Back To The Start...

Have you ever wondered where your ground beef for your tonight's meatball dinner comes from? Or how about the eggs you ate this morning? Everybody should give it a thought because there are some huge factory farmers who don't care about the living conditions of their animals, plus they pump their livestock with hormones and antibiotics to have them grow bigger faster. In my opinion, those added substances pass on to us humans when we eat the factory farmed produce.

Factory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density. This means basically that a farm operates like a factory and its' main goal is to produce as much of livestock as quickly as possible. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption. However, there have been issues regarding whether factory farming is sustainable and ethical.

Factory farmers use systematic efforts to produce the highest output fast with the lowest cost possible. Farmers rely on high density of confined animals, modern machinery, biotechnology and global trade to achieve their goals.

Having a lot of animals in small cages requires antibiotics and pesticides to stop the spread of disease by these crowded living conditions. In addition, antibiotics are used to stimulate livestock growth by killing intestinal bacteria. There are differences in the way factory farming techniques are practiced around the world. There is a continuing debate over the benefits and risks of factory farming. The issues include the efficiency of food production; animal welfare; whether it is essential for feeding the growing global human population; the environmental impact and the health risks.

I like to buy organic food as much as possible and I choose a little local farm produce over a big brand one that I know that has been transported from the other side of the country (or other side of the world). I know that I can't always choose the better option but every time I have a choice and the money to buy local and preferably organic, I will do so. And I recommend this to everybody. By little step by step we can make this world a little greener and more nicer place to live in (for the animals too!). Plus we stay healthier while we do it.

Here's a cute but very thought-provoking video I want you to watch.