand accounts of how farmers are affected and the types of techniques that giant corporations are imposing.

There are many terms associated with modern agriculture, factory farms, concentrated animal feeding operations, intensive crop farming, and sustainable agriculture. The history of farming in the United States has evolved from families raising their own food with a few larger farms to today's massive crop farms and concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs. The majority of Americans today purchase all their food from a market, but what is the true cost of this convenience? Recent environmental and animal rights studies suggest factory farms should be held to the same strict regulations as other industries because they pose a serious threat to public health, animals often live in horrific conditions and suffer from abuse, and they contribute to significant amounts of pollution.

I am glad that we watched both “Food inc.” as well as “Fresh” because each video showed a side as to what should be talked about relating to harmful farming procedures. The two sides shown were the awful conditions of major farms as well as the monopolization of the farming industry and how these monopolies force and pressure smaller farmers into financial strife or complete compliance as well as how to overcome this situation through secondary alternatives. It truly disgusted me when “Food inc.” showed me just how horrendous the conditions of CAFO’s (also known as “feed lots”) are by showing the livestock compacted side by side with no room to move while simultaneously standing knee deep of their own manure. I understand the cost effectiveness of these techniques but it concerns me that they have to pump each and every animal there full of anti-biotics so that all the animals don’t die. The higher chance of contracting E. Coli from these CAFO produced foods also has me questioning where the food that is available to me is exactly coming

For many Americans, the term “factory farming” conjures up images of mistreated livestock crowded into undersized cages while force fed large amounts of antibiotics and growth hormones. Yet for others, greatly reduced prices on meat and other animal by products, such as eggs and milk, helping to keep costs of food down for their families’, springs to mind. Factory farming has managed to reduce costs of meat, poultry and by products, making it more accessible to our citizens by increasing rate of production and efficiency, while reducing the space utilized to farm livestock. However, the ability to increase production relies heavily on the use of large amounts of growth hormones and antibiotics in livestock,

Twenty decades ago, livestock farmers used to breed their animals in the traditional way where their farm animals were let loose over a large area of farm and allowed to reproduce naturally. Over recent years, a new system of rearing livestock has come into existence which is more popularly known as Factory Farming. Factory Farming makes use of extremely intensive procedures through the use of which poultry, cattle and other livestock are kept indoors under rigid controlled settings. Since this technique has gained much popularity into how food is being produced in America, it is also one of the most debated and controversial concepts. While it is true that using this modern method to produce meat and dairy one can expect greater productivity at a swifter rate, the question still remains- at what cost?

The quantity of meat Americans consume and the way the animals are farmed in the U.S. has changed over the last half century resulting in major impacts on the environment. These effects are largely a result of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations which are also known as “CAFOs” or “factory farms” in abbreviated terms (McCorkell 2009). Animal agriculture is responsible for much of the damage to land, biodiversity, consumption of drinkable water, and contributions to global warming in the United States. For years, its impacts have only become more extreme. Over the years, a few options for solutions have been brought to light involving efforts of reducing the demand for animal products, grass-feeding livestock, and passing stricter


   The factory farming industry strives to maximize output while minimizing cost, always at the animals’ expense. The big corporations that run most factory farms have found that they can

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are an animal factory farm with an enormous number of animals that are contained in a confined area. These CAFOs feed their livestock corn, solely because it is cheap and makes them fat quickly. The high corn diet fed to cows result in more harmful E. Coli that are acid-resistant. Also, cows stand ankle deep in manure all day long with minimal room for movement. This increases the risk of contaminated products during the process of slaughtering and packing the meat. With the lessening of inspections from the FDA from 50,000 in 1972 to 9,164 in 2006 this puts society at a greater risk of consuming contaminated food. In the case of a recall, an immense number of products have to be brought back due to the mass production and the proximity of the animals in which the product was made. As the film illustrates, once this happens it is already too late for some. Children and elderly are put at an increased risk of death from illnesses due to E. Coli

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations I. Introduction A. Hook: Can you visualize your world is being harmed and you cannot help it. B. Thesis/Purpose Statement: The United States federal government should ban concentrated animal feeding operations. C. Preview of Main Points: 1. First I will talk about the problems of concentrated animal feeding operations 2. Second, I will talk about the causes of these problems.