Two top research institutions, The Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins University, have released a report on Industrial Animal Farming that raises several concerns about the health of meat animals, people and the environment. The report, titled “Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America” is available here, and is well-worth the easy read. It explains how the industrial animal farming system developed, and how it remains today.
One of the chief concerns of the study authors is the effect of using antibiotics on the feedlot animals. The animals are in crowded, dusty, unhealthy conditions – literally packed like sardines. They are fed corn, which their intestines are not adapted to digesting, since they are grass-eaters (cows) and insectivores (chickens). Both the unhealthy living situation and the wrong diet makes them more prone to sickness, and thus, the feedlots give them antibiotics everyday. The study authors note that this antibiotic exposure contributes to antibiotic-resistance, which already has affected many Americans today, and only stands to get worse. These feedlot antibiotics end up in our water sources and environment through shoddy waste disposal, where they do more damage to animal and human populations.
Sweden and Denmark took the lead stance against blanket antibiotic use in industrial animal farming with a ban in 1986 (see pg. 61 of study) and the EU followed in 2006, also banned growth-promoting hormones (which also have human health concerns attached to them). This has resulted in fewer antibiotic resistant “bugs” available in these countries, while animal health is still kept up. What the study doesn’t mention, is whether animal producers in Europe had to downsize or rethink their operations to comply with this directive, though European producers tend to be smaller than American. The Natural Academy of Sciences found that antibiotic-resistant bacteria cost the US $4-5 billion dollars in 1998 (pg. 61), so not only is it a health threat, but a societal cost as well.
The study authors also recommended more diversity in research funding for animal welfare, which is primarily funded by special interests (the industry). It also calls for ethics to be entered into the animal production system (pg. 87), implying of course, that todays industrial meat production has a lack of ethics discussion, which is what I argue in this post.
Anther chief concern was that of the political pressures in industrial farming. Large meat producers and agribusinesses have a lopsidedly huge voice in this country due to their large purses that can afford lobbyists and political incentives to politicians.
Anyway, it’s well worth a read. It’s two mainstream institutions delving into what has been a system behind closed doors, and perhaps, with enough citizen pressure, we can use that momentum to return to ethical (Judeo-Christian ethics) food production.
