Factory Farming and its Disturbing Facts

Did you know that factory farming produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUV’s cars, trucks, planes and ships in the world combined?  

Methane contributes to 37% of the greenhouse gas emitted from factory farms, which has 23 times the global warming impact than that of CO2. 

Factory farming has permanently contaminated over 35,000 miles of rivers  and streams in over 22 states

74% of fresh water fish are killed because of factory farm runoff; there are also stretches of coastal waters that are called dead zones because of farm runoff. 

Factory farm waste is responsible for 80% of the ammonia emission in the United States. Ammonia is the primary producer of acid rain. 

Here something else that is disturbing, did you know that it takes a thousand gallon of water to produce a single pound of beef? This means that the average person could save more water by not eating a pound of beef than not showering for a whole year! Yikes!!!

The USDA reports that animal waste from US meat factories produce over 61 million tons of waste each year, this is over 130 times more volume than that of human waste. 

Did you also know that animal waste causes respiratory problems, skin infections, nausea, depression and even death for people who live by these factory farms. There is even a link to women having miscarriages who lived in Indiana near a hog factory. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to factory farming! It made me sick to my stomach when I read about all the cruelty to animals and their living conditions. Somehow there needs to be some stricter regulations. After reading these statistics and learning how they treat animals I will spend the extra money to buy local and organic.