What is the problem?

The problem with factory farms is not the farmers themselves – the problem is what has happened to our agricultural system. Big corporations and businesses have taken over and either control the farms themselves, or control the farmers they contract with.

This is an issue that can be confusing to some, but to put it simply, large businesses have many advantages over smaller farmers. They get larger subsidies, can take more risk, and are structured to care about profits and revenues, not workers, animals and the land. This type of farming is completely unsustainable, and people are now starting to talk about these farms moving overseas in the next 10 or so years, where there are fewer, more lax, laws.

What this would mean is that your food would be picked way before it’s ripe and shipped thousands of miles to your dinner plate. Did you know that the average meal right now travels 1500 miles to arrive on your table. Just think of all the wasted fuel and energy, especially when many times this food can be found locally!

In order for meat to be shipped such long distances, it would have to be irradiated, which extends the shelf life of the food. It also would strip it of vitamins, introduce some unknown compounds and would alter the look and taste of the food. Food irradiation is an untested technology that is not a solution to our problems. We’ll talk more about this in future posts.

As mentioned above, the problem is not the farmers. It’s really important to understand that. There are family farmers who have been put under contract by these large corporations because the farmers felt they had no other choice but to do this or to go bankrupt. People have been led to believe that bigger is better, but we’re finding out that that’s not usually true. What’s important to understand is that the system that needs to be changed. And we need to find ways to help farmers transition to sustainable farming and encourage farmers to raise food this way.

And how can we do that? Find out tomorrow.