. . . Factory farming takes a big, hidden toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural America’s economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock increasingly demanded by American consumers, concludes an independent, 2 1/2 -year analysis that calls for major changes in the way corporate agriculture produces meat, milk and eggs.
The report released yesterday, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, finds that the “economies of scale” used to justify factory farming practices are largely an illusion, perpetuated by a failure to account for associated costs.
Among those costs are human illnesses caused by drug-resistant bacteria associated with the rampant use of antibiotics on feedlots and the degradation of land, water and air quality caused by animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes.
. . . Food prices are rising faster than they have for decades. Concerns about global climate change have brought new attention to the fact that modern agriculture is responsible for about 20 percent of the nation’s greenhouse-gas production.
Read more here: http://www.envirolink.org/external.html?itemid=200805010804490.163085
*** Its heartening to see people making small efforts to do something.
My PR partner’s office switches off all their lights during lunch when most of the office goes out. Some of my friends now make it a point to turn off all the lights when they leave their apartments to go out … or when they go to sleep … when previously they used to leave a nite light on.
Small actions all add up to make a difference.
