ANIMAL RAISING PRODUCTIONIntensive animal farmingorindustrial
livestock production, also calledfactory farming or animal
production, is a modern form ofintensive farming that refers to the
industrialized production oflivestock, including cattle, poultry
(in "Battery cages") and fish in confinement at high stocking
density a practice typical inindustrial farmingbyagribusinesses.
The main products of this industry aremeat, milkandeggsfor human
consumption. 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 on economies of scale, modern
machinery,biotechnology, andglobal trade. Confinement at high
stocking density requiresantibioticsand pesticidesto 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 population; the
environmental impact and the health risksand associated pollution
and health issues. The practice is widespread indeveloped nations.
According to theWorld watch Institute, as of 2006 74 percent of the
world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs were
produced this way. HistoryThe practice of industrial animal
agriculture is a relatively recent development in thehistory of
agriculture, and the result of scientific discoveries and
technological advances. Innovations in agriculture beginning in the
late 19th century generally parallel developments inmass
productionin other industries that characterized the latter part of
theIndustrial Revolution. The discovery ofvitaminsand their role in
animalnutrition, in the first two decades of the 20th century, led
to vitamin supplements, which allowed chickens to be raised
indoors.[14]The discovery ofantibioticsandvaccinesfacilitated
raising livestock in larger numbers by reducing disease. Chemicals
developed for use inWorld War IIgave rise to syntheticpesticides.
Developments in shipping networks and technology have made
long-distance distribution of agricultural produce
feasible.Agricultural production across the world doubled four
times between 1820 and 1975 (1820 to 1920; 1920 to 1950; 1950 to
1965; and 1965 to 1975) to feed a global population of one billion
human beings in 1800 and 6.5 billion in 2002. During the same
period, the number of people involved in farming dropped as the
process became more automated. In the 1930s, 24 percent of the
American population worked in agriculture compared to 1.5 percent
in 2002; in 1940, each farm worker supplied 11 consumers, whereas
in 2002, each worker supplied 90 consumers. According to theBBC,
the era factory farming per se in Britain began in 1947 when a new
Agriculture Act granted subsidies to farmers to encourage greater
output by introducing new technology, in order to reduce Britain's
reliance on imported meat. The United Nations writes that
"intensification of animal production was seen as a way of
providing food security. In 1960s North America, pigs and cows
began to be raised on factory farms. From its American and West
European heartland factory farming became globalised in the later
years of the 20th century and is still expanding and replacing
traditional practices of stock rearing in an increasing number of
countries. In 1990 factory farming accounted for 30% of world meat
production and by 2005 this had risen to 40%.Contemporary animal
productionFactory farms hold large numbers of animals, typically
cows, pigs, turkeys, or chickens, often indoors, typically at high
densities. The aim of the operation is to produce large quantities
of meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost. Food is
supplied in place, and a wide variety of artificial methods are
employed to maintain animal health and improve production, such as
the use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth
hormones. Physical restraints are used to control movement or
actions regarded as undesirable. Breeding programs are used to
produce animals more suited to the confined conditions and able to
provide a consistent food product.Factory farming is widespread
indeveloped nations. According to theWorldwatch Institute, as of
2006, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68
percent of eggs were produced this way. In the U.S., as of 2000
four companies produced 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 60
percent of pigs, and 50 percent of chickens and according to its
National Pork Producers Council, 80 million of its 95 million pigs
slaughtered each year are reared in industrial settings.ChickensIn
the United States, chickens were raised primarily on family farms
until roughly 1960. Originally, the primary value in poultry was
eggs, and meat was considered a byproduct of egg production.Its
supply was less than the demand, and poultry was expensive. Except
in hot weather, eggs can be shipped and stored without
refrigeration for some time before going bad; this was important in
the days before widespread refrigeration.Farm flocks tended to be
small because the hens largely fed themselves through foraging,
with some supplementation of grain, scraps, and waste products from
other farm ventures. Such feedstuffs were in limited supply,
especially in the winter, and this tended to regulate the size of
the farm flocks. Soon after poultry keeping gained the attention of
agricultural researchers (around 1896), improvements in nutrition
and management made poultry keeping more profitable and
businesslike.Prior to about 1910, chicken was served primarily on
special occasions or Sunday dinner. Poultry was shipped live or
killed, plucked, and packed on ice (but not eviscerated). The
"whole, ready-to-cook broiler" was not popular until the 1950s,
when end-to-end refrigeration and sanitary practices gave consumers
more confidence. Before this, poultry were often cleaned by the
neighborhood butcher, though cleaning poultry at home was a
commonplace kitchen skill.Two kinds of poultry were generally used:
broilers or "spring chickens;" young male chickens, a byproduct of
the egg industry, which were sold when still young and tender
(generally under 3 pounds live weight), and "stewing hens," also a
byproduct of the egg industry, which were old hens past their prime
for laying. The major milestone in 20th century poultry production
was the discovery of vitamin D, which made it possible to keep
chickens in confinement year-round. Before this, chickens did not
thrive during the winter (due to lack of sunlight), and egg
production, incubation, and meat production in the off-season were
all very difficult, making poultry a seasonal and expensive
proposition. Year-round production lowered costs, especially for
broilers.At the same time, egg production was increased by
scientific breeding. After a few false starts, (such as the Maine
Experiment Station's failure at improving egg production) success
was shown by Professor Dryden at the Oregon Experiment Station.
Improvements in production and quality were accompanied by lower
labor requirements. In the 1930s through the early 1950s, 1,500
hens was considered to be a full-time job for a farm family. In the
late 1950s, egg prices had fallen so dramatically that farmers
typically tripled the number of hens they kept, putting three hens
into what had been a single-bird cage or converting their
floor-confinement houses from a single deck of roosts to
triple-decker roosts. Not long after this, prices fell still
further and large numbers of egg farmers left the business.Robert
Plamondon reports that the last family chicken farm in his part of
Oregon, Rex Farms, had 30,000 layers and survived into the 1990s.
But the standard laying house of the current operators is around
125,000 hens.This fall in profitability was accompanied by a
general fall in prices to the consumer, allowing poultry and eggs
to lose their status as luxury foods.Thevertical integrationof the
egg and poultry industries was a late development, occurring after
all the major technological changes had been in place for years
(including the development of modern broiler rearing techniques,
the adoption of the Cornish Cross broiler, the use of laying cages,
etc.).By the late 1950s, poultry production had changed
dramatically. Large farms and packing plants could grow birds by
the tens of thousands. Chickens could be sent to slaughterhousesfor
butchering and processing into prepackaged commercial products to
be frozen or shipped fresh to markets or wholesalers. Meat-type
chickens currently grow to market weight in six to seven weeks,
whereas only fifty years ago it took three times as long. This is
due to genetic selection and nutritional modifications (and not the
use of growth hormones, which are illegal for use in poultry in the
US and many other countries). Once a meat consumed only
occasionally, the common availability and lower cost has made
chicken a common meat product within developed nations. Growing
concerns over thecholesterolcontent ofred meatin the 1980s and
1990s further resulted in increased consumption of chicken.Today,
eggs are produced on large egg ranches on which environmental
parameters are well controlled. Chickens are exposed to artificial
light cycles to stimulate egg production year-round. In addition,
it is a common practice to inducemoltingthrough careful
manipulation of light and the amount of food they receive in order
to further increase egg size and production.On average, a chicken
lays one egg a day, but not on every day of the year. This varies
with the breed and time of year. In 1900, average egg production
was 83 eggs per hen per year. In 2000, it was well over 300. In the
United States, laying hens are butchered after their second egg
laying season. In Europe, they are generally butchered after a
single season. The laying period begins when the hen is about 1820
weeks old (depending on breed and season). Males of the egg-type
breeds have little commercial value at any age, and all those not
used for breeding (roughly fifty percent of all egg-type chickens)
are killed soon after hatching. The old hens also have little
commercial value. Thus, the main sources of poultry meat 100 years
ago (spring chickens and stewing hens) have both been entirely
supplanted by meat-type broiler chickens.Some believe the "deadly
H5N1 strain of bird flu is essentially a problem of industrial
poultry practices".Others have a more nuanced position. According
to theCDCarticleH5N1 Outbreaks and Enzootic InfluenzabyRobert G.
Websteret al.:"Transmission of highly pathogenic H5N1 from domestic
poultry back to migratory waterfowl in western China has increased
the geographic spread. The spread of H5N1 and its likely
reintroduction to domestic poultry increase the need for good
agricultural vaccines. In fact, the root cause of the continuing
H5N1 pandemic threat may be the way the pathogenicity of H5N1
viruses is masked by cocirculating influenza viruses or bad
agricultural vaccines." Dr. Robert Webster explains: "If you use a
good vaccine you can prevent the transmission within poultry and to
humans. But if they have been using vaccines now [in China] for
several years, why is there so much bird flu? There is bad vaccine
that stops the disease in the bird but the bird goes on pooping out
virus and maintaining it and changing it. And I think this is what
is going on in China. It has to be. Either there is not enough
vaccine being used or there is substandard vaccine being used.
Probably both. Its not just China. We cant blame China for
substandard vaccines. I think there are substandard vaccines for
influenza in poultry all over the world."In response to the same
concerns, Reuters reports Hong Kong infectious disease expert Lo
Wing-lok saying, "The issue of vaccines has to take top priority,"
and Julie Hall, in charge of the WHO's outbreak response in China,
saying China's vaccinations might be masking the virus."The BBC
reported that Dr Wendy Barclay, a virologist at the University of
Reading, UK said: "The Chinese have made a vaccine based on reverse
genetics made with H5N1 antigens, and they have been using it.
There has been a lot of criticism of what they have done, because
they have protected their chickens against death from this virus
but the chickens still get infected; and then you get drift the
virus mutates in response to the antibodies and now we have a
situation where we have five or six 'flavours' of H5N1 out
there."Keeping wild birds away from domestic birds is known to be
key in the fight against H5N1. Caging (nofree rangepoultry) is one
way. Providing wild birds with restored wetlands so they naturally
choose nonlivestock areas is another way that helps accomplish
this. Political forces are increasingly demanding the selection of
one, the other, or both based on nonscientific reasons.
CattleCattle, colloquially referred to as cows,
aredomesticatedungulates, a member of thesubfamilyBovinaeof
thefamilyBovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat (called
beef and veal),dairy products(milk), leather and asdraught
animals(pullingcarts,plowsand the like). In some countries, such
asIndia, they are honored in religious ceremonies and revered. It
is estimated that there are 1.4 billion head of cattle in the world
today. Cattle are often raised by allowing herds tograzeon the
grasses of large tracts ofrangelandcalledranches. Raising cattle in
this manner allows the productive use of land that might be
unsuitable for growing crops. The most common interactions with
cattle involve dailyfeeding, cleaning andmilking. Many routine
husbandry practices involveear tagging, dehorning, loading,medical
operations, vaccinations andhoofcare, as well as training for
agricultural shows and preparations. There are also some cultural
differences in working with cattle- the cattle husbandry of Fulani
men rests onbehavioural techniques, whereas in Europe cattle are
controlled primarily by physical means likefences. Once cattle
obtain an entry-level weight, about 650 pounds (300kg), they are
transferred from the range to afeedlotto be fed a specializedanimal
feedwhich consists of corn byproducts (derived from ethanol
production), barley, and other grains as well as alfalfa,cottonseed
meal, and premixes composed of micro ingredients such as vitamins,
minerals, chemical preservatives,antibiotics, fermentation
products, and other essential ingredients that are purchased from
premix companies, usually in sacked form, for blending into
commercial rations. Because of the availability of these products,
a farmer who uses his own grain can formulate his own rations and
be assured his animals are getting the recommended levels of
minerals and vitamins. Breeders can utilise cattle husbandry to
reduceM. bovis infectionsusceptibility by selective breeding and
maintaining herd health to avoid concurrent disease.Cattle are
farmed for beef, veal, dairy, leather and they are sometimes used
simply to maintain grassland for wildlife- for example, inEpping
Forest, England. They are often used in some of the most wild
places for livestock. Depending on the breed, cattle can survive on
hill grazing, heaths, marshes, moors and semi desert. Modern cows
are more commercial than older breeds and having become more
specialised are less versatile. For this reason many smaller
farmers still favour old breeds, like the dairy breed of
cattleJersey.There are many potential impacts on human health due
to the modern cattle industrial agriculture system. There are
concerns surrounding the antibiotics and growth hormones used,
increased E. Coli contamination, higher saturated fat contents in
the meat because of the feed, and also environmental concerns. As
of 2010, in the U.S. 766,350 producers participate in raising beef.
The beef industry is segmented with the bulk of the producers
participating in raising beef calves. Beef calves are generally
raised in small herds, with over 90% of the herds having less than
100 head of cattle. Fewer producers participate in the finishing
phase which often occurs in a feedlot, but nonetheless there are
82,170 feedlots in the United States.