Five ways in which Factory Farming Destroys Nature

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Five ways in which factory farming destroys nature

One of the most harmful practices of modern civilisation is industrial agriculture (most commonly known as factory farming). Factory farming is essentially liable for the degradation of lands, harm to animals, and depletion of natural resources, and it survives on its produce which is cheaply and easily available. The consequences of industrial farming have become more and more prominent in recent decades, and its impact is more profound in countries such as the United States of America.

Five ways in which factory farming destroys nature

Factory farming is prevalent across the world, and because of its presence, its impact is vast and easily palpable. Some of the dangers posed by factory farming have been enumerated below:

  1. Deforestation

Factory farming is practiced at the cost of millions of acres of forest land, and every year forests are sacrificed for carrying out the sinister plans of industrial farmers. In Brazil, three million acres of forest land has been cleared for the purpose of growing chicken feed. The most affected area is the lush Amazon rainforest which is on the brink of near devastation.

  1. Air Pollution

Factory farming is responsible for theemission of dangerous greenhouse gases such as Carbon dioxide. Factory farming causes emission of 90 million tons of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. About 37 percent of methane is released as a direct consequence of factory farming, and as a side note, methane is potentially more dangerous than carbon dioxide so you can easily imagine the upshots.

  1. Monocultures

One of the biggest threats to food security across the world is monocultures. Single-crop farms are among the outcomes of factory farming, in which a certain small group of crops has taken over the majority of the agricultural land across the globe. They might be available in huge quantities, but they feed only a small percentage of people.

The world is witnessing a massive-scale farming of monocultures—which depend largely on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers—and this has put immense pressure on the ecosystem. It is not easy to maintain monocultures, and that is why substantial financial resources are invested.

  1. Water Pollution

You would not believe, but factory farming consumes about 70 percent of the available freshwater resources of the world. The regulatory authority, EPA, claims that about 75 percent of all water-related issues in the United States can be traced to factory farming. Polluted water from farmsenters ecosystem and introduces toxicity, which ultimately enters the food chain.

One of the most common contaminants from industrial agriculture are Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations that comprise ahuge amount of animal waste, and when water run-offs from these farms enter water bodies, contaminants such as nitrates, drug-resistant bacteria, etc are introduced.

  1. Carbon Emissions and fossil fuels

Estimates show that industrial agriculture consumes about 6 gallons of fossil fuels every acre, and this, without any further explanation, points to a disturbing trend which is bound to capsize the entire human civilisation into theabyss. Moreover, factory farming releases amammoth amount of carbon emissions which are primarily responsible for global warming.

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