MEAT

MEAT Christina Salvi and Diane Hatz, GRACE Factory Farm Project
© 2004 Worldwatch Institute www.worldwatch.org

This Little Piggy Went to the Global Market Success stories

❖ Sustainable farming, a method of farm-
M eat production has increased by 500 percent since 1950.
Today, most animals are raised on industrial “factory
farms” that are displacing sustainable family farms.
ing that is good for animals, people and the
environment, has grown into a $15.6 billion
business worldwide.
Thousands of animals are crowded in unsanitary conditions, Simple things
spending their entire lives indoors without sunlight or pas- ❖ Local communities are organizing to you can do:
ture. To prevent disease from these inhumane practices, oppose factory farms—and winning! Mani-
antibiotics are added to feed, contributing to the towoc County, in the U.S. state of Wiscon- ✓ Get to know local farmers who raise
worldwide growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Vast sin, prevented a 5,000 head feedlot from sustainable meat in your area.
amounts of manure pollute rivers and streams, causing locating in a residential area; residents of
toxic pollution of air and water and endangering human health. Saskatchewan, Canada, kept out six hog ✓ Buy sustainable meat at your local health
confinement buildings; and Klamath County food store or farmer’s market. (When you
Community opposition has prompted corporations to move their add in environmental and health costs,
mega-farms to developing countries where environmental regulations are less in Oregon successfully prevented the
construction of an 11,000-head hog factory. “inexpensive” factory farmed meat is
strict. Because the time to ship from farm to store takes longer, industry “nukes” actually more expensive than sustainable
our meat with irradiation—prolonging “shelf-life”—despite evidence that irradiation is unsafe ❖ Sow gestation stalls/crates on factory meat.)
and dangerous. One day soon, you may find that your hamburger was raised half way around the farms, which are so narrow that pregnant
world, irradiated, and flown thousands of miles before landing on your dinner plate. pigs cannot turn around, are now banned in ✓ If necessary, cut back on your meat
the United Kingdom and Sweden, and will consumption.
be illegal in the European Union in 2013.
✓ Read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Did you know…? pensate for the unsanitary and confined ❖ More and more people—including some (Houghton Mifflin: 2001), to give yourself
conditions on factory farms. By volume, 150 million people in Europe alone—are more background on the factory farm issue.
✱ Global meat consumption is expected livestock in the country consume eight
to grow 2 percent each year until 2015, either becoming vegetarians or reducing
times more antibiotics than humans do. their consumption of meat.
especially in developing countries where
eating meat is seen as a sign of wealth ✱ With its high meat content, the average
and prosperity. Half of the world’s pork is U.S. diet requires twice as much water per Challenge yourself and others:
now eaten in China, while Brazil is the person per day as an equally nutritious
second largest consumer of beef, after vegetarian diet. A meat-rich meal made Invite friends over for a locally grown, sustainable meal. All ingredients must be raised or
the United States. with imported ingredients also emits nine grown within a certain radius, e.g., 30 miles of your home. (Even residents of New York City
times as much carbon as a vegetarian meal can do this!) Discussion at the meal will revolve around the food—what you learned about
✱ Forty-three percent of the world’s beef is
raised on factory feedlots, and more than made with domestic ingredients that don’t locally grown food, how easy or difficult it was to find everything, etc. To make it more fun,
half of the world’s pork and poultry is have to be hauled long distances. ask your friends to provide some of the local food.
raised on factory farms. ✱ A diet high in grain-fed meat can require
✱ Animals raised in feedlots accumulate two to four times more land than a vege-
Omega 6 fatty acids (the bad fats), which tarian diet.
have been linked with cancer, diabetes, FOR MORE INFORMATION
obesity, and immune disorders. ✱ A study in 2002 found that 37 percent of
the broiler chickens found in major grocery
✱ Belching, flatulent livestock emit 16 per- stores are contaminated with antibiotic- ☛ GRACE Factory Farm Project (www.factoryfarm.org) has information on the environmen-
cent of the world’s annual production of resistant pathogens. tal, economic, health, well-being and social aspects of factory farming, as well as sustainable meat.
methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
✱ Since it was first reported in the United ☛ The Eat Well Guide (www.eatwellguide.org) is a national online resource that lists sustain-
✱ In 1995, 25 million gallons of hog waste Kingdom in 1986, BSE (mad cow disease) able farmers, restaurants, and stores in the United States.
spilled from an 8-acre lagoon into a river
in the United States, killing 10 million fish.
has been detected in 33 countries, and ☛ Public Citizen (www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety) has information on the hazards of
health officials estimate that 139 people irradiated food and the use of irradiation as a tool for globalization.
✱ An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics worldwide have succumbed to variant
in the U.S. are fed to pigs, poultry, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a related illness
cattle merely to promote growth and com- in humans.
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