Essay #1-Cause and effect: Pollution from food production

Over the years, we have come up with many different ways to produce our food.  Although many of the new techniques we use today have their benefits, most of them come with unwanted side effects as well.  These side effects can cause irreversible damage to the environment.  Although much of the food we produce today may taste great, the production of most of it causes pollution because the carcasses of slaughtered beef cattle pollute the top soil, the rest of the animal can be washed into the rivers where it will pollute the water and kill the fish, and the factories that process it can cause many different types of pollution.  If we continue to overlook these important factors concerning our food industry, then we may be facing more issues than we can handle.

The animal carcasses left over after a slaughter, whether it is pigs or even beef cattle can cause more harm than we think to the soil.  Usually, it is very natural for an animal to die and decompose on the soil, and more often than not, it is good for the soil, it enriches it.  The problem with the animals that are raised for the sole purpose of becoming food is that they are fed all kinds of strange chemical laced feed designed to get them all fattened up as quickly as possible.  The problem with this method of feeding is that when the animal is finally killed and the carcass is disposed of, those chemicals can do a great deal of harm to the soil, making it difficult to re-use it for farm land.  Another problem that can occur is that other animals may come into contact and maybe even consume parts of the dead animal, making it possible to spread the chemicals to places where they really do not need to be.

Another problem that we face with the slaughtered carcasses of chemically enhanced pigs and beef cattle is water pollution.  It is much like the soil pollution, but it occurs when it rains heavily enough to wash the chemicals from the dead carcass into various rivers and streams.  This can easily cause irreversible water pollution, and not only that, but it can cause many fish species to become sick and depleted.  It is hard to believe that the production of food from domesticated farm animals can cause marine life to die out.  It just goes to show all of the little things that can be overlooked in something that seems very simple and straight forward.

One final issue that needs to be addressed is the pollution that the factories themselves produce.  Not only are they running almost constantly, all the while releasing countless amounts of harmful gasses into the air, but they also produce water waste, radiation, and solid types of waste as well.  Many food processing factories use water during some of the stages of production.  The problem arises when the water has been used and needs to be disposed of.  It can do considerable amounts of damage if it is carelessly dumped into a river or an ocean.  All the water that is used has been exposed to harmful chemicals and is more than likely contaminated.  One other harmful type of pollution produced by the factories is radiation, which they use to kill pathogenic microorganisms in the meat.  The thing about radiation is that it can linger into the environment, kill many plants and animals in its path, and make the land un-livable for new plants and animals.  Sure it kills off microorganisms that can cause humans to become ill, but is there really no alternative?  Is it really worth the risk to the environment?  One more type of pollution produced by factories is solid waste.  This is basically any leftover materials that still remain after fully processing the food.  Most of those materials end up filling landfills and causing even more harm to the environment that way.

It is hard to believe that and industry as simple and straightforward as food production can cause so much harm to the environment.  Our much needed soil can become contaminated, our rivers and oceans can become polluted leaving many different fish species to die, and the factories that produce the food can cause considerable amounts of damage to the ecosystem.  Most of us have learned how bad pollution can be for the environment, but how many of us have noticed the little things that cause the most pollution?

Sources:

http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/import/32129_25PollutionfromFoodProcessing.7.pdf

http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/food_factsheet.asp