CONTENT RESEARCH

Humane,adjective: characterizedby tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed.
Humanimal, noun (Hyoo-ma-ni-mal): one who always makes the most humane choice.

What is factory farming?

Raising farm animals as though they as objects

In great numbers in order to maximize production and profits

Animals are contained in the same area all their life in small spaces with limited movement and even unable to turn around

Their natural behavior is stunned and suppressed

Factory farming is “institutionalized animal cruelty” – farm animal welfare council

Every year 10billion animals are held in inhumane conditions

Increased waste, infections, discomfort, self-destructive behavior, and health issues

Factory Farming is a thing of the past. But unfortunately, this outdated system still continues - in a big way. 99% of meat in the United States is said to be factory farmed. Animal lovers - whether vegan, vegetarian or meat-eaters - want to do more to prevent animals from the suffering that the factory farming system induces.

Even though our first HUMANIMALS PLEDGE to eat only family farmed animal products is for NYC, word travels fast. Here are the places that people who have taken the pledge come from:

NYC, NY

Stamford, CT

Edgartown, MA
Boston, MA
Howard Beach, NY
Mill Valley, CA
Jersey City, NJ
London, UK
Cuyahoga Falls, OH

St Louis, MO

boulder, co

Overland Park, KS

Expanding Into An Area Near You

Humane Week's first campaign, "Be A Humanimal NYC" has started and now are looking to create a grassroots presence everywhere.

Our first milestone is to create 52 Humane Weeks - in campuses, cities and towns - created by local leaders who feel strongly about conscientious choices in eating.

We are looking for coordinators to pick regional dates and promote Humane Week in their area.

Imagine being responsible for transforming the buying habits of your friends, family and those around you.

We would like to empower YOU to bring this pledge, its awareness and its effects to your community.

Contact us at info@humaneweek.org to get started.

Factory farming is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption. However, there have been issues regarding whether factory farming is sustainable and ethical.

Confinement at high stocking density is one part of a systematic effort to produce the highest output at the lowest cost by relying oneconomies of scale, modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. Confinement at high stocking density requires antibiotics andpesticides to mitigate the spread of disease and pestilence exacerbated by these crowded living conditions. In addition, antibiotics are used to stimulate livestock growth by killing intestinal bacteria. There are differences in the way factory farming techniques are practiced around the world. There is a continuing debate over the benefits, risks and ethical questions of factory farming. The issues include the efficiency of food production; animal welfare; whether it is essential for feeding the growing global human population; the environmental impact and the health risks.

HUMAN HEALTH

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), farms on which animals are intensively reared can cause adverse health reactions in farm workers. Workers may develop acute and chronic lung disease, musculoskeletal injuries, and may catch infections that transmit from animals to human beings (such as tuberculosis).^[34]

Pesticides are used to control organisms which are considered harmful^[35] and they save farmers money by preventing product losses to pests.^[36]

In the US, about a quarter of pesticides used are used in houses, yards, parks, golf courses, and swimming pools^[37] and about 70% are used in agriculture.^[36] However, pesticides can make their way into consumers' bodies which can cause health problems. One source of this is bioaccumulation in animals raised on factory farms.^[37][38][39]

The CDC writes that chemical, bacterial, and viral compounds from animal waste may travel in the soil and water. Residents near such farms report problems such as unpleasant smell, flies and adverse health effects.^[40]

The CDC has identified a number of pollutants associated with the discharge of animal waste into rivers and lakes, and into the air. The use of antibiotics may create antibiotic-resistant pathogens; parasites, bacteria, and viruses may be spread; ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphorus can reduce oxygen in surface waters and contaminate drinking water; pesticides and hormones may cause hormone-related changes in fish; animal feed and feathers may stunt the growth of desirable plants in surface waters and provide nutrients to disease-causing micro-organisms; trace elements such as arsenic and copper, which are harmful to human health, may contaminate surface waters.^[40]

In the European Union, growth hormones are banned on the basis that there is no way of determining a safe level. The UK has stated that in the event of the EU raising the ban at some future date, to comply with a precautionary approach, it would only consider the introduction of specific hormones, proven on a case by case basis.^[41] In 1998, the European Unionbanned feeding animals antibiotics that were found to be valuable for human health. Furthermore, in 2006 the European Union banned all drugs for livestock that were used for growth promotion purposes. As a result of these bans, the levels of antibiotic resistance in animal products and within the human population showed a decrease.^[42][43]

The various techniques of factory farming have been associated with a number of European incidents where public health has been threatened or large numbers of animals have had to be slaughtered to deal with disease. Where disease breaks out, it may spread more quickly, not only due to the concentrations of animals, but because modern approaches tend to distribute animals more widely.^{[44][citation needed]} The international trade in animal products increases the risk of global transmission of virulent diseases such as swine fever,^[45] BSE,foot and mouth and bird flu.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been identified in pigs and humans raising concerns about the role of pigs as reservoirs of MRSA for human infection. One study found that 20% of pig farmers in the United States and Canada in 2007 harbored MRSA.^[46] A second study revealed that 81% of Dutch pig farms had pigs with MRSA and 39% of animals at slaughter carried the bug were all of the infections were resistant to tetracycline and many were resistant to other antimicrobials.^[47] A more recent study found that MRSA ST398 isolates were less susceptible to tiamulin, an antimicrobial used in agriculture, than other MRSA or methicillin susceptible S. aureus.^[48] Cases of MRSA have increased in livestock animals. CC398 is a new clone of MRSA that has emerged in animals and is found in intensively reared production animals (primarily pigs, but also cattle and poultry), where it can be transmitted to humans. Although being dangerous to humans CC398 is often asymptomatic in food-producing animals.^[49]

A 2011 study reported that according to a nationwide study nearly half of the meat and poultry sold in U.S. grocery stores—47 percent—was contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those bacteria—52 percent—were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics. Although Staph should be killed with proper cooking, it may still pose a risk to consumers through improper food handling and cross-contamination in the kitchen. The senior author of the study said, "The fact that drug-resistant S. aureus was so prevalent, and likely came from the food animals themselves, is troubling, and demands attention to how antibiotics are used in food-animal production today."^[50]

In April 2009, lawmakers in the Mexican state of Veracruz accused large-scale hog and poultry operations of being breeding grounds of a pandemic swine flu, although they did not present scientific evidence to support their claim. A swine flu which quickly killed more than 100 infected persons in that area, appears to have begun in the vicinity of a Smithfieldsubsidiary pig CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation).^[51]

ANIMAL HEALTH

Confinement and overcrowding of animals results in a lack of exercise and natural locomotory behavior, which weakens their bones and muscles. An intensive poultry farm provides the optimum conditions for viral mutation and transmission – thousands of birds crowded together in a closed, warm, and dusty environment is highly conducive to the transmission of acontagious disease. Selecting generations of birds for their faster growth rates and higher meat yields has left birds’ immune systems less able to cope with infections and there is a high degree of genetic uniformity in the population, making the spread of disease more likely. Further intensification of the industry has been suggested by some as the solution to avian flu, on the rationale that keeping birds indoors will prevent contamination. However, this relies on perfect, fail-safe biosecurity – and such measures are near impossible to implement. Movement between farms by people, materials, and vehicles poses a threat and breaches in biosecurity are possible. Intensive farming may be creating highly virulent avian flu strains. With the frequent flow of goods within and between countries, the potential for disease spread is high.^[52] Confinement and overcrowding of animals' environment presents the risk of contamination of the meat from viruses and bacteria. Feedlot animals reside in crowded conditions and often spend their time standing in their own waste.^[53] A dairy farm with 2,500 cows may produce as much waste as a city of 411,000 people, and unlike a city in which human waste ends up at a sewage treatment plant, livestock waste is not treated. As a result, feedlot animals have the potential of exposure to various viruses and bacteria via the manure and urine in their environment. Furthermore, the animals often have residual manure on their bodies when they go to slaughter.^[54]

Confinement at high stocking density requires antibiotics and pesticides to mitigate the spread of disease and pestilence exacerbated by these crowded living conditions.^[8] In addition, antibiotics are used to stimulate livestock growth by killing intestinal bacteria.^[9] According to a February 2011 FDA report, nearly 29 million pounds of antimicrobials were sold in 2009 for both therapeutic and non-therapeutic use for all farm animal species.^[55] The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 70% of that amount is for non-therapeutic use.^[56]

Animal welfare impacts of factory farming can include:

§  Close confinement systems (cages, crates) or lifetime confinement in indoor sheds

§  Discomfort and injuries caused by inappropriate flooring and housing

§  Restriction or prevention of normal exercise and most of natural foraging or exploratory behaviour

§  Restriction or prevention of natural maternal nesting behaviour

§  Lack of daylight or fresh air and poor air quality in animal sheds

§  Social stress and injuries caused by overcrowding

§  Health problems caused by extreme selective breeding and management for fast growth and high productivity

§  Reduced lifetime (longevity) of breeding animals (dairy cows, breeding sows)

§  Fast-spreading infections encouraged by crowding and stress in intensive conditions^[57]

§  Debeaking (beak trimming or shortening) in the poultry and egg industry to avoid pecking in overcrowded quarters^[58]

§  Forced and over feeding (by inserting tubes into the throats of ducks) in the production of foie gras^[59]

Environmental impact

Concentrating large numbers of animals in factory farms is a major contribution to global environmental degradation, through the need to grow feed (often by intensive methods using excessive fertiliser and pesticides), pollution of water, soil and air by agrochemicals and manure waste, and use of limited resources (water, energy).^[57]

Livestock production is also particularly water-intensive in indoor, intensive systems. Eight percent of global human water use goes towards animal production, including water used to irrigate feed crops.^[57]

Industrial production of pigs and poultry is an important source of GHG emissions and is predicted to become more so. On intensive pig farms, the animals are generally kept on concrete with slats or grates for the manure to drain through. The manure is usually stored in slurry form (slurry is a liquid mixture of urine and feces). During storage on farm, slurry emits methane and when manure is spread on fields it emits nitrous oxide and causes nitrogen pollution of land and water. Poultry manure from factory farms emits high levels of nitrous oxide and ammonia.

Organic pig meat production has a lower global warming potential per kg than does intensive pig meat production. The energy input for free-range poultry meat and eggs is higher than for factory-farmed poultry meat and eggs, but GHG emissions are lower.

Poultry farming also has a high impact on the environment due to extreme excrement production by the chickens, which they are then forced to live in for the remainder of their lives.

Environmental impacts of factory farming can include:

§  Deforestation for animal feed production

§  Unsustainable pressure on land for production of high-protein/high-energy animal feed

§  Pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer manufacture and use for feed production

§  Unsustainable use of water for feed-crops, including groundwater extraction

§  Pollution of soil, water and air by nitrogen and phosphorus from fertiliser used for feed-crops and from manure

§  Land degradation (reduced fertility, soil compaction, increased salinity, desertification)

§  Loss of biodiversity due to eutrophication, acidification, pesticides and herbicides

§  Worldwide reduction of genetic diversity of livestock and loss of traditional breeds

§  Species extinctions due to livestock-related habitat destruction (especially feed-cropping)