Chapter 21. Chapter 21: Agriculture: Raising Livestock

What methods do we currently use to grow animals for food...?

Why You Should Care

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are the standard in beef production in the United States. They are the most efficient way known now to meet the consumer demand for meat products in the United States, and they greatly reduce the amount of land needed to raise cattle and provide jobs and livelihoods for many people. The drawbacks to CAFOs have already been enumerated, including antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria and polluted and overused water supplies (both from the CAFOs themselves as well as from corn production). Although the methods differ somewhat for pork and chicken production, the use of corn-based feeds, overuse of water to deal with concentrated wastes, antibiotic use, and potential for environmental degradation are common to all three kinds of meat production. The alternative to concentrated, industrial-style meat production is the free-range, grass-fed approach. Cattle are grazed on grass throughout their entire lives; chickens and pigs are allowed to roam fairly freely and get a more varied diet. Manure becomes much less concentrated and usually does not need to be handled since it is removed by the local ecosystem. This and the less-concentrated growing conditions mean that animals can often be raised without the need for antibiotics. Growing meat animals with free access to the outdoors and without antibiotics or growth hormones are three of the conditions for certifying the meat as organic.

There are drawbacks to the free-range and organic methods as well, however. Although growers can charge more for organic meat, their production is less efficient than CAFOs, which reduces their profits. In fact, industrial methods can cut the time it takes for an animal to reach market size by almost half (though many would say this compromises the flavor). It takes more land to raise free-range cattle, but the land needed to grow corn for CAFOs offsets this difference. The bottom line is this: The best way available to grow all the meat demanded by U.S. consumers is to use CAFOs and similar methods, but the best way available to grow meat sustainably is to use free-range methods. Perhaps the demand for meat will lesson in the near future out of concerns for personal and environmental health, and free-range production will become more financially viable. Only time and your buying habits will tell.