In addition to inflicting unimaginable and unacceptable struggling to animals, the animal agriculture trade has many different darkish secrets and techniques which it retains hidden from the general public.
Whenever you hear ‘industrial animal farming,’ what’s the primary phrase that involves thoughts?
Exploitation. Struggling. Ache. Demise.
These are sturdy phrases that evoke highly effective feelings, and, tragically, they precisely describe the lives of billions of animals raised and killed for human consumption yearly.
That’s why ending manufacturing facility farming is Animal Equality’s mission.
In addition to inflicting unimaginable and unacceptable struggling to animals, the animal agriculture trade has many different darkish secrets and techniques which it retains hidden from the general public.
Greater than 99% of farmed animals in the US come from manufacturing facility farms.
Which means most meat, eggs, and dairy merchandise come from animals who’re stored in extraordinarily unnatural and merciless circumstances. Confined in filthy, darkish, barren sheds, they’re hidden away–out of sight and out of thoughts.
However that is simply the tip of the iceberg. Actually, the influence of animal agriculture within the US is felt all world wide.
Listed here are 5 secrets and techniques which are intentionally hidden from the general public.
1. Area
The animal agriculture trade goals to maximise the ‘manufacturing’ of farmed animals to maximise revenue.
To avoid wasting house and preserve prices to a minimal, 99% of animals farmed within the US are crammed by the 1000’s into overcrowded sheds–many confined in tiny cages the place they will barely flip round.
However whereas the animal agriculture trade tries to avoid wasting house in a few of its operations, it has no drawback stealing it. It takes over huge quantities of land to lift cows for meat and to farm crops like soy for use as feed for the animals trapped on manufacturing facility farms.
Immediately, animal agriculture is accountable for greater than 80% of the deforestation in Brazil. It poses a significant menace to our planet.
2. The hidden provide chain
Feeding animals to be raised for human consumption requires a whole lot of assets. For instance, it takes 5 kilos of feed each single day to feed a single pig. When you think about that 120 million pigs are raised and slaughtered within the US annually, the quantity of feed wanted turns into unfathomable.
To maximise manufacturing and revenue, the feed given to the animals is a excessive protein feed, designed to induce quick progress. The protein a part of the feed usually consists of soy.
It’s unimaginable to develop all of the soy wanted to feed the a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of animals that stay on manufacturing facility farms yearly within the US as a result of there may be not sufficient house.
So, the place will we get the soy?
The reply is easy: we purchase soy from different international locations, particularly from South America. To create the house to develop it, whole forests are destroyed and transformed into farmland.
3. Air pollution
Animal agriculture is accountable for at the very least 14.5% of worldwide greenhouse gasoline emissions.
As well as, it’s also the direct and oblique reason behind one of many best environmental catastrophes dealing with our society: the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
Greater than 5 million acres have been deforested in 2020–a 12% enhance from the earlier 12 months–and the pattern is for deforestation to maintain rising.
Due to meat manufacturing, the rainforests are being burned right down to the purpose that the Amazon’s emissions now far exceed its absorption capability.
4. Unlicensed slaughterhouses
Animals raised in deforested areas are sometimes despatched to unlicensed slaughterhouses the place not even fundamental minimal animal welfare requirements are revered.
Due to this careless system–the place it’s unimaginable to hint your entire provide chain–animal cruelty is unknown and undocumented.
5. A waste of assets
Farming animals for human consumption is extraordinarily inefficient.
Once we use assets to lift farmed animals and produce animal merchandise, we’re including an additional step within the meals manufacturing course of. As we feed animals water, soy, and different grains, we’re taking these finite assets away from people who may use them immediately.
For instance, do you know that almost 1/3 of the world’s freshwater is used for animal farming? Or that producing only one pound of beef makes use of round 1,800 gallons of water? Meaning the water used to provide 1 / 4 pound hamburger is equal to roughly three months of showering!
At a time when water safety is changing into an more and more pressing situation in lots of elements of the world, this can be a vital waste that must be addressed.
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Wish to make a distinction? You may assist animals by sharing the truth of animal agriculture together with your networks and advocating for change. And please go away animals off your plate.
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