From Farm To Fridge (DO NOT WATCH IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE)

The CAFO Reader - Introduction(Daniel Imhoff) (REVISED)

This post is a summary of the introduction of The CAFO Reader by Daniel Imhoff . Within the past thirty years, the number of domestic animals being slaughter has doubled reaching the outstanding number of 10 billion, only in the U.S. This is ten times more than in the number estimated in 1940 and is expected by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to doubled by the year 2050. The recent, unexpected, fast-raising pace of domestic animals like chickens, pigs, and cows is causing serious environmental changes because these animals are consuming big amounts of energy. Also, when they are eaten often, they can cause problems to human health. This problem is caused by the CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), which basically consists of many factory-like buildings who's primary objectives are to breed animals for fast growth and high output of meat, milk or eggs. The term ''factory feeding'' was first used , according to Daniel Imhoff, by an American journal and took a significant boost in the 1920s by adding vitamins into animal feed. After the World War II the CAFOs systems showed up combining the technology of the twentieth century they created large and mechanized feeding farms. The animals raised on this farm had no fresh air, no sun light and most of the times were confined into small areas barely as large as their body. Animals in the CAFOs are also being breed to meet the conditions for example the chickens beaks were seared off, the pig tails were tight together and the cattles horns were sawed off.  It is unbelievable to consider that food that is produced with these means are delivered to the National School Lunch Program. Meanwhile Daniel Imhoff writes about the wastes being produced by the CAFOs. According to him, "the lifestock sector alone accounts for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, a larger share than all of the worlds transportation emission combined", (Imhoff xvii). I believe this is very important considering this is happening without the awareness off everyday normal people. Also, being that CAFOs seems a bit like a monopoly, it is difficult to have any syste look over them to induce a change. Imhoff also states that, ''The ways in which we produce our food define us as a culture and as human beings" (Imhoff vii).