farm animals: impacts of factory farming

Quick facts

The livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation. (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, Livestock’s Long Shadow)

Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.(Ibid)

Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface.(Ibid)

Intensive, concentrated livestock production is growing in Canada. The 2006 Census of Agriculture found that Canada has 20 per cent fewer cattle farms than it did in 2001, although the average number of cattle and calves is up 13 per cent to 144 per farm. As well, the number of pig farmers has dropped by more than a quarter, but the size of the average operation has grown by 45 per cent, from 902 pigs to 1,308.

The Fraser Valley has the highest animal stocking density in Canada. (UBC Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability - Dr Hans Schreier: Phone: 604-822-4401.)

The number of chickens in the Fraser Valley has nearly doubled since 1991. (Ibid)

The Fraser Valley poultry industry was producing 736,500 cubic yards of manure in 2000 and this is expected to rise to 1 million cubic yards by 2010 (according to the Sustainable Poultry Farming Group: 604 556 7781)

Livestock production in the Fraser Valley is causing water and air pollution. (See Fraser Valley section below)

More than 665 million intensively-farmed animals were slaughtered in Canada in 2004. (Canadian Food Inspection Agency statistics)

Meat chickens, or broilers, live in huge indoor sheds in groups of 5,000 to 50,000, eating and sleeping in their own waste for their entire lives.

Egg-laying chickens, or battery hens, spend their lives crammed in tiny wire cages–stacked like shipping crates–with four to six others, each hen living in a space smaller than and 8½ by 11 inch piece of paper.

Hog barns house up to 5,000 pigs in crowded pens. Stress from overcrowding creates aggression and boredom, so most pigs have their tails cut off to prevent tail-biting.

Breeding sows are confined for almost their entire reproductive lives in stalls that are just slightly bigger than the sows themselves. They eat, sleep, and defecate in the same space; their manure falls through slatted floors to a cesspool beneath.

For the last 60 to 120 days of their lives, beef cattle live in feedlots of up to 40,000 animals. Standing in piles of manure and fitted with growth-hormone ear implants, they are fed mostly grain to increase their market weight and meat marbling. This can wreak havoc on ruminants’ digestive systems, which are more suited for grass, creating painful bloating and severe discomfort. The Fraser Valley poultry industry was producing 736,500 cubic yards of manure in 2000 and this is expected torise to 1 million cubic yards by 2010 (according to the Sustainable Poultry Farming Group: 604 556 7781)

Research

Impacts of intensive livestock production on climate change
In late 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a study titled Livestock’s Long Shadow, which found that livestock production causes an estimated 18 per cent of total human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions globally – more than all forms of transportation combined (www.fao.org)

An earlier study by scientists at the University of Chicago, Diet, Energy and Global Warming, concluded that livestock production, driven by the demand for meat, is contributing to global warming. It concluded that: “These results clearly demonstrate the primary effect of one’s dietary choices on one’s planetary footprint, comparable in magnitude to the care one chooses to drive.” (geosci.uchicago.edu/)

More recently, the medical journal, The Lancet, published a similar report, Food, Livestock production, energy, climate change and health, stating that: “Halting the increase of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, especially livestock production, should be a top priority.” (www.medscape.com)

Impacts of intensive livestock production on the environment and public health

In June 2007, a UN study, Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks, blamed intensive livestock farming for threats to the environment and humane health. It states that: “Concentration of food animal production and the unregulated ‘evolution’ of densely populated livestock production areas not only result in major environmental burdens but also generate significant animal and public health risks.” (www.fao.org)

In June 2005, the World Bank Agriculture and Rural Development Department published a report, Managing the Livestock Revolution, which said that concentration of livestock “has significant negative effects on the environment, animal and human health, and social equity.” (www.worldbank.org)

In 2005, the journal Public Health Nutrition published a paper, Public health implications of meat production and consumption, which stated: “The industrial agriculture system, now the predominant form of agriculture in the USA and increasingly world-wide, has consequences for public health owing to extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides, unsustainable use of resources and environmental pollution.” (http://journals.cambridge.org)

The growth of intensive livestock production in Canada

In April 2003, Statistics Canada published a report, The expansion of livestock farms between 1991 and 2001, which stated that despite the biggest decline in the number of farms in 30 years, Canadian farmers were raising more cattle, hogs and poultry than ever before. The report said that the number of larger livestock operations was on the rise, and the number of animals on larger operations was soaring.

This trend has continued. The 2006 Census of Agriculture found that Canada has 20 per cent fewer cattle farms than it did in 2001, although the average number of cattle and calves is up 13 per cent to 144 per farm. As well, the number of pig farmers has dropped by more than a quarter, although the size of the average operation has grown a whopping 45 per cent, from 902 pigs to 1,308. (Canadian Press)

Livestock production in the Fraser Valley, BC

The intensification of livestock farming in the Fraser Valley over recent decades has led to water and air pollution problems.

Contamination of soil and groundwater

A study released in Feb. 2007 by BC Agriculture Council found “high to very high environmental risk” levels of nitrates in soil on Fraser Valley farms. (Fraser Valley Soil Nutrient Study 2005. www.agf.gov.bc.ca)

A multi-agency study released in 2005 found groundwater nitrates in excess of the maximum acceptable concentration for drinking water in several areas in the Fraser Valley. The study stated: “Intensive agricultural land use over the study area appears to remain the primary source of nitrate in the aquifer.” (Nitrate and Coliform Bacteria Distribution in the Abbotsford Aquifer – results of a Groundwater Quality Survey 2004-05, BC Ministry of Environment; Environment Canada; Fraser Health)

A UBC and Environment Canada report in 1999 concluded that: “agriculture is a significant contributor to pollution in the Lower Fraser Valley.” (Schreier, H., K. Hall, S.J. Brown, B. Wernick, and C. Berka. 1999. "Agriculture: an important non-point source of pollution.)

Additional reports:
Hall, K. and H. Schreier. 1996 Urbanization and agricultural intensification in the Lower Fraser Valley: Impacts on water use and water quality. GeoJournal: 40, 1-2: 135-146; Berka, C., H. Schreier, and K. Hall. 2001. Linking Water Quality with Agricultural Intensification in a Rural Watershed. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 127:389-401; Brisbin, P.E. 1995. Agricultural Nutrient Management in the Lower Fraser Valley. Report 4. DOE-FRAP, Environment Canada, 81pp.

High levels of nitrates in drinking water are linked to Blue Baby Syndrome, a condition which reduces babies’ ability to carry sufficient oxygen in the blood. (Environment Canada: www.ecoinfo.ec.gc.ca)

Air pollution - Ammonia

Ammonia is a colourless gas with a sharp pungent odour. Agricultural activities such as cattle, pig, and poultry housing, manure spreading and storing, and fertilizer application account for more than three-quarters of ammonia emissions in the Lower Fraser Valley.

Ammonia can react with other pollutants in the atmosphere to form fine particulates. Scientific investigations in the Lower Fraser Valley indicate that combined reactions of chemical compounds like ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulphate represent a significant portion of ambient fine particulate. (Metro Vancouver website: www.gvrd.bc.ca).

Hugh Sloan, Director of Planning for the Fraser Valley Regional District, told the FVRD Agricultural Committee in March 2006 that “the Fraser Valley is going to need major, structural solutions within the next five to seven years. By then, agriculture will be more responsible for air pollutants than all the vehicular transportation the valley produces.” He also reported that “of all the common air contaminants being measured, only ammonia is increasing.” (Minutes of FVRD Agricultural Committee meeting, March 31, 2006.)

Density of farms

The Fraser Valley has the highest animal stocking density in Canada (UBC Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Dr Hans Schreier: Phone: 604-822-4401. www.ires.ubc.ca)

There are approximately:

15.4 million chickens
128,000 cattle
95,500 pigs
9,000 sheep
5,000 goats
767,000 turkeys
(2006 Agricultural Census)

The number of chickens in the valley has nearly doubled since 1991. The number of dairy cows and the number of goats have both increased by more than 20 per cent. The number of pigs and sheep has dropped because operations have moved to other provinces. The number of cattle overall is down slightly. (Dr. Hans Schreier, UBC)

Intensification in the valley (move toward factory farming)

The Fraser Valley has the highest concentration of very large farms in Canada, with 30 large farms for every square km of farmland available. Between 1991 and 2001 the number of large farms increased by 88 to 146, the biggest increase in Canada during that period. (2001 Agricultural Census – Vista paper).

Fewer farms with more animals: While the number of chickens in the Fraser Valley has increased, the number of poultry farms is dropping. The number of poultry farms dropped from 1487 in 2001 to 1179 in 2006. (2006 Agricultural Census)

During the 1990s the number of chickens per farm in the valley increased by 78 per cent. (H. Schreier, R. Bestbier and G Derksen. 2003 A Quantitative Assessment of Agricultural Intensification and Associated Waste Management Challenges in the Lower Fraser Valley)

The Lower Fraser Valley has the largest number of dairy cows per farm in Canada. (Schreier, 2003)

Poultry appears to be the biggest problem.

Disease – avian flu

The Fraser Valley was the scene of Canada’s largest avian flu outbreak in 2004. The virus emerged in a broiler breeder barn and mutated from low pathogenic to high pathogenic avian influenza. In June 2007, a UN study, Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks, states that: “The proximity of thousands of confined animals increases the likelihood of transfer of pathogens within and between these populations, with consequent rates of pathogen evolution.”

VHS September 2007