 Over the
last several decades, industrial agriculture has had an
increasingly negative effect on human health. Industrial farms
take an enormous toll on the environment, lowering the quality
of life and endangering the health of those who live nearby.
They also produce food which may contain bacteria, pesticides,
antibiotic residue and artificial hormones, all of which can be
harmful to those who consume them.
Small sustainable farms, on the other hand, produce healthy,
high quality food and preserve the environment. In order to
protect and promote their health, consumers have a clear choice:
shop sustainable.
Rural Communities and
Public Health
When a factory farm moves into an area, it dramatically reduces
the quality of life in rural communities
and jeopardizes the health and safety of the people who live
nearby. These facilities generate enormous amounts of waste, which can leach into the ground water and put residents at risk of
exposure to infectious and potentially deadly bacteria such as E
coli.i Runoff from industrial farms can also spread antibiotic-resistant bacteria,ii
and contribute to dangerously high levels of heavy metals such
as nitrates (which cause blue baby syndrome) into wells and
public water supplies.iii
Industrial farms also create air
pollution, which is potentially deadly to farm workers and is a blight on the
surrounding community. Manure from industrial farms emits deadly
gases including hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, and carbon
dioxide, all of which can be fatal when humans are exposed to
them in high levels.iv
So great is the public health threat posed by factory
farms that the world’s largest association of public
health professionals, the American Public Health Association
(APHA), issued a resolution in 2003 urging state and local
officials to impose a precautionary moratorium on the
construction of new factory farms.v
Consumer
Health
Unlike traditional sustainable farms, factory farms are willing
to sacrifice the quality of their products to maximize their
profits. Because of this, consumers can end up buying inferior
food that is unhealthy to eat. Factors that reduce food quality
and can threaten our health include the high stress levels of
the animals kept in crowded and confined conditions, the poor
quality feed they are given, and the potential for cultivating
and spreading disease rapidly through the large confinement
facilities.
Animal Stress
Industrial farms profit by scaling up and cutting corners, with
little concern for human health and animal
welfare. Animals are raised in close confinement with little
access to sunlight or fresh air, and often spend the majority of
their lives wallowing in their own feces. Because factory farms
are often located far away from processors, animals spend long
hours packed into the backs of trucks on the way to slaughter.
When they reach the slaughterhouse,
they are prodded and shoved in a high intensity, fast-paced
environment focused on rapid production, heightening the stress
levels in their bodies.
You don’t have to be a veterinarian to know that
these conditions will lead to health problems for the animals
and poor-quality meat and dairy products for the consumer. In
cattle and sheep, and sometimes pigs and turkeys, high stress
levels can lower lactic acid in the muscles, leading to DFD
(Dark Firm and Dry) meat. DFD meat has poor taste, dark
coloration, and a shorter shelf life because of the abnormally
high pH-value of the meat.
- Because it spoils more easily than
normal meat, DFD meat is more likely to carry bacteria and
cause food poisoning than meat from low-stress animals.vi
Stressed animals are also known to produce more E.
coli in their stomachs, which increases the chances of food
poisoning in humans.vii
Animal Feed
The animal feed on industrial farms also
lowers the quality of meat and dairy products, and in turn can
threaten human health. Factory farm animals are fed corn, grains
and unsavory additives and byproducts to make them gain weight
as quickly as possible. As a result, factory farmed meat has a
high fat content,viii and can increase
consumers’ chances of getting heart disease.
Furthermore, since cattle were meant to eat grasses
rather than grains, the acidity levels in their stomachs are
altered on this diet, making them more susceptible to E. Coli
and other bacterial infections.ix Because industrial
slaughtering facilities are so hectic and fast-paced, animal
feces can often contaminate meat during butchering, making it
easy for pathogens to make their way into the packages of meat
that you buy at the store.
Another highly questionable additive that commonly ends
up in cattle feed is meat. For years, industrial farms have been
mixing rendered animal by-products from slaughterhouses into
livestock feed. One result of this practice has been the
transmission of mad cow disease, which
can spread from one animal to another when the brain and spinal
material from an infected cow is consumed by another cow.x
This disease can then spread to humans who eat meat from
diseased cows, and has already caused the deaths of over 150
people throughout the last decade.xi
Infectious Disease
Transmission
Factory farms also threaten our health by incubating infectious
diseases that can spread to the human population. Sometimes
diseases are transferred directly from animals to
humans. In cases of direct transmission, a worker who comes
in contact with a diseased animal or its manure can contract the
disease and pass it on to their family and community.xii
In other cases, an animal infected with one disease can
contract a second disease from another animal, causing the
diseases to mix and form a new type of illness.xiii
For instance, scientists suggest that a virus passed from hogs
to humans may have caused the 1918 “Spanish
Influenza” pandemic which eventually killed 40 million
people worldwide.xiv xv The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention have expressed concern that
another similar epidemic will occur in the future,xvi and with the persistence of
highly pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza worldwide, there is a
possibility that this disease could eventually mutate and spread
uncontrollably.
Sustainable Alternatives
Fortunately, it’s possible to produce food without
threatening our health – sustainable farms do it every
day! Unlike their industrial counterparts, sustainable farms
operate effectively without jeopardizing the health and safety
of their animals, workers, neighbors and the general
public.
A growing body of scientific research is showing that
sustainable, pasture-raised, and organic foods provide
significant health benefits for consumers. In addition to being
raised without synthetic hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and
chemical fertilizers, sustainable meat is more nutritious than
meat produced by industrial agriculture.xvii
Sustainably-raised animals are not subjected to the high
levels of stress found on factory farms. They are well-treated
and live more in accordance with their natural behaviors. As a
result, they have high levels of glycogen in their tissues, the
sugars in muscles that give animals the energy to move. This
makes their meat tender, more flavorful and less likely to carry
bacteria.xviii
Sustainable farms raise their animals on pasture, where they eat the grasses and
greens that their bodies are naturally adapted to eat, resulting
in healthier animals and leaner cuts of meat.xix
Animals raised on grass and forage also have higher levels of
the fatty acids that are good for us to eat, such as
omega-3’s and CLA fats that help fight disease and balance
out our diets.xx
Studies have shown that milk from pasture-fed cows has as
much as five times the CLA (a “good” type of fatty
acid) as milk from grain-fed cows.xxi Additionally,
meat from pasture-fed cows has from 200 to 500 percent more CLA
as a proportion of total fatty acids than meat from cows that
eat a primarily grain-based diet.xxii
Grass-fed chickens have 21% less total fat, 30% less
saturated fat and 28% fewer calories than their factory-farmed
counterparts.xxiii Eggs from poultry raised on
pasture have 10% less fat, 40% more vitamin A and 400% more
omega-3's.xxiv
Crops
Recent scientific studies show the health benefits of
sustainably-raised fruits and vegetables. Organic fruits,
vegetables and grains, for example, contain higher levels of
nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants, including vitamin C,
iron, magnesium and phosphorus. Organic crops also have lower
levels of certain toxic heavy metals.xxvi
One the benefits of sustainable and organic produce come
from minimal or zero pesticide use, which keeps crops free of
pesticide residues. In addition, better soil management
techniques used in organic and sustainable farming, such as crop
rotation, use of cover crops and composting, help enrich the
soil and increase the concentration of vitamins and minerals in
the plants. On the other hand, the chemical fertilizers used on
conventional factory farmed crops lower the nutrient content of
the soil, increase the level of potentially harmful nitrates,
and can contain toxic heavy metals which can be absorbed by the
plants.
Faster and Fresher
Food from sustainable farms is fresher because you buy it
locally, unlike food from centralized industrial farms that ship
their products hundreds to thousands of miles to get to your
supermarket. The longer food sits after harvest, the more
vitamins and nutrients it loses.xxvii And since
sustainable foods reach store shelves faster, they don't need to
be processed to increase shelf-life; so they don't contain preservatives and aren't subjected to irradiation.
In addition to their nutritional benefits, sustainable
foods are produced without jeopardizing public health. Unlike
factory farms, sustainable farms don’t promote the growth
of antibiotic resistant bacteria, induce the spread of
food-borne pathogens, release toxic pesticides into the
environment, and contaminate our air and water with harmful
pollutants. In fact, sustainable farms typically enhance
surrounding communities by preserving green space, providing
habitat for wildlife, and stimulating the local economy.
Since sustainable farms raise animals on adequately-sized
plots of land, animal waste naturally fertilizes surrounding
farmland rather than being collected and stored in huge manure
lagoons. As a result, sustainable farms raise their animals
without polluting ground and surface water, contaminating wells,
or fouling the air with harmful pollutants.
What
You Can Do
- In order to protect your health,
the health of your family and the health of those who live near
factory farms, buy your food from small, local farms that use
sustainable farming methods.
- Visit the Eat Well Guide for a
comprehensive listing of sustainable farms and sustainable food
distributors in your area, and check out our “Questions
to Ask” page for tips that you can take with you to the
farm or the grocery store.
- Know your farmer. The best way to
know how your food was produced is to talk to the farmer who
grew it. See Sustainable Table’s “Questions
to Ask” page to find the questions you can ask your
farmer, grocer or butcher.
- If you live near a factory farm and
are concerned about any health effects this could have on you
and your family, find out if any local groups are working on
this issue. See the GRACE Factory Farm Project’s Guide
to Confronting a CAFO for more information and tips.
Did
You Know?
- Animal agricultural operations
produce 73% of all ammonia air pollution in the U.S.xxviii
- Researchers have found antibiotics
at concentrations as high as 12.5 mg/kg of dust in dust
collected from hog confinement houses.xxix
- An estimated 700,000 people in the
US work in animal confinement operations where they risk
exposure to a variety of well-documented human health hazards.xxx
For More Information
- Pasture Perfect – this book by Jo
Robinson gives detailed information about the health benefits
of meat, eggs and dairy products from pasture-raised, grass-fed
animals.
- How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address
the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial
Agriculture
Written by researchers from the Center for a Livable Future at
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, this
article provides an excellent overview of the problems caused
by factory farms.
- Iowa Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation
Air Quality Study
This comprehensive study provides an outstanding review of
scientific research on air pollution generated by factory
farms. The study provides detailed information about the
impacts of such pollution on human health.
- Keep
Antibiotics Working
This coalition of health, consumer, agricultural,
environmental, humane and other advocacy groups is dedicated to
eliminating a major cause of antibiotic resistance: the
inappropriate use of antibiotics in food animals. The
organization’s website contains a wealth of information
about the health threat posed by antibiotic resistance.
Sources
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