Industrial Agriculture: Modern-Day Farming

     The meat and poultry industry is ever-growing, and meat consumption is increasing each year, but have you ever thought about how that chicken came from the "farm" to your dinner table? 


     You probably think that an overall wearing, industrious farmer raised the chicken from when it was an egg to the time of slaughter by providing it with grains to eat and a comfortable environment for it to roam around, but in reality, most of the chicken you find in your local grocery store weren't exactly raised by a 'farmer', but rather were produced through industrial agriculture, or the modern-day style of farming. 


     Nowadays, thousands of chicken are raised in large, factory-like warehouses, where they don't have room to move around, and are treated poorly. They are also genetically altered to grow twice as large, and twice as fast in order to keep up with the consumers' demands. Due to these alterations, the chickens' heart and lungs aren't developed enough to support the extra weight, causing many [chickens] die before they're taken to the slaughterhouse. 

An example of a 'chicken house'

     Not only are these procedures harmful and cruel towards the chicken, but they're also harmful to us, the consumers. In fact, in the early 1950s, the first synthetic estrogen hormone, diethylstilbestrol (DES) was made and used to fatten poultry, but they discontinued use of it in the late 1970s because it caused cancer. And currently, Arsenic is commonly found in the chickens' feed, which can also lead to cancer.


     You may be asking yourself, "If industrial agriculture promotes animal cruelty, and has negative side effects, why do we continue to consume its products?" This is because it's much faster and cheaper to buy and produce food that's produced in "farms", rather than raised on farms. 

Society's idea of a farm

     Luckily, there's an alternative to industrial agriculture, and that's sustainable agriculture, or in other words, the old-fashion way of farming. In sustainable agriculture, farmers try to avoid the use of chemicals, or synthetic products, thus making their products healthier for us. Although these products may cost us more money, wouldn't you rather not have to worry about the side effects of the food you're eating in the long run? Just a thought you may want to think about.

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