A looming anathema to small scale, sustainable operations, giant capitalistic agriculture corporations dominate world markets.
In industries from cotton to corn to cattle, these corporations genetically modify seeds to produce a higher yield crop, make excessive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and operate livestock farms akin to factories.
The Green Revolution in the mid 1900's brought mass production of food to a new level to suit growing populations.
monoculture the cultivation of a single crop (on a farm or area or country)
The impacts of growing a single species manifest in a crop's inability to withstand disease, or the devastation of an entire harvest because the plants were all the same species, and all susceptible to a single outbreak.
Runoff from factory farms pollute local water sources
The Factory Farming Machine
The Green Revolution in the mid 1900's brought mass production of food to a new level to suit growing populations.
Factory farms have decimated family operated and community supported agriculture since the 1940's when government subsidies were granted to companies that used new technology to increase production. The UN saw that move as a strategy to limit countries' needs to import meat and improve their food security.
The most economical accommodations possible are adopted to increase profitability, including maximizing the number of animals possible to fit in a single farm building. This leads to filthy, inhumane conditions and disease. With the advent of antibiotics in the 1940's, factory farmers saw fit to inundate their feed stock with preventative medication. Needless to say, this last has caused uproar with consumers in an uncanny way because it has shown evidence of negative human health impacts.
A great animated movie on the nature of factory farms today: www.themeatrix.com
No comments:
Post a Comment