Essay Example on Factory farm pollution is a major environmental Issue

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Factory farm pollution is a major environmental issue in North Carolina Over ninety nine percent of animals in America are raised in factory farms Factory farming is also called industrial farming and CAFO which stands for concentrated animal feeding operation These are when farmers raise livestock on farms then they kill the animals in large numbers They do this to get tons of meat to feed the large population people Despite these factories being productive the produce so much waste it affects the environment negatively Factory farms also harm the animals by leaving them in cruel crowded that are unsafe for the animal The major way factory farming contributes to pollution is through animal waste One cow can produce 115 pounds of manure per day and with hundreds of animals this amount of waste piles up Since there is no law saying you have to treat animal feces than most farms won t do it Instead almost all the time on industrial farms animal manure is not left on the ground it is left in the building where the animal lives Then the animal waste is moved to be stored in man made bodies of water called lagoons which are out in the open

They are usually the size of an olympic swimming pool that are filled with waste These lagoons are not well made and usually end up leaking into a water source effectively polluting it One big pollutant is methane which is a greenhouse gas Twenty two percent of methane comes from livestock farming this makes it a huge source of environmental pollution Another greenhouse gas that animal waste produces is ammonia Ammonia at high concentration seeps into the soil and is harmful to plants It can also get into the water which is dangerous since it is toxic to most aquatic life To top it all off eighty percent of ammonia comes from factory farm pollution These pollutants affect both the air and water They also have negative consequences to the animals and people living nearby Factory farming is used all across America and especially in North Carolina North Carolina is the country's fourth top producer of hogs and of broiler chickens Sampson county and Duplin county both have more hogs than any other county in America In Duplin county one fifth of their population is located within a half mile of a factory farm or a waste lagoon In North Carolina there are 48000 factory farms with the litestock mostly being chickens hogs and turkeys Although there are not a lot in Davie county that is still a lot of factory farms They take up about 8000 acres of land while North Carolina is about 34000 acres in all Most of them are located near the coast and in the piedmont hardly any of them are in the mountains

Although there is no real way to tell exactly how much pollution these factory farms have caused with how many there are its most likely a lot of pollution to the air and water However in regions where there are lots of these factor farms unsanitary surface water has been recorded in these areas Bacteria like E coli were found downstream from waterways that are near hog farms The only lagoons that are actually sealed are lined with clay or an actual liner since these materials most likely won't cause any leaks There is no law in North Carolina that requires lagoons to have these so most of them are lined with gravel or sand which cause leaks to occur easily Last year hurricane Matthew flooded areas of North carolina with factory farms When the waters reached the waste lagoons of some hog farms the flood water became polluted with the waste In 1995 a hog manure lagoon spilled over twenty million gallons of waste in the New River This was the worst ever waste spill in the history of North Carolina Soon when the water returned back to the ocean it polluted the ocean water too as well as the groundwater it came in contact with on the way there Although in this case no waste its were destroyed only flooded waste from the lagoons still hurt the environment

Most of the food we feed farm animals with are grown with some type of herbicide or pesticide these chemical are added to kill bugs and weeds Farmers also add ingredients to the animals foods to make them grow faster These growth hormones that the animals eat end up in their waste which eventually pollutes the environment Overtime these chemical destroy the fertility of the soil Although factory farming is projected to increase in the next couple of decades there are a few ways to prevent it from happening Some people believe that by becoming a vegan and supporting organic farms than factory farms would lose business and no be so prevalent Refusing to support these places by refusing to buy their products would help too This can be done by checking the labels on the products you buy and doing research to ensure that they are organic Doing this would also reduce a large amount of pollutants being dumped into the environment Other ways to prevent factory farming is just by voicing your opinion You can do this by protesting against them writing to newspapers about how bad they truly or or just by supporting organizations that are against factory farms Even educating your peers with maybe something like a presentation or essay can help spread awareness about the harm that these factory farms cause

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