In the 21st century, mechanized farms are enriching our lives, but they are also harming humans through animal suffering, zoonotic diseases, and environmental pollution. We need to improve our farming systems to take animal welfare and environmental protection into account.
In the 21st century, we live in material affluence. We have access to all the food we want and rarely suffer from hunger. But this abundance was not always taken for granted. Just a few centuries ago, people had to navigate nature to find food, sometimes foraging for bark or hunting wild animals. Today, when we crave meat, we can easily purchase it at our local butcher shop. This change is thanks to the “domestication” of animals and the mechanized farming systems that come with it. As a result, fewer people are malnourished than in the past, and people have a wider choice of meat to suit their tastes.
But behind this abundance lies an uncomfortable truth that we can easily overlook. It’s the reality of animals being produced and used as commodities on farms. We’re so used to anthropocentric thinking that we tend to view animals as mere tools of production. But animals are sentient beings, and they feel pain. As Yuval Harari writes in his book Sapiens, “Even plants and animals have become mechanized. By the time Homo sapiens was elevated to divine status by anthropocentric religions, farm animals were no longer seen as living beings capable of feeling pain and misery, and were treated as machines.”
When we fail to recognize these issues and treat animals as mere tools for productivity, we can face unforeseen consequences. So, is raising animals in mechanized factories harmful to humans? I believe it is clearly harmful, and this argument is based on three main grounds. First, mechanized farms facilitate the spread of zoonotic diseases. Second, the adverse effects of farm behavior are eventually passed on to humans. Third, farms adversely affect the surrounding environment, harming nearby residents.
First, mechanized farms increase the risk of exposure to infectious diseases. Recently, South Korea has experienced a series of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza. These are prime examples of zoonotic diseases, which are dangerous because they can be transmitted to humans. When migratory birds carry pathogens, the crowded conditions on farms contribute to the rapid spread of these diseases. On modern farms, many animals are crammed into small spaces, which weakens their resistance to disease. If a migratory bird passes over a farm carrying a pathogen and defecates, the pathogen in its droppings is likely to spread to the farm animals. This can pose a great risk to humans as well, and speeds up the spread of infectious diseases.
Second, excessive productivity pressures on farm animals can have a detrimental effect on humans as well. For example, the pesticide egg scandal that hit South Korea in 2017 is a prime example of this problem. Farmers artificially adjusted the light cycle to increase the productivity of laying hens and confined them in narrow cages. In this environment, the chickens became stressed and ill, and developed a tick infestation problem. To combat this, farmers sprayed the chickens with pesticides, but the pesticides ended up in the eggs and on the human food supply. This shows that the safety of the food we consume can also be compromised.
Third, mechanized farms have a serious negative impact on the surrounding environment. Animals infected with avian influenza are culled, which results in large amounts of carcasses being landfilled, which can lead to the spread of bugs and pathogens. There is also the risk of harmful substances from the carcasses seeping into groundwater and contaminating the drinking water of nearby residents. These environmental issues can be devastating to communities near farms, which in turn can have harmful effects on humans.
Mechanized farms have undoubtedly contributed to the enrichment of humanity by maximizing meat productivity. However, if animal welfare, human health, and environmental protection are not taken into account, these farming systems will eventually boomerang back on us. Therefore, we need to introduce new systems to compensate for the shortcomings of mechanized farming. Examples include the proliferation of farms that take animal welfare into account, limiting the distance between farms to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and improving eco-friendly farming systems.
Ultimately, we need to shift our mindset to solve the problems brought on by modern mechanized farming. Animals are living beings just like us, and they should be treated with respect. If we don’t change our current system, which is driven solely by productivity, we will eventually pay the price. For the abundant life we enjoy to be sustainable, we need a new agricultural system that takes animal welfare and environmental protection into account.
