A factory farm is a large-scale industrial operation that houses thousands of animals raised for food—mainly chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs—and treats them with hormones and antibiotics to prevent disease and maximize their growth and food output. These animals lead short, painful lives and often produce food that is lower in quality than those animals raised in healthy environments.
A few of the practices employed by factory farms are:
Feeding animals antibiotics on a consistent basis. Humans consuming these dairy and meat products may lose some of their ability to fight certain strains of bacteria.
Altering animals' bodies to prevent them from acting out aggression and anxiety caused by living in such extreme confinement.
Forcing breeding animals to produce young at unnaturally accelerated rates, causing them exhaustion and stress.
Rough transportation of livestock to slaughter plants during which sick or injured animals who fall or die on the way are forced onto slaughter trucks―often with a bulldozer.
Confining so many animals in one place produces much more waste than the surrounding land can handle. As a result, factory farms are associated with various environmental hazards, such as water, land and air pollution―and people who live in close proximity to factory farms often complain of high incidents of illness.
10 Ways to Help Fight Factory Farms
1. Let Money Talk
As a consumer, you have a great source of power in your back pocket—your wallet. You can choose to buy foods that come from small farms where animals are raised in humane conditions. Buy foods with the Certified Humane Raised & Handled® label. This non-profit—supported by more than 28 animal welfare organizations, including the ASPCA—makes every effort to ensure its producers raise animals humanely.
2. Find Out Where Your Food Comes From
Ask questions! Find out whether the products you buy come from a farm that uses intensive confinement practices, or a farm that allows the animals access to fresh air, exercise and good quality food. Are they produced locally or have they been shipped from thousands of miles away? Read labels. Does the product contain artificial growth hormones or genetically engineered ingredients? Look for the Humane Farm Animal Care label. Foods with this label come from humane sources that are inspected annually.
3. Ask Your Local Grocers And Restaurants To Offer Humanely Raised Foods
Food purveyors can make a huge difference in the food industry by buying fresh, locally grown products from small producers. If the dishes you’re dining on and the products you’re buying do not come from humane sources, you can write to local merchants asking for foods with the HFAC label.
4. Do A Little Digging
A little research on your own may give you some unexpected answers. There’s an enormous amount of information on the Internet about factory farms, from videos to lists of the ill effects that agribusinesses have on our health, the lives of animals and on the environment.
5. Eat Locally, Think Globally
Support your local food suppliers. You can do this by joining a food co-op, buying food at green markets and finding out whether community-supported agriculture (CSA) is active in your neighborhood. CSA is a way for community members to collectively support local farms by buying shares, working farm shifts and helping with distribution—and you can receive weekly deliveries of fresh dairy, fruits, veggies, eggs, etc.
6. Join The Aspca Advocacy Brigade
Inform your state and federal legislators that you’re disturbed by the inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms, and would like to see legislation passed ensuring that all animals raised for food spend their lives in healthy, humane conditions. You can stay up-to-date about current farm-animal legislation by joining the ASPCA Advocacy Brigade.
7. Grow Your Own Garden
Planting, growing and harvesting vegetables—even if it’s just a basil plant in a coffee can—might have a surprising effect on the way you view food. Firsthand experience of the nurturing it takes to grow healthy, unrushed food can instill a new knowledge and respect for the process of harvesting food, whether it’s animal or vegetable.
8. Throw Your Virtual Weight Around
Have a website, MySpace page or blog? Get everyone you know on the Web to be conscious about what they’re eating.Explain to them what goes on at factory farms, and let them know they have a choice to buy foods—without antibiotics or hormones—from farms that raise healthy animals in a humane environment
. Hear It Straight From The Horse’s Mouth
Talk to the farmers at your local green market. They’ll shed some light on the ways factory farms are affecting the livelihood of local and family farms.
10. Take Action In Your Community
There’s strength in numbers! Start a letter-writing campaign. Send a petition around. Organize a local meeting. Find out if there are any groups in your area working against factory farms and volunteer to help out. If there aren't any, get your friends and neighbors together to talk about forming a citizens’ action group, or at least working together to buy foods that come solely from humane sources.
A few of the practices employed by factory farms are:
Feeding animals antibiotics on a consistent basis. Humans consuming these dairy and meat products may lose some of their ability to fight certain strains of bacteria.
Altering animals' bodies to prevent them from acting out aggression and anxiety caused by living in such extreme confinement.
Forcing breeding animals to produce young at unnaturally accelerated rates, causing them exhaustion and stress.
Rough transportation of livestock to slaughter plants during which sick or injured animals who fall or die on the way are forced onto slaughter trucks―often with a bulldozer.
Confining so many animals in one place produces much more waste than the surrounding land can handle. As a result, factory farms are associated with various environmental hazards, such as water, land and air pollution―and people who live in close proximity to factory farms often complain of high incidents of illness.
10 Ways to Help Fight Factory Farms
1. Let Money Talk
As a consumer, you have a great source of power in your back pocket—your wallet. You can choose to buy foods that come from small farms where animals are raised in humane conditions. Buy foods with the Certified Humane Raised & Handled® label. This non-profit—supported by more than 28 animal welfare organizations, including the ASPCA—makes every effort to ensure its producers raise animals humanely.
2. Find Out Where Your Food Comes From
Ask questions! Find out whether the products you buy come from a farm that uses intensive confinement practices, or a farm that allows the animals access to fresh air, exercise and good quality food. Are they produced locally or have they been shipped from thousands of miles away? Read labels. Does the product contain artificial growth hormones or genetically engineered ingredients? Look for the Humane Farm Animal Care label. Foods with this label come from humane sources that are inspected annually.
3. Ask Your Local Grocers And Restaurants To Offer Humanely Raised Foods
Food purveyors can make a huge difference in the food industry by buying fresh, locally grown products from small producers. If the dishes you’re dining on and the products you’re buying do not come from humane sources, you can write to local merchants asking for foods with the HFAC label.
4. Do A Little Digging
A little research on your own may give you some unexpected answers. There’s an enormous amount of information on the Internet about factory farms, from videos to lists of the ill effects that agribusinesses have on our health, the lives of animals and on the environment.
5. Eat Locally, Think Globally
Support your local food suppliers. You can do this by joining a food co-op, buying food at green markets and finding out whether community-supported agriculture (CSA) is active in your neighborhood. CSA is a way for community members to collectively support local farms by buying shares, working farm shifts and helping with distribution—and you can receive weekly deliveries of fresh dairy, fruits, veggies, eggs, etc.
6. Join The Aspca Advocacy Brigade
Inform your state and federal legislators that you’re disturbed by the inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms, and would like to see legislation passed ensuring that all animals raised for food spend their lives in healthy, humane conditions. You can stay up-to-date about current farm-animal legislation by joining the ASPCA Advocacy Brigade.
7. Grow Your Own Garden
Planting, growing and harvesting vegetables—even if it’s just a basil plant in a coffee can—might have a surprising effect on the way you view food. Firsthand experience of the nurturing it takes to grow healthy, unrushed food can instill a new knowledge and respect for the process of harvesting food, whether it’s animal or vegetable.
8. Throw Your Virtual Weight Around
Have a website, MySpace page or blog? Get everyone you know on the Web to be conscious about what they’re eating.Explain to them what goes on at factory farms, and let them know they have a choice to buy foods—without antibiotics or hormones—from farms that raise healthy animals in a humane environment
. Hear It Straight From The Horse’s Mouth
Talk to the farmers at your local green market. They’ll shed some light on the ways factory farms are affecting the livelihood of local and family farms.
10. Take Action In Your Community
There’s strength in numbers! Start a letter-writing campaign. Send a petition around. Organize a local meeting. Find out if there are any groups in your area working against factory farms and volunteer to help out. If there aren't any, get your friends and neighbors together to talk about forming a citizens’ action group, or at least working together to buy foods that come solely from humane sources.
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I found a fox, caught by the leg
In a toothed gin, torn from its peg,
And dragged, God knows how far, in pain.
Such torment could not plead in vain,
He looked at me, I looked at him.
With iron jaw-teeth in his limb.
"Come, little son," I said, "Let be.....
Don't bite me, while I set you free."
But much I feared that in the pang
Of helping, I should feel a fang
In hand or face .......
but must is must .........
And he had given me his trust.
So down I knelt there in the mud
And loosed those jaws all mud and blood.
And he, exhausted, crept, set free,
Into the shade, away from me;
The leg not broken ......
Then, beyond,
That gin went plonk into the pond.
Milk is produced by the cow for its calf, is not for you.
Calves are separated from their mothers on the first night since they were born, and from then onwards, they are forced to eat on an adult cows diet, which obviously, the calf isn’t ready for.
The separation is very traumatic and distressing for the mother and the calf.
A cow can only produce milk only after it has given birth to a calf and so cows are made pregnant repeatedly and have the suffer the same separation, again and again!
These cows are so over-milked that they get udder infections, which means the milk you drink may also contain traces of blood and pus.
After a cow (our 'milk machines') cannot produce produce any more milk, they are sent to the dreaded place- The Slaughter House!
Written By- Anamika G (MEEEE!)