Ali Ahmed

05-25-2016

ENG 1121 – D465

Research Essay Final Draft

                 Fast Food Affects on Human Health and Environment

Dr. Neal D. Barnard once said, “The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of `real food for real people,’ you’d better live real close to a real good hospital” (Barnard). Fast Food Companies have a good relationships with factory farms since 1930. In America now they control 84 percent of meatpacking. Meatpacking is where they process and pack the meat. It’s so popular in present days because McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King all use these meatpacking companies. Those meatpacking companies are guilty because they are using drugs on the animals. The drugs used are growth hormones which make the animals grow quickly. Eating this meat affects people’s health. Therefore, the Government should regulate fast food companies, factory farmed animals, and antibiotics because these cause harm to human health and the environment.

Fast food companies control the meat industry and the meat industry controls factory farms which mean that fast food Companies have a relationship with the meat industry. The meat industry can make money by selling meat to fast food Companies but factory farms make little profit because the fast food companies won’t pay much money for the meat. According to Chew on This by Charles Wilson, he said, “Today the top four meatpacking companies – Tyson, Swift & Company, Excel and National Beef – control about 84 percent of the market” (Schlosser & Wilson, p. 163). Those four companies have a relationship with fast food companies and so the fast food companies are controlling the meatpacking industry. In 1926 when factory farms started there weren’t any fast food Companies, those meats were only for people. When McDonald’s began using meat factory farms it resulted in an increase in the meat industry.  

Factory farming is producing unhealthy animals. When they kill the animals it causes bad smells around where people and animals live. According to Chew On This by Charles Wilson, “The smell is hard to forget but not easy to describe…The billions of fast-food hamburgers that Americans eat every year came from places like Greely” (Schlosser & Wilson, p. 162). In this place factory farm have their farmed animals and meat packing, the reason why Greely smells bad is because they do not produce a animals healthy, and they do not keep the building clean. The main problem is they burn the animal’s waste in one place, which become a Poop Mountain. It can affect animals by breathing as they can get diseases, it also can affect people who eat the meat. According to Chew on This by Charles Wilson, “Factory farms make a gas called “Hydrogen sulfide-also known as “sewer gas” or “stink damp”- Large concentrations of hydrogen sulfide can kill you” (Schlosser & Wilson, p.167). It shows that the smell can kill the people who live there because the air has hydrogen gas in it which is really bad.

The living condition of factory farmed animals are really bad. They treat the animals by giving them growth hormones which make grow fast. It might help the factory farm to sell meat fast and it doesn’t cost a lot money, but it’s bad for who eat the meat.  For example “Cows only grow 6-12 months and the average market weight is 1200lb” (Factory Farming Pros and Cons). It’s shows that the cows are growing abnormally, which shows that the farmed animals are using either some type of growth hormone or other type of medication that makes them grow fast. The cow sizes are increasing fast, but their bones need time to grow also. If the bones growth do not keep up with the increased body size of the cows, they will have a hard time walking and will have to lay down all the time. In an article they mention, “All the antibiotics and growth hormones routinely given to factory farmed animals to make them fat also make people fat” (Brueckner). If the meat tastes good it’s doesn’t mean it’s healthy, people have to know where it came from and how they produced it. Those meats are like a disease because since the animal was born, they used growth hormones to produce it.

Factory farming produce diseased animals because it produces too many animals in one place. When one animal gets disease, then all animals can get disease because all the animals are close to each other. For example ”Factory farm enhances the danger of pathogens such as Salmonella and E.Coli which cause various illnesses” (Factory Farming Pros and Cons). This shows that factory farms are dangerous to people’s bodies because factory farms can cause viruses. There are so many ways that factory farms can cause viruses. When they do not clean animal’s poop everyday then it can cause a virus because the animal’s have to live where they poop. The slaughterhouse can get a virus by when one animal gets diseases then all animals will. According to an article they said, “They’re often given so little space that they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably, egg-laying hens are kept in small cages, chickens and pigs are kept in jam-packed sheds, and cows are kept on crowded, filthy feedlots” (Factory Farming: Misery for Animals). It’s shows the disease get spread in factory farms because too many animals live in one place. It can affect human when they eat the meat also it can affect environment.

Antibiotics might be good for animals when they get diseased but too much antibiotics are not good for people who eat meat.  Now, factory farms use “24.6 lb. of antibiotic … per year” (Factory Farming Pros and Cons). Its shows that they’re using a lot of antibiotic for animals, too much Antibiotic will cause the animal’s body to not be diseased anymore, but when the bodies become used to them, then the antibiotics won’t work animore. The factory farm feeding antibiotics to animals is the same as them they feeding it to human by eating their meat. According to Chew on This by Charles Wilson, “More than one quarter of the American population suffers a bout of food poisoning each year” (Schlosser & Wilson,p. 193). In America most people are eating fast foods and factory farm meat, but those people are getting diseases by eating this. They need to stop eating fast foods and factory farm meat because they put poison in there. The only way to save people lives are to stop eating fast food and factory farmed meat. For example “the best thing you can do to protect these animals it’s to go eat vegetable” Factory Farming Pros and Cons). People should start eating vegetables which can save an animal’s life also their life. The Government should regulate factory farmed animals to not use Antibiotics or hormones because so many people are eating fast food .

Factory farms cause harm to human health and the environment so the government should regulate fast food companies, factory farmed animals and antibiotics. Factory farms are affecting people’s health also the environment by giving growth hormone to make their animals grow quickly, but people are getting diseases when they eat this meat. Also they are affecting the environment by burning animals poop in one place and the smoke goes around the whole area and people are getting diseases when they breathe in the polluted air. Everyone wants to live happily and have a long life, but some people lose their lives because of factory farms. If people want to have a longer and happy life, then they should stop eating factory farmed meat and fast food.

 

Works Cited

Brueckner, L. (n.d.). Public Justice. Web

https://www.publicjustice.net/blog/antibiotics-and-hormones-factory-farmed-meat-make-you-fat-–-and-that’s-just-least-our-worries   

Factory Farming Pros and Cons. (2014, March 21). Web

http://apecsec.org/factory-farming-pros-and-cons/  

Factory Farming: Misery for Animals. (n.d.). Web

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/  

Neal D. Barnard Quotes. (n.d.). Web

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/338-the-beef-industry-has-contributed-to-more-american-deaths-than  

PBS Frontline. (n.d.). Industrial Meat. Web

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/industrial/consolidation.html  

Schlosser, E., & Wilson, C. (2006). Chew On This. New York City, New York: Houghton Mifflin.