Big Chicken = Big Problems

Over the last several years there has been an increasing number of reports from government agencies and independent scientists from around the world indicating that modern animal agriculture is not only hurting animals, it’s killing the planet. Most recently, The Pew Charitable Trusts released a 36-page report titled Big Chicken: Pollution and Industrial Poultry Production in America, explaining how manure from chicken factory farms is creating dead zones in the ocean and choking the life out of America’s coastlines – most notably in the Chesapeake Bay.

The report has a number of shocking statistics based on 50 years of federal and state government data, including:

In less than 60 years, the number of chickens raised for meat has risen 1,400 percent, from 580 million in the 1950s to nearly 9 billion today.

In that same period, the number of chicken producers has decreased by 98 percent, from 1.6 million across the United States to just over 27,000 concentrated in just 15 states.

The dramatic increase in the number of chickens raised and killed combined with the decrease in the number of chicken producers has resulted in the average facility raising more than 600,000 birds a year.

“This growth has harmed the environment, particularly water, because management programs for chicken waste have not kept pace with output,” said Karen Steuer, who directs Pew’s efforts to reform industrial animal agriculture.

In 2008, the Pew Charitable Trusts’ report, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, found that industrial animal agriculture is unsustainable, poses a grave threat to human health and the environment, and needlessly harms animals. Pew’s latest report is just one more nail in the coffin. Either industrial animal agriculture comes to an end, or we all do.

However, there is hope for a brighter future. The easiest and most effective way to protect your health, the environment and animals is to transition toward a healthy and sustainable plant-based diet. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn how.