Food production has drastically changed over the course of human history. The process of cultivating food from raw materials to the preparation of cooked dishes has transformed entirely. Animal husbandry first began more than 10,000 years ago during the so-called Neolithic Age when humans began domesticating animals such as dogs and sheep. This concept is a branch of agriculture concerned with the domestication of, care for, and breeding of animals such as dogs, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and other like creatures. Today, our current system of animal agriculture has become an extremely intensive, unethical, and unsustainable operation known as factory farms or CAFOs (concentrated animal food operations) playing an immense role in food production. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are government organizations that are responsible for a multitude of public health regulations and guidelines. The FDA deals with the safety and efficacy of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices, as well as ensuring the security of our nation’s food supply. The USDA serves to establish proper guidance on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, and nutrition to preserve our nation. Both operate on a grand measure and are responsible for shaping the future of our food, health, and agriculture. There are numerous pressing issues within this industry, such as food borne illnesses, undocumented farm workers, health concerns behind the guidelines set by the USDA and FDA, farm conditions, and so on. There is very little that is being addressed on a political scale. However, it is imperative to explore the transparency and logistics of these two institutions to determine whether there is conflict to be drawn.
Important to realize, the USDA sets the dietary guidelines for Americans every five years. Within these are key recommendations as far as what general dietary patterns individuals ought to follow to live a healthy life. While they do have fairly beneficial information to offer, there is some conflict as to whether outside sources may be influencing these guidelines. During the bush administration the chief of staff of the USDA was the former chief lobbyist to the beef industry and the head of the FDA was the former vice president of the national food processers association. These regulatory agencies are being controlled by the very companies they’re supposed to be scrutinizing. Not only is this extremely alarming but, in their most recent guidelines the USDA states that these recommendations reflect existing systemic reviews, meta-analyses, and reports by federal agencies or leading scientific organizations. However, there is an overwhelming amount of contemporary research that contradicts many of the guidelines set out by the USDA as well as numerous organizations such as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American College of Cardiology that advocate against many of the USDA recommendations.
Moreover, during the 1980s, farmers in the United States were facing a severe economic crisis. Family-owned farms were confronted with financial catastrophe predominantly affected by federal guidelines. In 1979 the Federal Reserve tightened its monetary policy, which in turn, caused interest rates to soar to levels never before seen. This change directly affected farm families severely. Not to mention the concurrent plummeting status of farms and the nations rising farm debt. Unfortunately, farm debt is currently increasing putting farmers out of work or forcing them to borrow more money to keep up with the demand from businesses in fear of losing a contract(s). Moreover, investigations have led to the findings of an unprecedented number of undocumented workers on farms. However, the very same organizations/businesses hiring these workers face little to no repercussions when these workers are arrested and lose their jobs.
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Furthermore, modern agricultural systems have implemented a myriad of unorthodox farming practices in order to increase profits and efficiency. These techniques involve breeding animals to grow at a much larger and faster rate than natural, pumping them full of hormones and antibiotics, shuttling their feces into lagoons that create dead zones, keeping them enclosed and crammed by the thousands, inhumane slaughtering, and complete disregard for providing a sanitary environment. In fact, the farming environment in which they are grown in raises many health concerns. Cattle being the most alarming of them all, especially with how many outbreaks of food borne illnesses that have been associated with contaminated meat. In the 1970s there were thousands of slaughterhouses. Today there are only 13 that process the majority of beef that is sold in the United States. The average hamburger today contains pieces of meat from about a thousand different cows, so the odds increase exponentially that one of these cows were carrying a harmful pathogen. In a typical factory farm of cattle, cows are fed a corn diet as opposed to the evolutionary standard of a grass-fed diet which causes many issues. One being that this unnatural eating pattern leads to cows becoming too big too quickly. Another being that a corn diet promotes the growth of bacteria in their gut known as E. coli, specifically acid resistant E. coli which is extremely harmful to our health. Seeing that the FDA regulates livestock feed is awfully worrisome. Outbreaks of acid resistant strains of E. coli such as ‘O157H7’ has led to many deaths across the U.S. in recent years. In these feed lots cows are sitting ankle-deep in their manure all day long and are being slaughtered by the thousands daily resulting in meat becoming contaminated with feces. This practice leads to a number of cows becoming sick in which the farmers then incorporate antibiotics into the feed. In doing so, antibiotics have built up resistance and are mildly effective. Due to their exposure to these, the farmers develop allergies to most if not all antibiotics.4 Furthermore, in the United States alone 30% of our land, if not more, is committed to the production of corn. This is largely driven by government policy allowing for corn to be grown below the cost of production. Stricken by large multinational interest, further advancing the corn-based diet fed to cattle. Comparatively, the status of sustainability within our food system is currently failing. Current farming methods and dietary recommendations thereof, imply a disregard for the future of our food.
Correspondingly, their seems to be an incredible lack of regulations in which safety inspections ought to be conducted to make current farming practices more sanitary as well as implementing regulations that would forbid certain procedures. In 1972, the FDA conducted approximately 50,000 food safety inspections. In 2006, the FDA conducted 9,164. As farming techniques transform with the aid of biotechnology one would think that this would limit the dangers of animal agriculture, but quite the opposite seems to be taking place. Not mention the unethical treatment and practices done to these animals. A large portion of the meat and other animal products found in most grocery stores are factory farmed. Factory farming is geared toward maximizing the amount of product possible in the shortest amount of time making it the most efficient and profitable way to farm. But this practice entails numerous cruel methods of farming all without use of anesthesia. Due to the confines of these animals (not being able to turn around in some cases) they become mentally and emotionally unstable and as a result begin to peck, bite, and kick one another. As a result, baby chicks are debeaked by a hot metal surface, cows have their tails docked and are dehorned, pigs are castrated, and male chicks are tossed into a grinder alive because they cannot lay eggs. Animals on these farms suffer from disease and the deliberate mishandling of workers. These cruel and unusual practices are merely a glimpse of the horror that occurs inside factory farms. Words cannot do it justice for the agony these animals undergo. As mentioned before the FDA and USDA have little regulation over this and merely enforce those in place. Although, as more footage is leaked about what is really happening on these farms these agencies will have to increase regulations at some point. Unfortunately, there are currently laws known as ‘ag-gag’ laws that prevent footage to be taken on farms where these practices may be occurring as it can lead to civil lawsuits against those filming by farms/businesses.
As has been noted, the production of food from farm requires immense reform on a political scale. The clarity of agencies such as the FDA and USDA are lacking toward consumers. Numerous considerable health matters are prevalent amongst our current system of animal agriculture. Many of which are detrimental to our environment and well-being. Farmers and farm workers are being exploited by agencies that seem to have control of the entire agriculture industry. There are many devastating matters taking place within our current food production system, some of which may be too late address.
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