Smart Food Choice Make Better Environment

Smart food choice makes better environment

Consuming meat is a potential threat to the environment because the modern way of raising livestock is polluting the community. Today’s major animal agriculture involves breeding a large number of animals by confining them in small and narrow spaces so that the 6 billion people on the earth can be assured to have sufficient meat supply. However, it seems perfect animal agriculture project has brought out severe problems. In the article “Factory Farms,” the author Bernard Rollin mentions that the industrialized agriculture causes the side effects such as water and air pollution, animal flesh quality and waste dispose treatment etc. This made me think of the movie called Fresh. It talks about the process of animal breeding in the factory farm. I was surprised when I was watching the scene of chicken feedlot, where there were approximately thousands of baby chickens enclosed in a small room. These chickens were thrown to the ground and the feather and waste were all everywhere. The air inside the room is blurry and the workers have to wear breathing mask while working. Virtually, the waste mix with the dusk that generated by animal’s daily activity causes air pollution, and the air pollutants results in having respiration disease such as asthma. Once the air pollutants reach to high concentration, it spreads out to nearby community, and people who live around that area would suffer from it. As a consequence, our environment is being affected by the process of producing meat. Therefore, eating less animal flesh is equal to own a healthier environment. Aside from consuming animal flesh, purchasing at local farmers market is same important for reducing harm to the environment. Shopping at where they food is grown, it means that food isn’t traveling long distance by air plain, train, truck, and ship, which all consume fossil fuel and emit carbon dioxide that contributes the global warming. According to U.S. Transportation Department, the transaction value between United State, Canada, and Mexico is $71.9 billion in 2012. This number doesn’t count the food trade with Southeast Asian countries. The data indicates that that food transportation plays a significant role at the global warming because the more food is being imported or exported means the more fossil fuel will be burned. Although, we can’t control the world’s economic operation, we can change our shopping habit by supporting local food. Furthermore, another reason buying local is beneficial to our environment is that local farms are usually run by farmers who live on their land and work hard to preserve it. Farmers grow their own food and sell out by themselves usually they pay more attention on food’s growing condition. Rollin, in his article “Factory Farms,” also says the traditional agriculture is viable, and its crops and plants grow in a nature environment would live without harmful chemical substances. In particular, I have talked with the man who works in a farmers market, and he told me that almost of the food grown in small business farms don’t use pesticides and fertilizer because its not intensive production. Farmers can prevent pest from infesting the crops and plants with their own way such as alternating crops each year so that pests would not get used to the type of the plant, and grow various plant which can promote the soil healthy as well. In this way, soil won’t be contaminated by spreading these chemical substances into plants. Over all food shopping choices affect the environment badly, but a good choice such as shopping for local food can improve it.