'' Farm to Fridge ''

In this blog, I will be writing about what animals go through from the four minute video I have watched.

            The video showed us the cruelty of animal slaughter. The difference between animals being raised to being slaughtered inside regular farms, are far more different then these " Modern Farms ". For instances, let`s talk about the poultry, thousands of chickens being crowed / cramped, deprived and denied from their natural needs, Such as fresh air, and exercise just basic needs. So that said, many of them fall ill, develop diseases, the workers brutally make them suffer so the fact that may die a slow death. The eggs, the chicks go through a unimaginable process. The male chicks are not worth the time, due to the fact that they don`t lay eggs and are not " profitable ". So they are killed after hours being hatched, methods for killing the male chicks has been created. And as for the female chicks all I can say is that they are destined for long life cruelty. What words come to mind ,cages/confinement etc. Let`s talk about the cows ( dairy / beef ), the majority of the dairy products are confined. The cows go through a painful process, some of the actions the factory workers perform are really unnecessary, they are subjected to mutilation and amputation. Just an example, they cut off their tails not knowing if it hurts them or not, Hence the injury they go through and developing illness. So basically they are left to die a slow horrifying death. And can`t forget about bacon, mother pigs commonly known as Sows, they are confined into cages bigger then their bodies are. After they give birth to piglets, the workers make them go through such an horrific, unimaginable process. Soon as they are born they go through castration, ripping out their private parts and other unimaginable procedure without anesthesia. So the sick ones which did not " make their inhumane procedures " are left to rot. clearly, this is what the animals go through every day, just so that we may eat, and fill our needs until satisfied. This is the journey the animals go through from " Farm to Fridge ".

Introduction to the CAFO system

             In this Blog I will discuss about the introduction to the CAFO system by Daniel Imhoff. 
         
         Daniel Imhoff raised an important issue He said in the first page of the introduction  " Our domesticated livestock have never been as cruelly confined or slaughtered in such massive quantities in all of history."  notice when he said confined, meaning enclosed, trapped , which leads to believing that there is a system which needs to be questioned. For instance, a high number amount of animals are being massively slaughtered , as we speak. nearly 10 billion  animals ( livestock's ) are being slaughtered. Even more alarming this concept is being spread through out the globe, Daniel Imhoff mentions in the introduction that " The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that global consumption of both meat and dairy products will double by 2050." ( Henning Steinfeld , Pierre Gerber, Tom Wassenaar, Vincent Castel, Maurice Rosales, and Cees de Haan, Livestock's long shadow: Environmental Issues and options [ Rome: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 2006],xx .Which leads to acknowledging a new farming system called The CAFO ( Concentrated Animal Feeding operations ).


          The idea Factory Farms comes into mind, because the animals are being mistreated far worst then one can imagine. The pace of killing is relentless, the animals are being held in a assembly line as if they were meant to be purposely ill-treated. These animals are being assembled  in a factory like concentrated camps, in other words concentrated animal feeding operations ( CAFO ). A CAFO is a feeding operation, that feeds animals unusual foods in order to gain weight in a rapid pace. As it is mentioned " Animal density and weight gain are the primary objectives." by Daniel imhoff. These operations are causing numerous issues such as environmental pollution , medicine abuse. They use lands for fertilizing or you can say " spray-fields "  for the animals, but by doing that while cramped up and no natural  farming doings they produce a lot of waste which is a problematic concern. As it is stated " The intensive concentration of animals produces obscene amounts of waste. It is not uncommon for a CAFO on 100 acres to generate the same amount sewage as a city of 100,00 inhabitants." by Daniel Imhoff ( Introduction ) xv. Also its becoming a toxic social and ecological liability, because the fact that it will spread to other places and very fast. Another point being, concerning medicine over usage, inside the CAFO the animals are rapidly growing fast,why, because of the antibiotics they receive daily, whether they need it or not. As mentioned by Daniel Imhoff " Inside the CAFO, animals are routinely administrated  antibiotics whether they need them or not." And by doing that they are creating more forms of diseases such as Salmonella E. coli and other disease forms.

          The CAFOs makes us believe that what they are doing is legal and right. By saying that they are trying to feed a " hungry planet " , deceiving us by their professional  business appearance. But as you read in the introduction Daniel Imhoff mentions a lot of profound illegal/unlawful actions, ideas (i.e concepts). That the " hungry planet " must take actions against what they are doing. As he said : " Clearly, they ways in which we produce our food define us as a culture and as human beings. The subject forces us to ask big questions: How did we arrive  at this place where they very foundation of human society-secure and sustainable food production- has become so far removed from caring farmers and cycles of nature?." ( Daniel Imhoff ). The CAFOs arises a lot more concerns and issues , that we must take into consideration ,and hopefully come to an conclusion.