Title: Animals in Prison: The Need for Federal Regulation on Meat Production
I. Introduction:
In the heart of the Midwest a pregnant pig is confined to a gestation crate, its dimensions too restricting for even minimal movement. Nearby, hens are stacked in cages while cows remain nowhere near their natural pastures. This system, known as factory farming, starkly contrasts from the foundational principles of agrarian America, yet presently is the bleak reality for 99% of the nation’s farmed animals. Factory farming, or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), is defined as a facility where animals are confined to a small area of land and given food rather than grazing or eating naturally. While this system serves as a cost-effective solution for corporations which drives down meat prices for consumers, this pursuit of affordability results in negative consequences. This is more than just an animal welfare issue at hand as factory farming also causes environmental and public health challenges to the citizens like contaminated drinking water, fossil fuel overuse exacerbating climate change, and antibiotic resistance. Just this year, in 2024, iconic chicken company Chick-Fil-A had to rescind its “no antibiotics ever” promise to consumers due to the scarcity of antibiotic-free chicken. The problem is continuing to worsen without the public knowing. Despite heightened meat consumption, most Americans remain detached from farming realities. Their exposure is limited to fleeting glances through car windows. Now more than ever, the United States Department of Agriculture must take federal responsibility as state oversight has failed. A mandated compliance to the commonly accepted “two acres of land per animal unit” must be enforced and then followed up with yearly inspections to correctly monitor a transition to humane agricultural practices. Even if this means some corporations losing animals as they remove them from their imprisonments, long term these sustainable practices will usher in a cleaner future for animals and humans alike
II. History
A. This area is reserved for some brief history of how the United States transitioned from an agricultural society to an industrial one and the way in which that has affected the creation of factory farms.
– each week an estimated 330 farms close
– American corporation bought out almost every small farm.
– In 1930 there were 7 millions farms, that number is down to 2 million.
III. Harms
A. Environmental: first I will discuss the negative impact of factory farming on the environment at large but also recognize how even worse it is for local communities. I have a map that shows the livestock density across the US which I found here: https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/latest/blogs/where-are-factory-farms/
– an estimated 41 million metric tons of CO2 are burned by corporations to produce fertilizers for animal feed crops like wheat and corn.
– 1999 incident after Hurricane Floyd where hog waste contaminated the river in Onslow County, NC. Farms are not required to dispose of waste in environmentally friendly ways.
– The system is unsustainable since a single dairy cow produces about 80 pounds of waste a day. Moreover, the US Department of Agriculture estimates that factory farms produce over 450 million tons of manure each year which is 3x the waste produced by humans in America and the environment cannot possibly be expected to manage waste at this level.
B. Health: second I want to discuss the health of humans (separate from the diseases that are probably the only factor people actually know because it usually ends up on the news) and why factory farming is something that deserves attention since it events everyone and not just animals thus widening the scope beyond animal welfare.
– An HSUS Report found that living next to a factory farm essentially works to decrease basic quality of life. The main cause is odor. Not only does this cause local residents to close their windows and stay inside, but can potentially contain hydrogen sulfide.
– Despite not fully researched, new studies show that living next to a factory farm equates to a higher risk for mental illnesses, neurobehavioral disorders, and respiratory problems.
C. Diseases: third I want to talk about the most obvious harm which are illnesses. Potentially an infographic here.
– The odors mentioned above that contain hydrogen sulfide can cause flu-like symptoms and has been potentially linked to brain damage.
– animal waste mentioned above in the environmental concerns tends to contain disease-causing pathogens. In 1993 a dairy farm in Milwaukee contaminated water with Cryptosporidium that resulted in 400,00 people being six.
– ANTIBIOTICS (I may end up pushing this section upward because it is so relevant). Housing so many animals in such tight quarters invariably results in sickness for the animals. In order to manage this disease, the animals are pumped with antibiotics, also sometimes to help animals grow. But according to the National Academy of Sciences: “For the United States as a whole, the American Society for Microbiology estimated in 1995 that health care costs associated with treatment of [antibiotic] resistant infections amounted to more than $4 billion annually. And this figure significantly underestimates the actual cost of resistance, since it includes only direct healthcare costs and excludes an array of other costs, such as lost lives and lost workdays.”
– the issue clearly involved both sickness and the corresponding costs.
IV. Solution
A. The main solution as mentioned in the thesis is to take the issue of factory farms and animal welfare out of the hands of state government and replace that with federal mandates to actually make a change. When going up against corporations, vigilance will be key. So the steps are as follows:
1. Make a federal mandate that regulates that all animal farms in the US comply to the “two acres of land per animal unit.” If there is backlash about this arbitrary numbers, then new research could be conducted about different numbers that still accomplish the same goal: mandating a certain amount of land per animal to ensure humane treatment.
2. Once this decision is made the US Department of Agriculture will need to assist corporation in adjusting. This could mean seizing some animals from companies without room for them and then giving them back at a later date, or helping with the acquisition of necessary resources. This is definitely where I plan to mention some drawbacks like how this would probably temporarily limit the supply of meat so the prices would raise.
3. Arguably the most important aspect of the solution will be the implementation of yearly and random checks of different major farms to ensure compliance. If a farm is found to still be using CAFO practices, then significant fines or other punishments will be given.
Working Works Cited List (in my document I have footnotes but they did not copy and paste into this post for some reason):
www.ciwf.org.uk/factory-farming/#:~:text=Factory%20farming%20is%20not%20just,solution%20to%20feeding%20our%20world.
www.newrootsinstitute.org/articles/when-did-factory-farming-start-and-why-does-it-still-exist
celdf.org/factory-farms
www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/15/us-agriculture-census-farminghttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/15/us-agriculture-census-farming
www.worldanimalprotection.us/latest/blogs/where-are-factory-farms/
www.hobbyfarms.com/animal-to-acreage-ratio-2/#:~:text=You%20could%20also%20say%20each,you%20with%20a%20starting%20poin
academic.oup.com/phe/article/8/3/246/2362362
1 Identify and discuss the organizational pattern (or the closest one to it) from the Arranging a Policy Speech Keyword. Is this a good structure for the topic and policy arguments? Make some comments or suggestions.
The closest organizational pattern is Problem, Cause, Solution, which I think works quite well for the topic. Beginning with the history of this development of industrial farming, effectively the “problem,” is a strong way to develop a better understanding of the issue in the audience and develop the exigence of the situation. This doesn’t exactly follow the cause as much, rather delving more into the effects of the problem, though I think that it works very well in the topic. It clearly ends with the solutions, which seem to be a good start.
2. Do the topic sentences point back to the thesis and/or make the argumentative claim for the paragraph? Give one strong example or one example of a sentence that could be improved.
Obviously there are not topic sentences really yet since it is an outline (same as in mine), but I will comment on the structure of “connected” sections. I think that the points of focus flow well from one to the next, particularly with harms to the environment and to humans. That could be easily and really well-connected, bringing a more thorough understanding of the problem to the audience. I think it will be hardest to flow from the introduction about the history of industrial farming into the harms, but written well I am sure that it will work.
3. How is the evidence working as of now? Do we need more research? Where in the paper would more evidence (and what kinds of evidence) be helpful?
Specific quantitative evidence regarding human health would be the best thing to add at this point, though I am not sure if that is available or not. Otherwise, I think that the evidence that you have provided is quite strong. The only other thing I think you need more detail on is the “two acres per animal unit,” because I am sure that is backed by something that you just don’t discuss much.
4. How are the infographs working? If there are no infographs yet, please provide ideas for them.
Good infographics could include: visual representations of the tight living conditions of animals in farms, the widespread effects of farms on the ecosystems and humans around them, the change in number of farms, or visualizations of the amount of diseases or costs of treating them.