Introduction to the CAFO Reader.

In this blog I will discuss the introduction of The CAFO Reader by Daniel Imhoff. This book is his latest in which he talks and argues about CAFO. CAFO meaning Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation deals with large businesses that produce food for the people of the United States. Imhoff says “Our domestic livestock have never been as cruelly confined or slaughtered in such massive quantities in all of history”, meaning CAFO rear pigs, cows, chicken, not in farms but on a very large scale in factories and are killed by thousands. Due,to the lack of space and movement with the animals diseases are spread rapidly.Sprinklers on the roof are designed to sprinkle antibiotics on the animals to decrease the spread of diseases. Unhealthy animals are often shot and killed,the waste from the animals and the animal killed are dumped in football sized lagoon or ponds. Manures are pumped into the soil to stabilize odor and conserve nutrients. Animals in the factories are given hormone to grow and taste the same way and be the same size. Imhoff writes, "7000 calves, 130000 cattle, 360000 pigs and 24 million chickens are killed per day in the CAFO industries throughout the United States", whether its more or less it unbelievable. The workers in these operations are illegal immigrants who are being paid low wages. The environment is not only dangerous to the animals but also to the health of the workers. Business makes billions of dollars daily and animal cruelty are rising. The food is cheap because of tax payers who are unknowing forced to contribute tax to the CAFO industries. While many questions arose to this subject as to where our food comes from and why farms are transferred to factories,one thing for sure is that nothing last forever and as Daniel Imhoff says we once produce our food as culture and as human being.