In my Society and Natural Resources course, we were given the task of researching an environmental issue and finding and surveying about a proposed solution. I decided to focus my project on factory farming. Factory farming is the industrialized method of farming that Big Agriculture uses to produce animals for food. These farms almost always keep animals inside on concrete, keep animals packed together so they cannot move, and cause huge environmental issues including contaminated drinking water and massive greenhouse gas emissions. What’s even worse is we get the majority of our meat through this unsustainable and cruel system. I created a survey that I gave out to people at the Union to rate their attitudes toward factory farming and what they would be willing to do to move away from factory farms. The goal of my survey was to figure out the most effective and realistic local measure for fighting factory farming. Below are my original survey questions and their results.

Manure produced from factory farming cannot be used due to sheer amount and chemicals in waste. Oversaturation of manure leads to waste being washed into water where aquatic life cannot survive. Responsible for about 24% of greenhouse gas. 20% of man-made methane comes from livestock digestion.

1/3 of underground wells in the Southern U.S. falls below EPA drinking water standards for nitrate (concentrated in chicken waste). CDC confirmed a link between the routine use of antibiotics in animals and an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Animals are often kept in cages not large enough for them to turn around and injected with growth hormones. Animals are also forced to reproduce and chickens are often debeaked to facilitate confinement.

This project allowed me and challenged me to inquire about a problem I am passionate about. Through this data, I have learned that environmental effects do not affect people more than human/animal impacts and vice versa. This is important information to know when advocating against factory farming. The pie graphs indicate that people would be willing to pay more if it was available but would be less willing to travel farther. This information would be good for grocers to have to see that providing more expensive, better quality meat would not necessarily cost them as people are willing to buy.