Factory farming refers to intensive commercial agriculture that employs techniques to maximize output in small spaces at low cost. It relies on selective breeding, artificial insemination, antibiotics, and crowded conditions. Factory farming has significant environmental impacts, including high fossil fuel and water usage, antibiotic resistance, water and air pollution from animal waste, and greenhouse gas emissions. The waste also contains heavy metals that contaminate land and waterways when overapplied as fertilizer. Deforestation to create grazing land and grow feed crops further contributes to environmental damage, habitat loss, and climate change. The conditions and waste pose health risks to both workers and nearby residents as well.

1. CAPE GEOGRAPHY UNIT 2 MODULE 2
O.JOHNSON
OCTOBER 2018
Factory Farming cont’d
The informal term “factory farming” refers to any intensive commercial form of agriculture that
employs extreme growing techniques (usually with heavy use of agrichemicals and veterinary
drugs) to produce the greatest output in the least space, and at the lowest unit cost. This farming
type involves the use of selective breeding, artificial insemination and the heavy use of
antibiotics.
Factory farming is resource intensive: producing just one calorie of beef takes 33% more fossil-
fuel energy than producing a calorie of potatoes. Between watering the crops that farm animals
eat, providing drinking water for billions of animals each year, and cleaning away the filth in
factory farms, transport trucks, and slaughterhouses, the animal agriculture industry has a huge
impact on the water supply. Producing one pound of beef takes an estimated 1,581 gallons of
water, which is roughly as much as the average American uses in 100 showers.
With over nine billion animals raised and slaughtered for human consumption each year in the
U.S. alone, modern animal agriculture puts an incredible strain on natural resources like land,
water, and fossil fuel.
Impact of Factory Farming on the Environment ( Cont’d)
- In order to prevent the spread of disease in the crowded, filthy conditions of confinement
operations, and to promote faster growth, producers feed farm animals a number of
antibiotics. Upwards of 75 percent of the antibiotics fed to farm animals end up
undigested in their urine and manure. Firstly, the manure factory farms is full of heavy
metals because the animals do not digest all that is in their feed as growth supplements.
Heavy metals like cadmium, arsenic, copper and zinc are put into animal feed to help
make animals grow faster. Animal waste is never treated to remove heavy metals. Once
in the environment, heavy metals are almost impossible to get rid of because they do not

2. decompose. Runoff from the fields also flushes the metals, along with excessive nitrogen
and phosphorus from the manure. When manure waste is over applied to land, it deposits
excess nutrients and metals that end up in waterways. Phosphorous and nitrogen in
waterways can cause eutrophication (explosion of algae), in which an increase in
nutrients depletes the water of oxygen, threatening aquatic life and contaminating water
supply. One such algae type, Pfiesteria piscicida, has been implicated in the death of
more than one billion fish in coastal waters in North Carolina.
- The demand for livestock pasture is a major driver of deforestation. The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has estimated that 70 percent of land
formerly supporting Amazon rainforests has been turned over to grazing. Land clearing
in Brazil to grow chicken feed is responsible for the destruction of about 3 million
acres of rainforest. And these numbers only account for land cleared to feed animals.
According to the FAO, sixty percent of the world’s agricultural land is used for grazing
livestock and ¼ of the world’s croplands is used for animal feed. According to the Soil
Association 35–40% of all cereals produced worldwide are fed to livestock, and this
could rise to 50% by 2050 if meat consumption continues to rise as predicted.
- According to a 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO), animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of all human-induced
greenhouse gas emissions, including 37 percent of methane emissions and 65 percent of
nitrous oxide emissions. The fossil fuels used in energy, transportation, and synthetic
pesticides/fertilizers emits 90 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every
year. Globally, deforestation for animal grazing and feed crops is estimated to emit 2.4
billion tons of CO2 every year. Deforestation result in habitat loss and reduce
biodiversity. Factory farming accounts for 37% of methane (CH4) emissions, which has
more than 20 times the global warming potential of CO2.

3. Human Health impacts
- There are also health threats for workers. Threats to human health People who live near
or work at factory farms breathe in hundreds of gases, which are formed as manure
decomposes. The stench can be unbearable, but worse still, the gases contain many
harmful chemicals. For instance, one gas released by the lagoons, hydrogen sulfide, is
dangerous even at low levels. Its effects -- which are irreversible -- range from sore throat
to seizures, comas and even death. Other health effects associated with the gases from
factory farms include headaches, shortness of breath, wheezing, excessive coughing and
diarrhea.
Case Study: Factory farming in the United States
Water pollution
- Factory farms typically store animal waste in huge, open-air lagoons, often as big as
several football fields, which are prone to leaks and spills. Some lagoons are larger than
seven acres and contain as much as 20 to 45 million gallons of wastewater.
- Sprayfields are yet another threat. Manure is periodically pumped out of lagoons and
sprayed on fields. Although manure can be an excellent fertilizer when it is applied at
rates that crops can absorb, it must be safely -- and sensibly -- applied. But factory farms
produce far more manure than their land requires, and they often over apply it to fields,
causing it to run off the fields and into rivers and stream
- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency which has permitting authority over animal
waste lagoons estimates that the average rate of leakage equals 500 gallons per acre per
day. In 2011, an Illinois hog farm spilled 200,000 gallons of manure into a creek, killing
over 110,000 fish.
- In the U.S. alone, animals raised on factory farms generate more than 1 million tons of
manure per day — three times the amount generated by the country’s human population.
When lagoons reach capacity, farmers will often opt to apply manure to surrounding
areas rather than pay to have the waste transported off-site. According to the USDA,
animal waste can contaminate water supplies and omit harmful gases into the atmosphere

4. when over-applied to land. In one incident, more than 20 million gallons of waste spilled
from a manure lagoon on a pig factory farm into a nearby river in North Carolina,
causing a massive fish kill. In 2005, a manure lagoon at an upstate New York dairy farm
burst, polluting the nearby Black River with millions of gallons of manure and killing
more than 375,000 fish.
- On June 21, 1995, 25 million gallons of putrefying hog urine and faeces spilled into the
New River in North Carolina, when a "lagoon" holding 8 acres of hog excrement burst.
10 – 14 million fish were killed as an immediate result
- A study released in 1998 by the Natural Resources Defense /council (NRDC) in the
United States claimed that water quality in at least 30 states was threatened by manure
from large diaries, feedlots, and chicken farms and hog farms. The study cites the
situation in California’s Central Valle as being particularly acute.
Global Warming/ Climate Change
 During digestion, ruminants like cattle, sheep, and goats emit methane, an infamous
“greenhouse gas” and key contributor to global warming. The EPA has estimated that,
between 1990 and 2005, methane emissions from pig and cow operations rose 37 percent
and 50 percent respectively
 Burning fossil fuels to produce fertilizers for animal feed crops may emit 41 million
metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
 As the largest dairy producing state in the country, California has 1.8 million dairy cows,
which collectively emit a lot of methane. Of the state’s total methane emissions, 60
percent come from agriculture, and primarily from dairy production
Air Pollution
The microbial breakdown of organic carbon and nitrogen compounds in manure can contribute
to air pollution and odor problems. During decomposition, noxious levels of gases are emitted,

5. putting workers and nearby residents at risk of developing a number of acute and chronic
illnesses. Waste storage and land application lead to emissions of fine particulates, carbon
dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane. The most pronounce and harmful of the
chemicals emitted by factory farms are ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Ammonia can be
transported through water sources as much as 50 miles away but the rest can be transported in an
airborne form and can reach areas that are hundreds (300) of miles away. In one North Carolina
county, during an 11-year period of significant expansion in the pig farming industry, the amount
of ammonia in the rain reportedly doubled.
Deforestation
In the United States alone, over 260 million acres of forest have been cleared to make room for
crop fields, most of which are used to exclusively grow livestock feed.
Factory Farming in UK
The UK now holds a total of over 200 million farm animals (poultry, pigs, dairy and beef cattle
and sheep) at any one time.
In total, over 75% of UK agricultural land is devoted to animal feed production, either in the
form of grazing, forage or other crops
Reforms of the CAP
The first policy initiated by the CAP was to encourage unlimited crop production which resulted
in intensification of arable and pastoral farming. The CAP went through several reforms since its
initiation. Strategies such as quotas, reduction in subsidies were implemented in the 1993
reforms to tackle issues of overproduction and environmental awareness.
- In 1992 the Common Agricultural Policy was reformed and one of the main things that
was brought in was quotas. These set a limit on how much one farmer could produce of a
single product, thus protecting the livelihoods of many farmers by continuing to
guarantee their crops would be bought, whilst not building up the huge surpluses that
occurred before.

6. - Subsidies were given to farmers to allow them to produce more crops. However the
intensive farming methods that most farmers employed led to many environmental
problems such as hedgerow removal and increased use of pesticides and fertilizers. The
1992 changes to the policy removed much of the subsidies and price support that the
original policy had, as the EU realized that the intensive farming was harming the
environment.
The CAP was also reformed in 2003. They Key reforms were as follows:
 A single farm payment for EU farmers, independent from production
 The payment will be linked to the respect of environmental, food safety, animal and plant
health and animal welfare standards, as well as the requirement to keep all farmland in
good agricultural environmental condition.
 A strengthened rural development policy with more EU money, with new measures to
promote the environment, quality and animal welfare and to help farmers to meet EU
production standards starting in 2005
 A reduction in direct payments for bigger farms to finance the new rural development
policy.
 A mechanism for financial discipline to ensure that the farm budget fixed until 2013 is
not overshot
The CAP of the past offered famers many systems and regulations designed to ensure that they
could produce enough food for everybody. Nowadays, following many changes to the CAP,
farmers are freer to produce what the market demands without relying in subsidy systems which
also influenced their production options. Nowadays, if farmers think that wheat will be in
demands they may plant more wheat; if another crop seems more attractive they may cultivate
that. They can use age-old techniques such as crop rotation, to rest their land, rather than apply
intensive production methods. Farmers may now use more land for production of they wish,
instead of being told to leave a part fallow- under the set aside system. Production quotas (for
milk for example) that limit how much a farmer can produce are also being progressively
removed. The aim is for farmers to be more responsive to market signals.