Factory Farm Presentation

I have been familiar with the topics related to factory farming for a few months now. Despite being fairly familiar with the topic I did still find several statistics surprising. The last number that I came across as to how many animals were killed annually in the factory farm system was 6 billion a year and the number that was presented today was 10 billion. The amount of waste produced by factory farm animals was also surprising when it was presented in comparison with human waste produced on the graph. I was also unaware of the large dead zone (about the size of New Jersey) that has been created in the gulf of Mexico at the end of the Mississippi river as a result of factory farming waste. Several other numbers were surprising such as 50% of rain forests being cleared to support animal agriculture, 60% of streams and rivers contaminated by animal waste, 250 million turkeys and chickens die before they even make it to the slaughter house due to cramped conditions. It was comforting to see that more people are adopting vegan and vegetarian diets or at least cutting back on their meat intake with 5% of the total population not eating meat.