5.7 Meat Production Methods

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOS)

Also called feedlots, densely crowded where animals are fed grain to raise them to as quickly as possible

Advantages of CAFOS

Maximizes land usage and profit, minimizes cost of meat for consumers

Disadvantages

Fed antibiotics and growth hormones, large volume of waste, produces large amounts of CO2 CH4 an N2O

Manure lagoons

Large, open storage pits for animal waste, can flood and contaminate ground water, contains ammonia hormone antibiotics and e.coli

Free Range Grazing

Animals graze on grass and grow at a natural rate without growth hormones

Advantages of free range grazing

No need for antibiotics, no production of corn, waste is dispersed as natural fertilizer, animals can regrow land that’s too dry for crop growth

Disadvantages of free range grazing

Requires more land use, more expensive for consumer

Desertification

Can occur if plants are killed by overgrazing and soil is compacted so much hat it can’t hold enough water anymore

Alternatives to prevent overgrazing

Rotational grazing - increase growth of grass by distributing manure and clipping grass

Overgrazing

Too many animals grazing an area of land can remove all of the vegetation which leads to topsoil erosion

Inefficiency of meat

Producing meat for humans to eat is far less efficient than producing plants in terms of energy, water usage, and land

Energy

All of the energy needed to plant, grow, harvest plants to feed to animals (bring water to animals, house animals, slaughter and package)

Land

All of the energy needed to grow plants to feed animals PLUS room the animals take up

Water

All of the water for crops that animal eat PLUS the water the animals drink