Factory Animal Farms

​You may not think about where your animal protein comes from, but the conditions in which most cattle, and poultry is produced may make you sick.  It may drive the most enthusiastic carnivore into the rank of committed vegan.

The Facts
Almost all U.S. meat comes from animals that are raised or fattened in ‘factory farms’ known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).  These industrial operations have grown exponentially and pack thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of animals together.  The largest 2 percent of facilities now hold more than 40 percent of all U.S. livestock.  The animals confined in these operations produce more than 500 million tons of manure a year, and cause significant water and air pollution, while emitting nitrous dioxide and methane, two potent greenhouse gases.
 
The Animals
Americans eat a lot of meat and poultry that are raised on CAFOs.  Wikipedia shares:  Most poultry were raised in CAFOs starting in the 1950s, and most cattle and pigs by the 1970s and 1980s.  By the mid-2000s CAFOs dominated livestock and poultry production in the United States, and the scope of their market share is steadily increasing.
 
Housing
Factory farm animals live in crowded, dirty conditions most often infested with flies and rodents.  The water the animals drink is often contaminated with any number of pollutants from the housing conditions.  The following is for your information and consideration:

• Crowded living conditions in factory farms make animals sick, which has increased the overuse of antibiotics. 
• Vaccines and antibiotics do reduce the number of animals lost to disease, but diseases incurred in CAFOs have introduced the development of new strains of bacteria (in animals and humans), that are resistant to current life-saving medicine.
• Besides livestock raised for meat, dairy cows are also raised in factory farms.