FACTORY FARMS Home
A personal perspective on factory dairies.
Factory farming operations regard the land, the animals and the community as a disposable commodity to be exploited and discarded. Factory farming operations place massive numbers of cows into a small confined area. They live miserable lives in overcrowded pens, standing knee deep in their own feces and urine, dried manure caked to their sides and udders. They are kept under lights twenty four hours a day these cow will never be on pasture, and will never eat fresh green grass. The feed they receive is laced with the remains of dead animals, as well as antibiotics and hormones to keep them at what the dairymen define as "full production". What this term means is sacrificing the animals' life for a larger margin of profit at the end of the year. Normal life expectancy for a cow is 15 - 20 years, but lacking even the most minimal humane standards these animals live only three to four short years. Once their bodies are wasted they will be herded or dragged to the nearest slaughter house where they will become a part of the food supply for our families.
The cruelty these animals endure is surpassed only by the damage and destruction inflected on individuals or communities in the vicinity of the factory operation. The water, air, health and way of life is rapidly diminished. These changes force long time residents to become prisoners in their own homes. All windows and doors are kept tightly closed because it is easier to endure the summer heat than the stench coming from the sewage "lagoons". Dark clouds of flies swarm year round curtailing outside activities. The gasses from the open sewage pits, many of them acres in size, not only cause health problems but also becomes a social embarrassment. It’s difficult to entertain when your yard and home reek of fermented sewage. Familiar surroundings begin to change. Fields become brown to black with the year round application of manure. Still there is not enough space to dump the manure and slurry. Acres of green grazing land become huge mountains of manure two to three stories in height. Liquids from this manure leach into the ground and eventually into our well water. Wells that had run clean for generations now have high and dangerous levels of nitrates. Health standards consider the wells not safe for human consumption. Bottled water replaces the fresh clear water that once came from the wells.
Surface water runs shades brown instead of its regular color. White foam frequently floats by and the smell of manure is easily detected. Aquatic life is destroyed and streams become unfit for human contact. All these condition cause the value of your farmland and home to drop. You now have the choice of selling at a loss or enduring imprisonment in your own home.
What is a factory farm? It is the seeds of destruction to any rural community and the end of rural life as we have known it. While we have described factory dairy operations, the same horrendous treatment of pigs, chickens and beef takes place across the country.