Organic vs. Factory Farming

Not only does factory faming pollutes the environment and the life support systems of our planet, it also uses a lot of energy. A beef cow raised on the range produces more food energy than it does to raise them. On a factory farm, the energy used in raising that cow is over ten times the food energy it provides. So you can imagine how much oil and electricity and manpower went into making a single burger.

Factory farms claim to provide jobs for the community in which it is built. However, in reality factory farms dramatically lower the living conditions of the community around it. It does not provide as many jobs as it says it will due to two reasons. One, the factory farm owners try to employ as little people as possible so that the profit will be the highest. Two, who would want to work on a farm that’s constantly clouded with the overpowering smell of manure? The workers that do work there are constantly under the exposure to hazardous gases.

So in the end, we have a farm that can potentially kill people, downgrade the standard of living in the areas around it, under the constant threat of spilling millions of gallons of manure into nearby lakes and rivers, and using so much electricity and oil and power to raise a cow. Organic farming has lasted the human population on this planet for centuries. Already, it hasn’t even been a century and factory farming is already being disputed and ecosystems, lives, and land have been destroyed because of them. It is not the bright, inventive and wise alternative to organic farming as we thought it would be. Maybe sometimes, old traditions are much better off than modern technology.