WHAT IS IT?
Also known as Intensive Animal Farming, High Density Animal Farming is an agricultural process used to yield more production at a smaller cost. Farms keep animals at higher stock than usual; animals are confined in small spaces to produce either dairy products or meat etc. Usually occurring with cattle, chickens, and pigs, the practice is used with the goal to hand out maximum produce using minimum resources.
HOW WIDELY IS IT USED?
• 99% of all marketed farms in the United States practice High Density Animal Farming.
• 74% of all poultry farms
•50% of all pork farms
•43% of all beef farms
• 78% of all egg farms
• This practice is widely popular because it can feed more people at the lowest costs possible.
• Intensive Animal Farming usage rocketed after WWII due to the population boom.
• As of 2005, worldwide, this practice makes up 40% of all meat production.
ADVANTAGES
- Lower cost and prices
- Higher product yield
- Sustaining food supply with demand
- Quick animal care
DISADVANTAGES
- Illness and disease spreads faster
- Antibiotics usage in yields cause human resistance to antibiotics
- Use of monoculture reduces biodiversity
- Questionable ethics
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
High Density Animal Farming is important today because it is one of the most effective ways to keep up with food demand. It keeps people fed while doing so at the lowest price possible. (Not humane or morally acceptable though!)
SOIL QUALITY
Waste products from High Density Animal Farming emit methane, and manure is then spread as fertilizer. By doing this, nitrous oxide is emitted and causes pollution.
EXAMPLES
- Over 10% of dairy farms have well over 700 cattle.
-Based on studies on factory farms, these variables were evident:
(a) premature death rate (b) fair or poor health (c) physically unhealthy days per month for adults (d) annual number of unhealthy air quality days due to fine particulate matter
WORKS CITED
www.animalethics.org.uk/factory-farming.html
http://commonsabundance.net/docs/high-density-farming-2/
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1307370/
https://prezi.com/ru-nn4qwsl17/high-density-animal-farming/
Credits:
Created with images by StateofIsrael - "Agriculture" • 3dman_eu - "cows curious cattle" • stokpic - "hands world map"