The Ticking Time Bomb in Our Backyards
Factory farming is not only leading us towards ecological disaster; it’s catapulting us to the brink of the next pandemic
If we don’t change the way we eat and from whom we purchase our meat and dairy products, we absolutely will see a new pandemic emerge…from the manure of the factory farms hidden in the folds of our countryside.
Factory farming in the United States has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry. 99% of U.S. farmed animals live on factory farms,(1) also known as CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) — which are leaving mountains of hazardous sludge, disease-ridden excrement, and contaminated air, desecrated land and polluted water in their wake.
You’ve seen them. They’re typically long, windowless, rectangular buildings, set back from the main roads in our back fields. Behind those closed doors are millions of pigs, cows, chickens and other mass-inseminated animals, force fed antibiotics and growth hormones to produce the most milk or eggs or fattest bodies in the shortest amount of time, before they’re slaughtered.
80% of this meat production is controlled by a handful of huge, multi-national corporations, including Chinese companies.(2) Their only concern is making the most money in the shortest amount of time. They’ve trampled small family farms and devastated rural communities, bringing land values down, making living conditions unbearable, and sickening residents with chronic illnesses and life-threatening diseases.
But most concerning, they are a breeding ground for the next global pandemic.
Think back to 2009, when H1N1 swine flu circulated in pig farms in North America, then jumped to humans (became zoonotic). This pandemic killed hundreds of thousands of people.(3)
Martha Nelson, who studies viruses at the National Institutes of Health, has studied the U.S. system of raising large numbers of pigs in very close proximity closely, and argues that we’re creating the ideal conditions for a dangerous influenza virus to develop. Given the ease and frequency of pig to human transmission, she says we’re “playing Russian roulette” with our current system of factory farming animals.(4)
Michael Gregor, author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, shares that “When we overcrowd animals by the thousands…to lie beak to beak or snout to snout, and there’s stress crippling their immune systems, and there’s ammonia from the decomposing waste burning their lungs, and there’s a lack of fresh air and sunlight — put all these factors together and you have a perfect-storm environment for the emergency and spread of disease.”
Gregor continues, “If you actually want to create global pandemics, then build factory farms.”
Mountains of Contaminated Manure
The most challenging problem for a factory farm is how to dispose of the exorbitant amount of feces and urine produced by the thousands of animals contained within these constricted spaces.
For example, one 1400-lb. cow can produce 17.7 gallons of feces and urine in just one day. Even the smallest CAFO will produce the urine and feces equivalent of 16,000 humans.5 Larger CAFOs can produce up to 1.6 million tons of manure — more sewage than some large U.S. cities.6 In total, factory farms produce more than 300 million tons of manure each year.(7)
This waste contains more than just feces and urine. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, nitrogen, phosphorus, blood, birthing fluid, ammonia, copper sulfate, growth hormones, cleaning chemicals, silage leachate, and more than 150 pathogens that could affect human health, such as e.coli, cryptosporidium and salmonella are all found in CAFO waste.(6)
But there is no sewage treatment system for CAFOs. So where does all this feces and urine go?
Some CAFOs build “compost piles,” which contain manure heaped over the carcasses of dead pigs, cows and chickens. In some states, CAFOs are allowed up to 20,000 lbs. of dead animals per compost pile (this weight limit varies by state). These piles contain infestations of flies, rats, vultures and other vermin.
However, most CAFOs build deep pits or huge holding tanks directly below the buildings where they store the waste until they spread it on nearby fields. However, there is so much waste that the soil cannot absorb it all. The overapplication of manure to the fields overloads the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus, which then reduces plant ability to take up required micronutrients and makes crops more prone to insects and diseases.(6)
The meat industry is responsible for 85% of all soil erosion in the U.S.(4) Degraded land is much less fertile and is unable to hold water, leading to higher incidences of flooding. And when the ground cannot absorb the waste, it runs off into our rivers; for example, in the Midwest, it ends up in the Mississippi River watershed and then travels to the “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.
This toxic waste also drains into surface water and leaches into groundwater. In surface water, it causes algae blooms, which kill fish, plants and aquatic life.(6) The hormones it contains affect the reproductive cycles of the fish; in fact, one recent study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey found ovaries and eggs developing in male fish.
80% of surface water tested near CAFOs contains fecal bacteria and pathogens including protozoa such as giardia and cryptosporidium.(6) These dangerous pollutants lead to beach closures and shellfish restrictions.
When nitrogen from aquifers and deep wells leaches into our groundwater, it can lead to nitrate poisoning in drinking water. This leads to blue baby syndrome, birth defects, miscarriages and poor general health for the humans who live nearby. They can also be infected with other toxins or viruses — including the possibility of novel (or new) viruses — that can lead to widespread illness outbreaks.(6)
According to the EPA, animal agriculture is the number one cause of water pollution in the U.S. and it’s responsible for more water pollution than all other industrial sources combined.(8) It also generates more greenhouse gases — methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide (that trap radiation from the sun and warm the planet’s surface) — than all the world’s transportation combined. That’s right — eating meat is worse for the planet than driving your car.
There are 168 identified gases that are emitted from CAFO waste, including hazardous chemicals such as ammonia (a respiratory irritant that can burn human skin and eyes and leads to a severe cough and chronic lung disease) and hydrogen sulfide (which can cause headaches, dizziness, irreversible brain damage, other ailments and sometimes death in humans).(6)
In addition, particulate matter containing disease-causing bacteria and dangerous contaminants is released into the air, comprised of fecal matter, feed materials, pollen, fungi, skin cells and silicates, all of which can lead to chronic bronchitis and respiratory issues in humans. There is consistent evidence suggesting that factory farms increase asthma in neighboring communities.(6)
But perhaps the scariest fact about factory farming is that these animals are being kept alive by being force fed antibiotics, whether they need them or not. 80% of antibiotics in the U.S. are used in factory farms.9 Antibiotics are the only way these animals can survive in these deplorable conditions.(9)
However, overuse of antibiotics in our food system leads to dangerous, antibiotic-resistant superbugs that can spread among animals and humans. When antibiotics become useless, drug-resistant infections like C. difficile and N. gonorrhoeae can all too easily decimate our health.(10) There is strong evidence that the use of antibiotics in animal feed is contributing to an increase in antibiotic-resistant microbes and causing antibiotics to be less effective for humans.(6) Already, 23,000 people die each year from an antibiotic-resistant infection.(11)
Sonia Shah, author of the 2017 book Pandemic, shares: “When I was writing my book, I asked my sources what keeps them awake at night. They usually had two answers: virulent avian influenza and highly drug-resistant forms of bacterial pathogens. Both these things are driven by the crowding in factory farms. These are ticking time bombs.”
Unimaginable Horrors Behind Closed Doors
Inside the windowless confines of CAFOs, animals are aggressively bred, fed and drugged to produce as much meat, milk and eggs in the shortest amount of time. And they are subjected to cruel and barbaric torture tactics to keep them from killing themselves or each other.
The goal is to get them to grow at a rate three times faster than nature intended.(12) For example, in 1920, it took a chicken approximately 16 weeks to reach 2.2 lbs; whereas now they can reach 5 lbs. in 7 weeks.(6)
Factory farming makes them grow at an alarming rate by feeding them corn, wheat and soy that is grown through intensive industrial farming where crops are laden with pesticides — which can be transmitted to the humans who eventually eat these animals.
Chickens are typically sent to slaughter at 35 days old, pigs at 5–6 months of age (80% of pigs sent to slaughter are already sick with pneumonia), and dairy cows are killed after they complete three lactation cycles, which is usually under five years (the normal lifespan of a cow is 20–25 years).(12)
Pregnant pigs are crammed into gestation crates where they can’t turn around or fully extend their limbs, which leads to ulcers and abscesses.(9) Newborn piglets are mutilated within their first two weeks of life — they have their teeth clipped, tails burned, constricted or cut off, and testicles removed — all without anesthetic, to keep them from hurting each other when they become distressed and agitated due to their cramped living conditions.(12, 9) The piglets are then removed from their mothers at 2 weeks of age so that the sows can be impregnated again.(12)
Calves are taken from their mothers the day they are born so that milk can be taken from the mother for human consumption.(12) Male veal calves have their horns removed without anesthesia, are placed in tiny dark cages, and have heavy weighted chains put around their necks to keep them from moving — so their flesh stays light and tender for humans to eat.(9)
Chickens, turkeys and ducks have their beaks violently sliced off — again without anesthetic — so they don’t peck each other to death due to their stress.(9) Poultry are stacked in battery cages the size of iPads, where they cannot stretch their wings.(12) Chickens grow so quickly that 90% of them are unable to stand up because the bones and muscles in their legs cannot support the sheer weight of their oversized bodies.(12)
In the egg industry, hens are subjected to a violent, unnatural molting process — when their normal laying cycle ends, they’re forced into another cycle by being placed in complete darkness for up to 14 days without food or water. This kills 5–10% of them.(12)
But perhaps the most shocking fact is this: in the egg industry, baby male chicks are literally put on a conveyor belt the day they hatch, and are ground up, alive.(9)
What Can You Do?
How are we, as a progressive society in the 21st century, allowing this to happen? Most of us don’t know the truth about factory farming — lobbyists backed by the huge multinational corporations who own these horrific animal mills have kept most of these facts from the public.
In fact, the USDA gave $9.6 billion of our federal taxpayer dollars to the pig, cattle and dairy industries in April of 2020.13 And there are ZERO federal laws to protect farm animals.
Our government cannot be relied upon to stop factory farming. It has to begin with us, the consumers, changing our eating habits.
It’s cheap and convenient to grab meat and dairy products at the nearest grocery store without thinking about the hormones, antibiotics, chemicals and pathogens that could be inside that burger or drumstick or egg. It’s easy to forget that your steak or bacon or chicken breast wrapped in its pretty package was once part of a sentient, feeling being who suffered horrific pain.
But we all can do something — we have to do something, or the next pandemic will be upon us. Residents who live near CAFOs have already reported serious health conditions including dizziness, headaches, asthma, bronchitis, severe coughs, chronic lung disease and kidney failure; infections from giardia, listeria, cryptosporidium and pfiesteria; ammonia and hydrogen sulfide poisoning; and death. Many people who live close to factory farms can also develop CAFO-related post traumatic stress disorder, including anxiety and depression about declining quality of life.(6)
Not to mention the devastating effects on our land, water and soil that we must curb, or we will run out of viable resources to feed our communities.
The average American consumes 200 lbs. of meat per year.(14) It takes 1,800 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat (which translates to 450 gallons of water for one quarter-pound hamburger).(15) This means you would save more water by not eating 1 pound of meat than if you didn’t shower for six months.
Moving away from industrialized farming can reduce the likelihood of a zoonotic outbreak, but to really remove the threat, we need to accelerate the movement toward plant-based meat, milk and egg products.
If you eat meat, choose locally grown options — nearly every city now has at least one natural foods store and many larger grocery chains now have organic/natural food sections. There are also online options, including Market Wagon, Barn2Door (LocalFarmFinder.com) and Find Family Farms, which allow you to order food from local farms that you can read about and see on their sites, and your orders are delivered contactless to your door.
Or even better, try plant-based “meat” options, which are now found at the majority of grocery chains. Brands like Impossible Foods, Beyond, Emerge, Boca, Gardein, Lightlife, MorningStar Farms and others offer a huge variety of meatless options, from burgers to chick’n patties to ground “meats,” both fresh and frozen.
Factory farming is a cataclysmic risk to our species. Says Kelly Witwicki, Executive Director of the Sentience Institute, “Between the suffering of these animals and the devastating impacts of animal farming on our climate and on the sustainability of our food system, this is a moral catastrophe that we can’t afford to neglect any longer.”
But when enough of us say “enough,” and make changes to our eating habits, we can turn the tide and help prevent our future generations from having to contend with new threats of pandemics that could have been prevented.
Emily Anderson is a freelance writer living in Northeast Wisconsin. A CAFO was built next to her family’s farm in central Iowa in 1998. The effects on the land, water and people nearby were devastating. She hopes to bring awareness to this issue to prevent further damage from being done to America’s heartland, to prevent a future pandemic, and to stop the cruel and barbaric mistreatment of farm animals.
1 99% of US Farmed Animals Live On Factory Farms, Study Says, September 28, 2020; https://plantbasednews.org/culture/factory-farms-study/
2 https://sraproject.org/about-factory-farms/
3 The meat we eat is a pandemic risk, too; August 20, 2020; https://bit.ly/2JSp2C6
4 Factory farms are an ideal breeding ground for the next pandemic, October 21, 2020; https://bit.ly/35hXC0c
6 www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh.pdf
10 The meat we eat is a pandemic risk, too; August 20, 2020; https://bit.ly/2JSp2C6
11 https://sraproject.org/about-factory-farms/
14 The meat we eat is a pandemic risk, too; August 20, 2020; https://bit.ly/2JSp2C6
15 https://www.watercalculator.org/footprint/meat-portions-900-gallons/animal factories
