I am someone who has family roots that run deep with involvement in agriculture. I would have to say that a lot of these pictures do a great job of depicting how hard farmers must work to make sure food is on the table for our constantly growing population. I have read a lot of comments that bring up good concern about animal agriculture, and I just wanted to drop my perspective into the mix! My family has been raising pigs since 1970, so the swine industry is near and dear to my heart. My family along with many other hog farmers hold animal husbandry as a top priority. Animals can obtain illness just like humans, which is why we responsibly use antibiotics. Here is a link to how the National Pork Board is pursuing steps toward responsibly antibiotic usage http://bit.ly/2cWlUTq. We know our consumers care about where their food is coming from and how it is raised, and as farmers we want the best for consumers and the products they are purchasing!
4
Pollan's article is typical. While he doesn't make factual errors however he uses innuendo to imply that "big Ag" exists due to government intervention and subsidies. Maize was major crop in the 30's before big Ag existed. Soybeans improved the soil starting int the 40's due to nitrogen fixation and soil improvement from breakdown of their roots. As Tom Stelow indicated, big farms exist BECAUSE they are efficient in terms of; labor (no one wants to weed with a hoe weeds anymore), energy and land (higher yields). It is not perfect. Improvements could be made in efficiency of nitrogen manufacture and use, water use and improved pest control. If you want to improve the system personally, become a vegetarian, you don't need to go vegan since, remember, the cows giving milk for milk, yogurt and cheese already are and efficient dairy's do use anaerobic fermentation to turn their manure into good fertilizer are already vegan.
2
I've known about this for years because I've read about it, and even watched a few documentaries on the subject. The documentaries always have a sensationalistic nature imbued by the passion of animal rights activists, which paradoxically makes them easier to dismiss as extreme outliers. Seeing these photos which are, as another poster observed, journalistically neutral is the tipping point. It was the turkeys that did it. I'm now a vegetarian who will be very careful about where my eggs and cheese come from. As for the workers, where is Caessar Chavez when we need him, for we all need him, not just the packers.
@Poet McT: your speech is reminiscent of Agent Smith's description of humans from The Matrix. Still spot on.
@Poet McT: your speech is reminiscent of Agent Smith's description of humans from The Matrix. Still spot on.
2
"Grandeur" is not the message I get from this photo story. Rather than majesty, greatness, elevation, breadth, the striking quality is reduction--of sentient beings reduced to feeding, breeding cogs in a food machine.
It's revolting and heartbreaking to contemplate the massive scale of suffering Big Ag inflicts on living, feeling, thinking animals, on the workers who share the animals' short lives and brutal deaths, and the enormous impact on the earth.
Hygienic and immaculately framed, the photos fail to sanitize the sadism of strapping down mother pigs, reducing these friendly, intelligent creatures to feed conduits, their young destined for fear-filled lives, painful deaths and pulled-pork platter afterlives.
There are better culinary alternatives. Less brutal, rapacious and sapien-centric. More environmentally conscious, longsighted and tasty.
Yep, I'm talking vegetarian and vegan. I'm over the moon to be able to please my conscious--and palate--with these options.
Dogs are part of our family, so I know it's impossible to live in a meat-free world. All the more reason to source the precious, small amounts of meat you need from a farmer you know. That means taking time to find her/him and investing in building relationship to assure animals are pasture-riased, treated with care and and given a swift and merciful death.
I'm not rich, but I'm glad to pay more for food unsaturated with suffering. Like a lot of others note: it's the REAL price of food.
It's revolting and heartbreaking to contemplate the massive scale of suffering Big Ag inflicts on living, feeling, thinking animals, on the workers who share the animals' short lives and brutal deaths, and the enormous impact on the earth.
Hygienic and immaculately framed, the photos fail to sanitize the sadism of strapping down mother pigs, reducing these friendly, intelligent creatures to feed conduits, their young destined for fear-filled lives, painful deaths and pulled-pork platter afterlives.
There are better culinary alternatives. Less brutal, rapacious and sapien-centric. More environmentally conscious, longsighted and tasty.
Yep, I'm talking vegetarian and vegan. I'm over the moon to be able to please my conscious--and palate--with these options.
Dogs are part of our family, so I know it's impossible to live in a meat-free world. All the more reason to source the precious, small amounts of meat you need from a farmer you know. That means taking time to find her/him and investing in building relationship to assure animals are pasture-riased, treated with care and and given a swift and merciful death.
I'm not rich, but I'm glad to pay more for food unsaturated with suffering. Like a lot of others note: it's the REAL price of food.
3
It's a good thing that the urban farming movement is growing. I believe that everyone who can should try to grow some of their own food--on their property, in community gardens, vacant lots, rooftops and balconies, even in containers. It's fun and rewarding. The government should encourage small farms and people should study what happened to--what demolished-- the family farming system that had been the backbone of our economy for so long until the 1950's or 1960's. I've read that 90 percent of our farmlands are now owned by six big conglomerates.
Other things to think about are how we waste millions or billions of tons of food, both in the field and at every stage after. And the processing of food which may have been fairly sustaining at first, but made into something not fit for animals----such as those that are sometimes locked into headgear standing up while they give birth.
Other things to think about are how we waste millions or billions of tons of food, both in the field and at every stage after. And the processing of food which may have been fairly sustaining at first, but made into something not fit for animals----such as those that are sometimes locked into headgear standing up while they give birth.
2
Visually, this may tell the story of what the nexus of a world population of 7.5 billion, three times what it was in 1950, and an exuberant hydrocarbon-fertlizer-herbicide-pesticide-gene swapping agri-oligopoly has brought us. Whatever good this combination has wrought it hasn't come close to solving or preventing a world of 800 million calorie-undernourished people with another third of the human population now obese. It is after all, mostly about capital, greed, and naivete on the part of our global elites.
4
The sheer vitriol and tone deaf insensitivity of Vegans and others of their ilk never ceases to amaze me. Numerous comments listed below comparing farms to "Auschwitz" reveals a willingness to continue the dehumanization of Holocaust victims (Let's compare 6 million dead Jews to, oh, cows and pigs). These people wrap themselves up in their "love and peace" ideology and then reveal themselves as vicious, insensitive, cruel and hateful. Adding injury to insult, the "author/photographer/visionary" of this piece is clearly Jewish and the whiff of anti-Semitism poisons any points they are trying to make.
Anyone who knows the first thing about 21st century agriculture knows that fewer farmers are producing more food, more efficiently with a lower carbon footprint than any other time in human history. It is a staggering accomplishment made moreso by the fact that they do so despite rampant ignorance among the very consumers they feed on a daily basis.
Anyone who knows the first thing about 21st century agriculture knows that fewer farmers are producing more food, more efficiently with a lower carbon footprint than any other time in human history. It is a staggering accomplishment made moreso by the fact that they do so despite rampant ignorance among the very consumers they feed on a daily basis.
It's all rather gross.
2
It was brave of the companies involved to participate in this project. I want to thank them and the photographer for the objectivity of the images.
I wish with all my heart we could all be truthful about this subject, starting with admitting that almost all of us are complicit in it. Many are angry at Big Ag but at the same time want cheap food and want it available all the time.
Let us rethink and be mindful. Almost all of us are complicit in what is going on. Yes, we need to eat to live. However, do we need to eat the way we do now? Could we significantly lower the bad effects of how we practice agriculture now? Could we decide to spend more on food, and less on stuff that is not truly valuable to our health and happiness? These questions are central to our lives, the lives of those who will follow us, and all living things on this planet.
I wish with all my heart we could all be truthful about this subject, starting with admitting that almost all of us are complicit in it. Many are angry at Big Ag but at the same time want cheap food and want it available all the time.
Let us rethink and be mindful. Almost all of us are complicit in what is going on. Yes, we need to eat to live. However, do we need to eat the way we do now? Could we significantly lower the bad effects of how we practice agriculture now? Could we decide to spend more on food, and less on stuff that is not truly valuable to our health and happiness? These questions are central to our lives, the lives of those who will follow us, and all living things on this planet.
5
You can't feed seven, eight, ten billion people with small family farms. The dignity of animals must be sacrificed, and they must suffer horrible lives so that humanity can continue to multiply unfettered. Thousands of wild species must go extinct. The oceans must empty of fish and fill with sewage and garbage. We fill the earth with ourselves, at the cost of every other species on earth.
Welcome to the Garden of Uneden.
Welcome to the Garden of Uneden.
14
The lack of biodiversity is troubling.
Luckily, I have 20 acres.
Luckily, I have 20 acres.
Remind me again of where the savage confinement & then unmerciful slaughter of pigs & chickens and cows got its "Grandeur." What a ridiculous word for a headline! How about this instead: "The Appalling Vivisectionists of the 21st Century Animal Slaughter Factory." See, I believe if you cannot look the hog in the eye as you run your knife blade across its throat you shouldn't eat it. I'm old school.
10
Two main responses. (1) The photos are beautiful, but clean up the reality of CAFOs. They don't show the immense piles of manure being spread on fields, often to the detriment of residents who find their ability to go outdoors ruined and their well water undrinkable. I know this first hand: I live in rural eastern Wisconsin 10 miles from Rosendale Dairy pictured in this article; their manure is being spread on fields (hundreds of truckloads per field) just down the road from me as I type this (I just had to close the windows). The fumes emitted are hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane; no industry would survive EPA scrutiny with emissions on this scale, but big ag gets a free pass for political reasons (certainly not environmental ones). Massive water withdrawals for industrial agriculture are unsustainable in many parts of Wisconsin, not to mention elsewhere in the US. (2) Many comments mention cheap food thanks to industrial agriculture. This is simply not true: industrial ag food is "cheap" only for the producer and immediate consumer, because industrial agriculture externalizes many of its costs and passes them on to society at large (read "the public and taxpayers"). The resulting environmental damage and human cost (not to mention animal welfare) are not free, someone else pays. Finally, as a farmer at a farm market once said to me: food nourishes and sustains your body, so you can live a healthy and long life. Why would you want it to be as cheap as possible?
16
And I was thrilled with the six cauliflower I grew in my front yard. But alas, I will have to go to the farmer's market to get a cabbage to make sauerkraut. My farmer friend said I left them go to long.
1
Hahaha...for those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting a fresh-cut facility, you would never eat fresh-cut produce again. The "chemical wash" vats look like giant hot tubs filled with filthy blue-green water, much like an abandoned swimming pool. People who are too lazy to cut their own produce should not complain about e coli or listeria.
1
Everyone is leaving comments that they are horrified by the treatment of animals. How about the treatment of farmworkers (most of whom are illegal) who are subjugated to noxious chemicals, dangerous working conditions, long hours without breaks, no benefits and very, very little pay? And without them we wouldn't have ANY food. Say what you will, but they feed us.
We the consumers, not the farmers, are to blame for divorcing ourselves from the agrarian business that feeds us. We let big business take over our food. If we were more involved, animals AND humans would be treated better.
We the consumers, not the farmers, are to blame for divorcing ourselves from the agrarian business that feeds us. We let big business take over our food. If we were more involved, animals AND humans would be treated better.
11
"Dizzying grandeur"? That is a very poor choice of words, it seems to me that "chilling horror" would be more accurate. I can't believe all people care about is cost, no matter how inhumane the practices get to reach that bottom line.
I do think these pictures are useful for consumers to illustrate how meaningless some of those packaging labels are. I'm sure the turkeys from the crammed warehouse will be sold as "free range", and the pigs from the hellish cage confinement will be sold as "humane". Pure marketing fluff for the gullible.
I do think these pictures are useful for consumers to illustrate how meaningless some of those packaging labels are. I'm sure the turkeys from the crammed warehouse will be sold as "free range", and the pigs from the hellish cage confinement will be sold as "humane". Pure marketing fluff for the gullible.
9
where's the terror? big is not necessarily bad.
if you don't like it, grow or hunt your own food, like people did for most of human history. instead, i marvel at supermarkets.
nice photographs, though.
if you don't like it, grow or hunt your own food, like people did for most of human history. instead, i marvel at supermarkets.
nice photographs, though.
3
What would be truly "terrifying" is the environmental impact of producing this much food WITHOUT industrial agriculture. Thank goodness we have professionals who, for the most part, are trying to maximize efficiency and minimize environmental impact. Please stop with the romantic ideas about an era that never was.
4
For all of you that are feeling a bit nauseated by what you've just seen, please know that I'm working hard on my application for organic certification. 15 little acres in Oregon. It's a start.
All of us organic and soon-to-be organic growers truly value your support! It would be nice if the Federal government were as lavish with financial support for small growers as they are for these monstrously destructive "farms".
All of us organic and soon-to-be organic growers truly value your support! It would be nice if the Federal government were as lavish with financial support for small growers as they are for these monstrously destructive "farms".
9
You have my grateful support. I thank my farmer at the green market every weekend. We miss him unbelievably during the winter months and look forward to his return to our local market each spring.
2
Is there anything more miserable than being a mama pig, confined to one position?
9
How disgusting.
What have my fellow citizens done with their brains ?
What have my fellow citizens done with their brains ?
6
Visually stunning imagery.
My main concern about big ag is what happens when it crashes? The hyper efficient, specialized and globalized production systems leave us vulnerable to price hikes and food shortages if, for example, the chicken population is decimated by bird flu in Iowa again.
We can absorb one or two such crashes. But a multi system crash?
What is needed is redundancy in the form of multiple regional production systems that can scale up quickly if needed. And by regional, I mean within the US regions, not global regions.
What do you got for that, USDA?
My main concern about big ag is what happens when it crashes? The hyper efficient, specialized and globalized production systems leave us vulnerable to price hikes and food shortages if, for example, the chicken population is decimated by bird flu in Iowa again.
We can absorb one or two such crashes. But a multi system crash?
What is needed is redundancy in the form of multiple regional production systems that can scale up quickly if needed. And by regional, I mean within the US regions, not global regions.
What do you got for that, USDA?
1
We should all be Vegan. This is inhumane.
9
Humans: they eat from the soil and return to it when they die. that's it. Making it into business has only served to expedite the process and our species' demise. How convenient! Farming, foraging, hunting is labor (not some career!). it's necessary for human survival. So much more important than any opinion. Especially ones coming from the top who take advantage and manipulate our priorities for their own sake!
4
'Brave New World' — here to stay?
・the pictures are amazing — and beautiful in an abstract sense
・a Faustian bargain, whose implications are unfathomable
What the French social critic, Jean Baudrillard called, "the primitive culture of the future."
A courageous, superb journalistic essay — perhaps unwittingly a proposal for America's epitaph.
・the pictures are amazing — and beautiful in an abstract sense
・a Faustian bargain, whose implications are unfathomable
What the French social critic, Jean Baudrillard called, "the primitive culture of the future."
A courageous, superb journalistic essay — perhaps unwittingly a proposal for America's epitaph.
6
These pigs and cows must think the monkeys have gone crazy.
2
If one day , an alien civilization visits us and their technology allow us to communicate with these avian and mammalian friends.
I would like to see the Nurnberg equivalent of court process.
I would like to see the Nurnberg equivalent of court process.
1
This isn't food, its digestible industrial products that coming generations will pay for.
These subject repeatedly investigated by media and activist last 40 years.
The medallion has 2 sides.
1- Hungry stomach
2- Horror of manufacturing process ( animal side as well as plant side)
Our dilemma reach some certain level, anybody starts to think about this subject eventually abdicate some moral values.
PS: Gluttony is one the great sin in the bible.
The medallion has 2 sides.
1- Hungry stomach
2- Horror of manufacturing process ( animal side as well as plant side)
Our dilemma reach some certain level, anybody starts to think about this subject eventually abdicate some moral values.
PS: Gluttony is one the great sin in the bible.
A couple of these photos are quite reminiscent of the human battery scenes in the first Matrix film.
...Does that spark a reaction?
...Does that spark a reaction?
Those highly intelligent nursing pigs that are penned onto their sides must be going insane or already catatonic. Horrendous
I'm grateful that I can source from local and thoughtfully raised produce and animals but I even wonder for how long they can continue with the cost of land etc.
How can we reduce or eradicate such conditions? How are these conditions exacerbated when we sell farms and factories to overseas countries like China who have difficulty maintaining minimal standards in many cases?
If we all stopped eating prepackaged foods, would that help?
I'm grateful that I can source from local and thoughtfully raised produce and animals but I even wonder for how long they can continue with the cost of land etc.
How can we reduce or eradicate such conditions? How are these conditions exacerbated when we sell farms and factories to overseas countries like China who have difficulty maintaining minimal standards in many cases?
If we all stopped eating prepackaged foods, would that help?
Animal products are viciously cruel, and totally unnecessary. Thankfully, they are so easy to boycott. Doing so is a moral imperative.
5
Today we produce more food with fewer resources than ever before. We have true food security and have never paid so little for what we eat.
I understand there are many difficult ethical issues related to this, the most significant being the exploitation of harvest workers in this industry especially in places like Mexico. I work with migrant workers there and am heart broken about the ways they are exploited in pursuit of cheap tomatoes. I am also saddened that issues like this get less attention than others such as animal treatment.
Lets not treat any of these issues simplistically, though. It is a great thing that we are producing so much more food with so much less impact on the environment. To those who disagree go to South America where some communities still use the slash and burn method to farm. Those who romanticism the small family farm era need to realize that the result was the use of much greater resource to produce much less food. So I hope this series does not simply reinforce peoples pre-existing opinions but provokes complex discussions about the green revolution and it genuine benefits as well as ways that we can still improve food production for the good of the environment and the good of human beings (while not treating animals abusively).
I understand there are many difficult ethical issues related to this, the most significant being the exploitation of harvest workers in this industry especially in places like Mexico. I work with migrant workers there and am heart broken about the ways they are exploited in pursuit of cheap tomatoes. I am also saddened that issues like this get less attention than others such as animal treatment.
Lets not treat any of these issues simplistically, though. It is a great thing that we are producing so much more food with so much less impact on the environment. To those who disagree go to South America where some communities still use the slash and burn method to farm. Those who romanticism the small family farm era need to realize that the result was the use of much greater resource to produce much less food. So I hope this series does not simply reinforce peoples pre-existing opinions but provokes complex discussions about the green revolution and it genuine benefits as well as ways that we can still improve food production for the good of the environment and the good of human beings (while not treating animals abusively).
6
How much better off the whole system would be, for the greater good, if certain foods (corn, its derivative syrups, and by association, pork and beef) were not subsidized. Lentils, beans, rice and vegetables should be what the mass populous is incentivized to buy. Economical in direct cost and in health benefits. The relationship our food system has with our deplorable healhcare system is muuch ignored.
5
Exactly!
A clear decision, mass starvation or the big food world. Unless we are willing to limit population we have to rely on efficient manufacturing of food. Not pretty but then mass starvation is not a great topic of polite dinner conversation either.
And this is exactly why I left Manhattan to pursue small scale farming. Sigh!
Big food does not scare me, as a millennial verging on Gen-Z, I have actually stop going to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Big food is giving me clean, cheap and healthy at a time when most of my money is going towards health and rent. Hello Ralphs and Vons. (owned by Kroger and Safeway, btw)
1
You may be getting cheap and clean (doubtful), you most certainly are not getting healthy.
Before passing any judgment, I was wondering a few things:
1) What is the ratio of food distributed to the domestic US market versus the global market?
2) Can this photographer and set of journalists capture snaphots of systems in other nations. I imagine systems in India and China must equally as massive, but maybe not as technologically advanced, and as efficient. But in nations like Japan and England operations are much smaller and more open to higher levels of quality control.
3) What is the waste factor of the food - during production, and after? Do we really consume all that is produced?
4) How is this operation checked and quality controlled? Not trying to point fingers or put individuals in hot spots but a system so massive has to have set standards and real ways of quality control. Just seems too massive to actually deal with in an effective and responsible manner.
Just some questions off the top of my head that ring from seeing this initial photo article.
1) What is the ratio of food distributed to the domestic US market versus the global market?
2) Can this photographer and set of journalists capture snaphots of systems in other nations. I imagine systems in India and China must equally as massive, but maybe not as technologically advanced, and as efficient. But in nations like Japan and England operations are much smaller and more open to higher levels of quality control.
3) What is the waste factor of the food - during production, and after? Do we really consume all that is produced?
4) How is this operation checked and quality controlled? Not trying to point fingers or put individuals in hot spots but a system so massive has to have set standards and real ways of quality control. Just seems too massive to actually deal with in an effective and responsible manner.
Just some questions off the top of my head that ring from seeing this initial photo article.
1
Maybe England has changed but weren't they the ones who who had so many problems with mass produced meat? I'm referring to BSE (mad cow disease) and hoof-and-mouth disease.
As esthetically fetching as they are the symmetrical images presented here served to distance this viewer from the brutal realities of latter day industrial strength agriculture. Nevertheless, a great job.
There is exceptional HD footage of the industrial farming scheme in the movie Samsara. I would highly recommend anyone watch it
My only real thing is let's first get the antibiotics use out of the system. I care about the treatment of animals too but I think the first most pressing issue for the entirety of humanity is antibiotics use. If we can just get one thing done with - it would be that I would argue.
2
Human hunger is a far smaller problem in the world because of "Big Food". Also, if it weren't for the demand for animal protein, fewer animals would experience life.
How do we justify the food shortages in the continent of Africa, for example, when we show them these pictures. Where does all this food go? Do we really eat this much - or should we ask "do we really need all this food".
Again, where does all this food go? Why, in the USA itself, do people go hungry? What are American children starving?
During the financial crisis, we heard about mothers taking their children to the back of grocery stores, where the day's "old" stock was to be disposed. From there they picked their foodstuffs. They made their meals and living from that old stock. Unfortunately, the groceries could not hand them physically to these folk, because of various restrictions. Some groceries even prevented people from going through these "discards" not because of concern, but purely for financial reasons.
For all intent and purposes our food mostly goes to waste.
Again, where does all this food go? Why, in the USA itself, do people go hungry? What are American children starving?
During the financial crisis, we heard about mothers taking their children to the back of grocery stores, where the day's "old" stock was to be disposed. From there they picked their foodstuffs. They made their meals and living from that old stock. Unfortunately, the groceries could not hand them physically to these folk, because of various restrictions. Some groceries even prevented people from going through these "discards" not because of concern, but purely for financial reasons.
For all intent and purposes our food mostly goes to waste.
I'm struck by how few humans are required on these massive farms. At some point, most of those jobs will go too.
The current presidential election keeps talking about bringing back manufacturing to the U.S. but it will be just like agriculture. Little to no jobs will be available to people without a good education and technical skills. Rather, the jobs will be for those that design the machines. And with machine learning improving rapidly and outsourcing offshore, a lot of those jobs will disappear too.
I'm not sure what the answer is but people need to wake up and realize that big industry is trying to get rid of humans entirely in their workforce. Machines, robots, drones are the wave of the future.
The current presidential election keeps talking about bringing back manufacturing to the U.S. but it will be just like agriculture. Little to no jobs will be available to people without a good education and technical skills. Rather, the jobs will be for those that design the machines. And with machine learning improving rapidly and outsourcing offshore, a lot of those jobs will disappear too.
I'm not sure what the answer is but people need to wake up and realize that big industry is trying to get rid of humans entirely in their workforce. Machines, robots, drones are the wave of the future.
I'm probably in the minority but I find it amazing what "big agriculture" has done. They've managed to reduce cost while providing a decent, lets say B grade, quality product as the amount of available land has DECREASED and population has INCREASED. The US and Global population is only getting bigger so lets keep take a hands off approach to this industry and allow them to do their work in peace. They obviously know what they're doing and the last thing we need is for politicians who've never been on a farm writing policies that will increase food prices or worse cause starvation.
Why don't you incorporate some thought about sustainability in the Food Section? It's irresponsible not to. How many West Village high end for rich people cafes can Pete Wells review anyway?
2
I could not help but ask the question: could there be a comparable exploration in NYT of local farms across the US? It would be instructive to see the relative production figures, profit margins, care to individual animals, and total impact on the environment all shown. And, of course, final price in the marketplace. Buying organic is chic for some, no matter what the cost (think Whole Foods), while buying local is imperative for others, but cost is a serious issue for many, if not most. Such an exploration would provide a welcome contrast for all of us who prefer to support local growers but would like to have hard numbers to back up our moral choices.
You can eat very well as a vegetarian or near-vegetarian, complete with snob-appeal food and gourmet multi-course meals. There is no need to torment so many animals at all -- we could easily get by with 20% of what we do now. Our meat-based diet is cultural. It can be changed if we want it to.
5
It's bad enough seeing all of our forests turned into hi-tech crop production, but the exponentiation to meat production with all of its horrid ramifications is...revolting, to say the least; thus, the argument for 'cultured meats'.
Scientists behind the idea have been hard at work, and artificial meat that’s both cost-effective and palatable may hopefully arrive fairly soon. It’s not just cow-free beef burgers on the future menu — several groups around the world are attempting to clone chicken breasts and fish fillets, too.
Besides the intrinsic horrors of constant animal slaughter, the economic and environmental impact on us all is horrendous. The meat industry is a huge contributor to humanity’s environmental footprint, accounting for some 18% of our total greenhouse gas emissions. And that number’s deceptively low, because it includes roughly 40% of methane and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions, which are respectively 23 and nearly 300 times more potent climate warming agents than carbon dioxide. Animal agriculture is also soaking up an enormous portion of our arable land, drinkable water, edible food and combustible fossil fuel resources.
Scientists behind the idea have been hard at work, and artificial meat that’s both cost-effective and palatable may hopefully arrive fairly soon. It’s not just cow-free beef burgers on the future menu — several groups around the world are attempting to clone chicken breasts and fish fillets, too.
Besides the intrinsic horrors of constant animal slaughter, the economic and environmental impact on us all is horrendous. The meat industry is a huge contributor to humanity’s environmental footprint, accounting for some 18% of our total greenhouse gas emissions. And that number’s deceptively low, because it includes roughly 40% of methane and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions, which are respectively 23 and nearly 300 times more potent climate warming agents than carbon dioxide. Animal agriculture is also soaking up an enormous portion of our arable land, drinkable water, edible food and combustible fossil fuel resources.
4
The modern agro industrial complex. Monotypic cropping as far as the eye can see with an ever narrower gene pool. The same goes for the livestock industry. One disease or insect would have devastating impact on the world food supply. Remember the avian flu last year? What if it had been more widespread? Even this article, although striking, fails to note how concentrated food processing is in this country and how few control the market. Look at beef processing. 4 companies, 85% of the processing. GMO corn seed? almost 90% by two companies. Can you say oligopoly? Add to that, the taxpayer cost. For crop farmers, consider that the taxpayer pays roughly 60% of the cost of insurance. The way the system is currently run, it may prove to be the greater danger to our future than you would expect.
2
This work is OUTSTANDING!!
caps intentional. I know business as usual is powerful, but at least this is out there.
Great work! I'm still reading but many of the words are the knowledge equivalent of molten gold.
caps intentional. I know business as usual is powerful, but at least this is out there.
Great work! I'm still reading but many of the words are the knowledge equivalent of molten gold.
2
These are great shots-beautiful celebratory and compelling. We are not a peasant agrarian society even though that is the concept of agriculture by people who do not practice it. Two percent of our population do what 50% used to do-and with much better quality and efficiency.
11
Then why is there so much more dietary illness now than 60 years ago?
2
Same quality? You must be kidding. Try a real tomato or a small free range chicken. Anyone who has lived out of this country in a less industrialized food zone knows that produce and meats/poultry can have noticeably more flavor...which btw means more nutrition.
2
Better quality? I think not: the consumer looses because of misleading information. Example Baby Greens: Baby Greens, packaged to be a power food, contain no nutrition. Why? They have not had a long enough time growing soaking up nutrients from the soil. The more we re-use the same fields, the less nutritious our food sources become. So what exactly is the point? Money. As a 4-H educator, I have witnessed how small operations can easily feed many on average budgets.
2
Barbaric. Absolutely barbaric treatment of animals. If you can afford to only buy organic, free range meat and eggs. Substitute buffalo for beef (its lower fat), dont eat farmed fish. Dont by prepackaged salad (full of salmonella anyway). Buy whole.
Barbaric. How can the people who run these places sleep at night .
Population control. It is the only hope for the future.
Barbaric. How can the people who run these places sleep at night .
Population control. It is the only hope for the future.
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I hate that word "control". It's not possible. People have always fallen in love and wanted babies. Everyone wants to figure this out, as you say it is real real big big trouble.
But there is one simple thing we can do, and Republicans are the evil party here. I use the word evil intentionally, because their obsession with other people's sex lives and anti-religious religion which forbids contraceptives is indeed harmful to all.
Empower women and provide readily available cheap or free birth control. Let them control their lives. Women nurture, and when they are given jobs, control the family's money, and take responsibility, they do what is best for everyone.
The Bush and continuing Republican anti-birth control initiatives are just nonsense. Abstinence only doesn't work.
Just ask Bristol Palin.
Or are you Republicans hypocrites, getting your kicks by controlling other people's lives. Yes, Barbaric. Barbaric treatment of the female part of humanity as well as animals.
But there is one simple thing we can do, and Republicans are the evil party here. I use the word evil intentionally, because their obsession with other people's sex lives and anti-religious religion which forbids contraceptives is indeed harmful to all.
Empower women and provide readily available cheap or free birth control. Let them control their lives. Women nurture, and when they are given jobs, control the family's money, and take responsibility, they do what is best for everyone.
The Bush and continuing Republican anti-birth control initiatives are just nonsense. Abstinence only doesn't work.
Just ask Bristol Palin.
Or are you Republicans hypocrites, getting your kicks by controlling other people's lives. Yes, Barbaric. Barbaric treatment of the female part of humanity as well as animals.
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Organic, free range meat and eggs are factory farmed, and viciously cruel. Don't be fooled.
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Still you end up with horror.
Today what ever food you are consuming is nowhere the same hunter gatherers food consumption.
The most benign form of todays food consumption is even evil in its core.
Today what ever food you are consuming is nowhere the same hunter gatherers food consumption.
The most benign form of todays food consumption is even evil in its core.
Industrilization of food. This is so frightening. No wonder there are epidemics of disease. Not much human touch here.
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But a lot fewer epidemics than there used to be, eh?
it didn't happen yesterday , we spent entire 20th century for this process. are you rediscovering America?
The negative tone in a lot of the comments is not well justified. The idea that because Ag is "Big" it must be detrimental to humans and to the environment is in principle false.
There will certainly be negative effects if any big business, including agriculture, is left unchecked. But the USDA, the FDA, and consumer protection groups put enormous pressure on food producers to produce safe, nutritious, inexpensive food.
The idea that somehow our ancestors managed food production well because they produced in small scale is nonsensical. Indeed, the environmentally-friendly thing to do today is for most all of humans to leave in big cities with vast, efficient public transportation systems that import food from large food production efforts.
There will certainly be negative effects if any big business, including agriculture, is left unchecked. But the USDA, the FDA, and consumer protection groups put enormous pressure on food producers to produce safe, nutritious, inexpensive food.
The idea that somehow our ancestors managed food production well because they produced in small scale is nonsensical. Indeed, the environmentally-friendly thing to do today is for most all of humans to leave in big cities with vast, efficient public transportation systems that import food from large food production efforts.
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And, become a vegetarian.
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I think much of the negative tone you are seeing centers on the inhumane and inexcusable treatment of animals that are raised for food.
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The piglet 'nursery' was something out of a scary science fiction horror film. I could not help but be depressed by the spectacle of these intelligent creatures being bred this way. Locally sourced food is a must. It is humane, well managed, and sustainable. What the piglet nursery brought to mind was that it is not a far stretch to picture humans in those pens being bred . . . . remember the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man', and the closing line shouted in horror once the alien document was decoded:"It's a cookbook"?
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Obviously, ag could not humanely raise enough animals in Connecticut to feed the state the way it likes, in cost or quality.
No doubt that the worst practices of poultry and dairy farms are something that need to be changed. Swing too fr and the end result will make these products more expensive and harder for lower income people to afford. Today, for the middle income American, grocery food cost is not as big a part of their budget as it used to be. One could reasonably feed a family four a healthy and varied diet for $10 a day. This is amazing. Those of us that feel strongly can avoid meat and dairy altogether, or pay $5 for a dozen free range eggs. The fact that a family can purchase a dozen factory farmed eggs for $1.79 is, on balance, a good thing. A factory farmed roasting chicken, providing two days of meat and stock for a soup is $5. A bag of carrots is $1. Whole wheat flour is $.50 a pound. Our agriculture system can and should get more humane, with less environmental impact and better worker protections. However, I would venture that today's ag stands up well against all those metrics from 30 years ago and provides higher quality and less expensive food. According to the USDA the per capita disposable income spent on food in United States has gone from nearly 18% in 1960 to 10% in 2013. If I am running a country, the first thing I am doing is making sure the people have bread. Ask Nicholas Maduro or Louis XVI.
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Cheap food is important, but when 40% of the food in this country is thrown away, I think we have reached the saturation point in this country. In the meantime, our industrial food system has only caused greater suffering for animals and increased the danger of food bourne illness for humans. And is the American diet any healthier because of all the cheap food? By most measures it is not, and dietary influenced diseases are increasing. Maybe instead of volume we should be focusing on quality and nutritional value. Bread will fill your belly, but it can also leave you malnourished.
Regarding the Rosendale Dairy - do that many cows produce only 1 million gallons of milk a year? Milk in my local supermarket is never more than $3.00 a gallon. Does that mean that the gross revenue of a farm tending almost 8000 cows and maintaining a giant milking facility is only three million dollars?
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That seems very low, North American dairy cows produce something like 2500 gallons per year, so should be expected to be 20,000,000 gallons for that heard.
Even it is low, people get used to lehman style profit.
investing 1 billion , return expected to be near 30 million.
investing 1 billion , return expected to be near 30 million.
Agricultural intensification is our only hope for having a world where nature and humans can coexist. Producing more calories on less land is a pressing and extremely urgent priority with 7 billion + humans on earth. Low productivity in agriculture drives conversion of forests, jungle, and range to meet demands of a growing and more affluent global population. At least highly productive concentrated operations, point source pollution can be managed. Big maybe ag isn't pretty, and it's not you're grandparents' (or your great-grantparents') farming, but we inhabit a radically different world then they did.
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I often wonder if we keep racing to improve our industrialization and intensity of agriculture because we hear that the population is going to increase and we need to prepare, or does the global population increase due to agricultural intensity and industrialization? I have reached the conclusion that like all other species, man will keep populating until the food runs out.
Another concern I have is how sustainable is all this? Once we run out of our finite supply of oil, where do we get fertilizers, cargo ships to transport food to starving regions, fuel for tractors, refrigerated trucks to transport? What happens to the 7..8..9..10 billion people on the planet then?
Another concern I have is how sustainable is all this? Once we run out of our finite supply of oil, where do we get fertilizers, cargo ships to transport food to starving regions, fuel for tractors, refrigerated trucks to transport? What happens to the 7..8..9..10 billion people on the planet then?
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Today point source pollution is not managed at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, and there is no reason to believe it will be. Industrial animal agriculture is the leading cause of freshwater pollution, habitat destruction, water consumption, and the second largest driver of climate change.
The entitlement of humans to destroying the environment and practicing intensive, horrific confinement of animals just for cheap meat is a disgrace.
The entitlement of humans to destroying the environment and practicing intensive, horrific confinement of animals just for cheap meat is a disgrace.
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This biggest issue is that about 50% to 90% of the food value in crops (protein, calories, other nutrients) are lost when fed to animals so humans can eat their corpses. The only way to shrink the agricultural footprint dramatically is to grow crops for humans, and close down all the animal factories. This would increase efficiency by orders of magnitude. And we would stop committing atrocities against the defenseless.
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So many questions arise when I think about the extent to which food products are altered (either by breeding or processing) for maximum yield and hardiness to feed our society. As a source of high quality nutrition, these mega-farming techniques may be just fine 99 percent of the time. But sometimes we discover (as we have with pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, environmental damage, etc.) that certain illnesses are the prices we pay for 21st century agricultural grandeur. As far as I tell, humans have to be the guinea pigs.
Perhaps we are in a cycle where human-caused illnesses begat new blockbuster drugs which begat more illnesses.
Perhaps we are in a cycle where human-caused illnesses begat new blockbuster drugs which begat more illnesses.
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Amazing, amazing human technology in producing food faster, cleaner, and cheaper.
All this whining in the commentary is stuffing. Roof top farm? Free roaming chicken that cost $10/lb? How could someone taking two jobs to feed family get the time and money for such entertainment manner of food acquisition? How difficult is it to grasp that the poor benefit vastly from affordable nutrition?
All this whining in the commentary is stuffing. Roof top farm? Free roaming chicken that cost $10/lb? How could someone taking two jobs to feed family get the time and money for such entertainment manner of food acquisition? How difficult is it to grasp that the poor benefit vastly from affordable nutrition?
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Because at the other end of this economic equation there are countless suffering animals. They all feel physical and emotional pain (fear) with the same neurochemical mechanisms as humans. We owe them better for what they provide for us. It is wrong how they are treated.
I've drastically cut my meat consumption. Not only does it reduce animal suffering, it is better for your health and reduces global warming and environmental pollution.
I've drastically cut my meat consumption. Not only does it reduce animal suffering, it is better for your health and reduces global warming and environmental pollution.
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It's not only suffering animals: given the explosion of obesity, diabetes, ms, autism, (to name just a very small portion of the list of autoimmune diseases we're facing) has it not occurred to anyone that the quality of that cheap food might have something to do with the increase in all kinds of disease? You can't grow things in soil that has no nourishment (well - you can but . . .) since the food grown has no nourishment and those eating it might as well be chewing on styrofoam. So how about the seniors (and kids and tweens and genx and baby boomers and on and on) I see hobbling around looking as if they're not at all well and healthy? Where's the pity for those people? and how beneficial is it to them, and to all of us in the long run, to have such cheap food available?
Great photos. Please see Nikolaus Geyrhalter's "Our Daily Bread" ("Unser täglich Brot" in the original German) for a mesmerizing documentary about the very issue of industrial agriculture.
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Total value of US exports, agriculture, 2015, $ 139.5 Billion
Total value of US exports, Aircraft, spacecraft: $131.1 Billion
Ag is too big to attack - it's like attacking the entire aviation and space industry of the US.
No politician can afford to attack it and survive politically
Michelle Obama went as far as she could. Great first lady.
Total value of US exports, Aircraft, spacecraft: $131.1 Billion
Ag is too big to attack - it's like attacking the entire aviation and space industry of the US.
No politician can afford to attack it and survive politically
Michelle Obama went as far as she could. Great first lady.
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It is not about just money, If you reduce entire food production , it looks like movie industry.
Food industry is the #1 strategic industry in every country. ask Venezuelan's today.
If food production severely fails, no matter what fabric of society immediately breaks down.
That is called hunger test.
Food industry is the #1 strategic industry in every country. ask Venezuelan's today.
If food production severely fails, no matter what fabric of society immediately breaks down.
That is called hunger test.
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I recommend anyone interested in this to see the Indie Documentary INHABIT: A PERMACULTURE PERSPECTIVE which delves into smal, roof-top and large-scale farming (and even a composting toilet) using the principles of Perma-culture....
Truly inspirational...
http://inhabitfilm.com
Truly inspirational...
http://inhabitfilm.com
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Don't misunderstand me, I never ridicule or in competent of these activities, I appreciate too.
But our problem is simply recklessly reaching 7 billion in in 2012 from 2 billion in 1927.
Everything falls apart when population is increasing without a second thought.
But our problem is simply recklessly reaching 7 billion in in 2012 from 2 billion in 1927.
Everything falls apart when population is increasing without a second thought.
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The life of those animals, dismal. Heart breaking. I will never eat factory farmed meat.
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To me, the first sentence's, "...at a lower cost..." and the second sentence's "...massive influence on our health and our environment..." really contradict themselves.
Why do we not see the REAL costs? Food, or a gallon of gas, cost so much more for the planet than they do for a typical American. There have been published figures that weigh a unit of food as compared to how much of a work day or week a person must do. For us lucky enough to live in the USA, these figures are far less - unit of work performed (at your typical job) per unit of good purchased that speak reams of how distorted this picture is.
I hope there are some commenters who are far more educated and experienced in this realm than I (Ag Econ anyone?) and can either set me straight or back up my wingnut theories about it.
Because the next chapter might really prove "The Great Equalization."
And I would like to be prepared.
Why do we not see the REAL costs? Food, or a gallon of gas, cost so much more for the planet than they do for a typical American. There have been published figures that weigh a unit of food as compared to how much of a work day or week a person must do. For us lucky enough to live in the USA, these figures are far less - unit of work performed (at your typical job) per unit of good purchased that speak reams of how distorted this picture is.
I hope there are some commenters who are far more educated and experienced in this realm than I (Ag Econ anyone?) and can either set me straight or back up my wingnut theories about it.
Because the next chapter might really prove "The Great Equalization."
And I would like to be prepared.
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I am so sad and sorry our food system has come to this. It's awful and inhumane for animals and people. I've recenlty stopped eating all meat because of the treatment of the animals. I still drink milk though and eat eggs but I try to seek out local sources form small farms in my area. I wish each area of the country- each state- each county had its own contained food system so no one would have to depend on the factory farms. Ugh. Well all we can do is to keep educating everyone with articles like this and help develop empathy for our fellow humans and animals.
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Grandeur? No. This is horrifying. Animals are sentient beings. Treating them like cogs in a machine is - to use an old-fashioned word - a sin. I was brought up to eat meat and poultry but have mustered the willpower to become a fishetarian and vegetarian due to these godawful practices.
This is not good for the national soul. I've traveled to Norway and Italy and seen livestock gamboling in pastures and fields. Where is the fresh air and grass for these creatures.
Shame on the food industry - and on all of us for not calling out this sickening degradation of ethical practice in animal husbandry.
And, yes, I would rather pay more for my food than see this disgusting development. I don't want to save money based on the suffering of sentient beings for whose welfare all of us are collectively responsible.
This is not good for the national soul. I've traveled to Norway and Italy and seen livestock gamboling in pastures and fields. Where is the fresh air and grass for these creatures.
Shame on the food industry - and on all of us for not calling out this sickening degradation of ethical practice in animal husbandry.
And, yes, I would rather pay more for my food than see this disgusting development. I don't want to save money based on the suffering of sentient beings for whose welfare all of us are collectively responsible.
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I don't necessarily disagree except those livestock you mention in Norway etc are the ultra expensive ones only the rich can afford. Unless you say to the masses, meat is only for the rich, then you need this type of farming. It is very arrogant to say otherwise.
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You don't believe that Europeans engage in large-scale industrial agriculture? There are 400 million Europeans living in an area about the size of the U.S., how do you think they eat?
And while you may think it is noble to eat just fish, you're simply exploiting another ecosystem, and one that is arguably under more stress than the livestock you're not eating for protein.
And while you may think it is noble to eat just fish, you're simply exploiting another ecosystem, and one that is arguably under more stress than the livestock you're not eating for protein.
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I agree with your sentiment, but the sanctimony is a little bit over the top.
1. People in Norway and Italy eat in McDonalds, too.
2. If you are ready to "pay more" to see things changed, it will take a lot of work on your part. Factory-farmed food is everywhere: at the ball park concession stands, sold at Costco, served at your friend's picnic, and even places like Whole Food are guilty of selling chicken or other meats that just give their animals a little more elbow room than the ones in this article.
My bottom line: unless you are a vegan with no kids, you're just as much as part of the problem as the rest of us.
1. People in Norway and Italy eat in McDonalds, too.
2. If you are ready to "pay more" to see things changed, it will take a lot of work on your part. Factory-farmed food is everywhere: at the ball park concession stands, sold at Costco, served at your friend's picnic, and even places like Whole Food are guilty of selling chicken or other meats that just give their animals a little more elbow room than the ones in this article.
My bottom line: unless you are a vegan with no kids, you're just as much as part of the problem as the rest of us.
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So, so happy I do not eat any animal products whatsoever! That "Turkey Auschwitz" was enough to turn half the world vegan, or at least their stomachs! I recommend to everyone a book that changed my life: "Diet For A Small Planet", by Frances Moore Lappé.
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Nice to be vegan. But vegetarians and moderates don't deserve to be attacked for their restraint.
Congratulations on these remarkable images and video pieces, which seem related to the work of the great Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. Technically superb, the photographs appear morally neutral, inviting reflection, thoughtful consideration, a well as inspiring awe - with fear and wonder. Great stuff.
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