U.S. Meat Farmers Brace for Limits on Antibiotics
By: Erik Eckholm
Summary: The pigs that live in factory farms are kept in tight quarters as shown in the picture above. To maintain their health, they are given antibiotics even when they are not sick. The pigs are also given steroids so they grow faster with less food. The Food And Drug Administration is saying that providing these drugs to the pigs poses a risk to human health. The Factory Farmers disagree and say that there is no direct link to these drugs and human health. The FDA says that there is no noted effects because the type of steroid being fed to the pigs is relatively new. Not using the drug would raise the price of pork by about five cents per pound. Should the FDA ban the antibotic and steroids even though human health has not yet been effected?
Review: I am against the Factory Farm. The only thing that farmers are concerned about is how much money they make. It is animal cruelty to force animals into tight quarters and feed them medicine they do not need. I also think that it is dangerous for humans to consume animals that have been overmedicated. Common sense says that if you eat an animal that had steroids in its system before it was slaughtered, it will have steroids in its system after they were slaughtered. These steroids will most likely end up in your body. It is better to be safe than sorry. What happens if ten years from now, we realize that eating these pigs is dangerous to human health? I think the FDA is correct and these drugs should be banned.
Questions:1. Why are there factory farms?
2. What are some bad effects to the enviorment of factory farms?
3.Do you think that feeding steroids and unnecessary antibiotics to pigs effects human health?
4. Do you think the FDA should ban feeding steroids and unnecessary antibiotics to pigs?
5. Why would meat prices go up if the factory farms stopped giving steroids to animals ?
I agree with Brian what they are doing to the pigs,or any animal in these farms is just horrible. I think that everyone should have to see the living ocnditions that these animals are living. It reallly makes me rather sick.
ReplyDeleteAs to the answer fro question 5)Meat prices would go up to cover the cost of the animals taht died bacause of sickness. With less animals to go around they need to mark it up so they can still make a profit on the animals that they killed. But for the animals that got sick if the weren't given steriods then they would die and any thing the "farmers" had paid for that animal is esstenial lost money. Anther reason why prices would go up is if the gave only the sick pigs and animals the anitbictics it would take a lot of man power. The prices would be marked up to cover that cost.
To be honest I don't care to much about factory farming. Sure the animal's living conditions are horrible and the USDA should pass laws that protect the animal's rights, but i don't care much about steroid additives. Billions of people around the world eat meat from factory farms everyday, and the general public isn't keeling over dead. The chance of being sickened is slim and the chance of dying is even slimmer. Sure, there are drawbacks to factory farms, but they are much outweighed by benefits like a boosted economy and always having a sufficent supply of food
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1:Factory farms originally took control back when the population began to outgrow the amount of food supplied by local farmers. Factory farms raise much more animals in much less space, so they could support population booms. Since the meat at factory farms is cheaper they are more popular to consumers.
I think its terrible that the factory farmers are drugging these pigs unnecessarily. Its bad enough that we affect the balance of nature by creating these factory farms in the first place, but now we are constantly putting these unnatural drugs into these poor, helpless creatures, just to make a profit. If people were more aware of these cruel conditions, a good amount of people would pay a tiny bit more to know that their pigs are drug free. After all, why would anyone take chances with disease? The factory farmers should be aware that their farms shouldn't be completely dependent on profits, or else there could be harmful results.
ReplyDeleteThis article reminds me of the Meatrix video we saw in class, where they described the cruel conditions of factory farms, even though they may have exaggerated. They both show that something has to change in the factory farms to at least make the problem smaller.
Question 2: Some bad affects to the environment include pollution of rivers with animal waste, unfertile soil in certain areas, also caused by excess animal waste and food chains that involve the animals in the factory farm because there would be a lot of that species removed from their environment.
This article is exactly like the videos we watched in class. Factory Farms are taking over and using harmful methods in order to make a larger profit. It’s selfish that the animals are being fed antibiotics and steroids when they are not needed for them to survive. It’s extremely cruel that the animals are put into tight quarters and never get to see the light of day. The FDA should have some regulation on Factory Farms because it’s not good for the animals and surely can’t be good for humans. I wonder what the effects put these antibiotics and steroids in animals have on humans. These methods are relatively new and have not been monitored, so we do not even have a clue what the long term effects are. Factory Farms are not good, they need to change their methods of breeding, so the animals will be healthy as well as the consumer.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question number 3: Yes, I do think feeding steroids and unnecessary antibiotics to pigs effect human health. This situation is like when a diseased mosquito bites you and you end up getting malaria. It’s the same principle but with the human digestive systems. Also it can’t be good to eat the meat from these animals because they are under a great deal of stress, when people and animals get stressed their immune system weakens, making them susceptible to diseases.