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to the greenhouse effect.

Why such an excess of gas? Animals processed for food in factory farms increased about 60% within the past five decades.(12) Increased animals means increased animal waste. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, noted that consumers today spend about $110 billion annually eating four times the amount of chicken and three times the amount of beef and pork compared to previous decades explaining the continued growth and profitability of fast food establishments.(13) Growing consumer demand for cheap meat and dairy products perpetuates the existence of factory farms on a global scale inhibiting governments' abilities to regulate and hold CAFOs accountable for environmental damage.

Farming methods practiced by traditional farmers had less of an impact on the environment than factory farms. Traditional farmers conducted business on a long cycle meaning they often raised livestock and crops simultaneously using a conventional fertilizer method, composted manure. Wealthy CAFOs operate on a short cycle focused on quantity. Even if animal waste were properly composted and utilized on nearby crops, the amount would be excessive. When lagoons, where animal waste is held, are not properly managed, waste leaks into our groundwater and emits high levels of gases into the atmosphere worsening global warming.(14,15,16,17,18) The inability of traditional farmers to compete with CAFOs is partly the reason factory farms dominate our landscape.

Soil, water and air quality diminish as factory farm numbers grow. Fertilizers and animal waste contribute to environmental destruction while medications foster new bacteria. Factory farm managers use antibiotics to prevent outbreaks of sickness resulting from animals being confined in unnatural, cramped settings filled with their own excrement.(19) As strains of bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, new bacteria strains develop and pose serious problems to our environment. A foreign introduction into any surrounding disrupts nature's equilibrium.

With a disruption of our environment's balance, conserving natural resources becomes even more crucial, but that is not what happens. The amount of energy required to manage CAFOs further taxes our polluted environment. "Beef production alone uses more water than is consumed in growing the nation's entire fruit and vegetable crops."(20) A typical dairy farmer will use 150 gallons of water per day on each cow to wash and flush out the manure system.(21) In addition

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