Perspectives: Pros and Cons

Supporters of industrial agriculture identify three major benefits (New World Encyclopedia, 2017):

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     1. It enables the production of cheap and plentiful food. Since the inception of industrial agriculture in the United States, agricultural productivity has steadily increased while the percentage of U.S. disposable income spent on food prepared at home has steadily decreas​ed.

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     2. It provides more convenience and choice for the consumer. The industry today processes, packages, and markets food in whatever way maximizes return on investment. If consumers want fast-preparation-food, they get it. If they want more nutritious food, they get it.

     3. It provides employment opportunities on many levels, from growers to harvesters to processors to sellers.

Critics of industrial agriculture identify five major harms (New World Encyclopedia, 2017):

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     1. It creates harm to the environment. Industrial agriculture, “uses huge amounts of water, energy, and industrial chemicals; increasing pollution in the arable land, useable water and atmosphere. Herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, and animal waste products are accumulating in ground and surface waters. Many of the negative effects of industrial agriculture are remote from fields and farms. Nitrogen compounds from the Midwest, for example, travel down the Mississippi to degrade coastal fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. But other adverse effects are showing up within agricultural production systems—for example, the rapidly developing resistance among pests is rendering our arsenal of herbicides and insecticides increasingly ineffective.

     2. It creates harm to nearby communities. Research has found the existence of substantial deterioration in human living conditions in nearby communities. These are created primarily by increased levels of air, water, and land pollution.

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     3. It creates deplorable living conditions for the animals. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) or "intensive livestock operations" or "factory farms," can hold large numbers (some up to hundreds of thousands) of animals, often indoors and in very confined spaces. These animals are typically cows, hogs, turkeys, or chickens. The aim of the operation is to produce as much meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost. Food and water are supplied in place, and artificial methods are often employed to maintain animal health and improve production. In meat production, methods are also sometimes employed to control undesirable behaviors often related to stresses of being confined in restricted areas with other animals. More docile breeds are sought (with natural dominant behaviors bred out for example), physical restraints to stop interaction, such as individual cages for chickens, or animals physically modified, such as the de-beaking of chickens to reduce the harm of fighting. Weight gain is encouraged by the provision of plentiful supplies of food. Animal rights and animal welfare activists have charged that intensive animal rearing is cruel to animals.

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     4. Waste distribution contaminates lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water. In 24 states in the U.S., isolated cases of groundwater contamination have been linked to CAFOs. For example, the ten million hogs in North Carolina generate 19 million tons of waste per year. The U.S. federal government acknowledges the waste disposal issue and requires that animal waste be stored in lagoons. These lagoons can be as large as 7.5 acres. Lagoons not protected with an impermeable liner can leak waste into groundwater under some conditions, as can runoff from manure spread back onto fields as fertilizer in the case of an unforeseen heavy rainfall. A lagoon that burst in 1995 released 25 million gallons of nitrous sludge in North Carolina's New River. The spill allegedly killed eight to ten million fish.

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     5. The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and dead animals in a small space poses concerns for human health. One particular problem with farms on which animals are intensively reared is the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Because large numbers of animals are confined in a small space, any disease would spread quickly, and so antibiotics are used preventively. A small percentage of bacteria are not killed by the drugs, which may infect human beings if it becomes airborne.

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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 and musculoskeletal injuries and may catch infections that transmit from animals to human beings. The CDC reports that chemical, bacterial, and viral compounds from animal waste may travel in the soil and water. Residents near such farms report nuisances such as unpleasant smells and flies, as well as adverse health effects.

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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.