"WHY HAVEN'T WE HEARD ABOUT THIS BEFORE?"

In Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer notes that “upwards of 99 percent of all animals eaten in this country come from ‘factory farms’” (12). And yet the vast majority of consumers are unaware of what this means in terms of the stories behind factory farming: the life and death that a factory- farmed animal experiences, the working conditions of factory farm laborers, the health effects of eating animals and their byproducts, and the overall impact of factory farming on the environment.

As one of you said in class after learning that animal agriculture accounts for 51% of the global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, “Why haven’t we heard about this before?” This is a great question that has no one simple answer, but it’s worth exploring. Indeed, why are so many people uninformed about factory farming?

Nick Cooney and Factory Farming

In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of Nick Cooney's presentation was the information regarding government regulation in respects to factory farming. I was amazed to learn that these enormous factory farms are not held accountable for the damage they do to the environment. That means a factory farm may dispose of animal waste and other harmful byproducts with no regard as to how it may effect the environment. Ironically, animals cause over 50% of greenhouse gases and animal waste is the number 1 cause of water pollution, as well as the number 2 cause of air pollution. It is shocking to learn how much power these farming companies have, even the automotive industry must report to the government and regulate the amount of harmful chemicals they and their products emit.