the birds and the bees 91parts to the insipid vegetable- formerly-known-as-tomato. All the special
qualities of heirloom vegetables are found in heirloom breeds of domestic
animals too: superior disease resistance, legendary flavors, and scarcity, as
modern breeds take over the market. Hundreds of old- time varieties of
hoof stock and poultry, it turns out, are on the brink of extinction.
The Price of Life
Industrial animal food production has one goal: to convert creatures into
meat. These intensively managed factory farms are called concentrated animal
feeding operations (CAFOs). The animals are chosen for rapid growth, ability to
withstand confinement (some literally don’t have room to turn around), and re-
sistance to the pathogens that grow in these conditions. Advocates say it’s an
efficient way to produce cheap, good- quality meat for consumers.
Opponents raise three basic complaints: first, the treatment of animals.
CAFOs house them as tightly as possible where they never see grass or sun-
light. If you can envision one thousand chickens in your bathroom, in cages
stacked to the ceiling, you’re honestly getting the picture. (Actually, a six- foot-
by-eight-foot room could house 1,152.)
A second complaint is pollution. So many animals in a small space put huge
volumes of excrement into that small space, creating obvious waste storage and
water quality problems. CAFO animals in the United States produce about six
times the volume of fecal matter of all humans on our planet. Animals on pas-
ture, by contrast, enrich the soil.
A third issue is health. Confined animals are physically stressed, and are
routinely given antibiotics in their feed to ward off disease. Nearly three- quarters
of all antibiotics in the United States are used in CAFOs. Even so, the Consum-
ers Union reported that over 70 percent of supermarket chickens harbored
campylobacter and/or salmonella bacteria. The antibiotic- resistant strains of
bacteria that grow in these conditions are a significant new threat to humans.
Currently, 98 percent of chickens in the United States are produced by large
corporations. If you have an opportunity to buy some of that other 2 percent, a
truly free- range chicken from a local farmer, it will cost a little more. So what’s
the going price these days for compassion, clean water, and the public health?STEVEN L. HOPP