Think of yourself as a little piglet rolling in the mud. You are located in the beautiful countryside with fresh cut grass and a big red barn a few yards away. You have a fine diet and enjoy the company of other piglets around you. Now, think of yourself as a piglet in a cramped cage with many other piglets rolling in feces, growing to be 50 pounds overweight, in a dark pen waiting to be killed. Which pig would you rather be?

I don’t know about you, but the first image sounds absolutely dandy to me! However, that image that I so eloquently depicted for you is an extremely rare occurrence for a piglet’s life in today’s day and age. Unless you are free-range piggy, you are living in a cramped cage with other pigs like yourself; you are also being stuffed with antibiotics causing you to grow so large you can barely move, inevitably forcing you to sit down for the rest of your piggy life.

If you ever took the time to notice, menus often specify “organic,” “free-range, ” “cage-free” next to their meat items. They do this because the majority of our livestock products come from factory farms, which is anything far from good quality meat. Factory farms mass-produce animals to meet the food consumption of humans, while also sacrificing human health, as well as the environment and the welfare of their livestock.

I am not going to give you a whole spiel as to how factory farms treat animals, because honestly that’s a whole other piece in itself, but what I am going to do is talk about how the process of factory farming affects us humans and our health. (It makes me sadder to write and talk about animals health and their well being than my own…)

I was a vegetarian for about a year and a half of my life. I remember when I traveled out of America, I was handed a “complimentary hamburger” due to my flight being delayed to go back home. When I received this so-called hamburger, I remember thinking it looked rarer than the typical medium rare, and it was very large compared to the hamburgers I have had in the past. When I bit into it, that was the day I decided to be a vegetarian. I pictured the cow I saw earlier that week roaming the beautiful farms by the road I was driving on; I felt the meat smear against my teeth (it was soft, and not that typical meat consistency). It didn’t even taste gross, but it felt weird against my tongue and teeth and it simply made me sad. I put the hamburger down and began crying with hamburger meat in my teeth (this was a very picturesque moment).

While being a vegetarian, I did research on meat products (I wanted to see what kind of nutrients I’d be losing from my diet) and that is when I discovered the absolute horror of factory farms and the inducement of antibiotics in their livestock. What I discovered not only made me sad, but it also further encouraged me to stick with being a vegetarian. I read up on cattle in factory farms and how they are dosed with antibiotics to make them grow faster. Instead of taking sick cattle to see a veterinarian, many factory farm owners give the cows a higher dosage of human-grade antibiotics, than they were already receiving, in an attempt to keep them alive longer in hopes of then bringing them to a slaughterhouse to be made into what we see at our grocery store: steak, chop meat, etc.

Like cows, chickens and pigs are also induced with high amounts of antibiotics. Chickens are the largest livestock to be genetically altered (injected with hormones), to become fatter in hopes of being a more tender or succulent taste of meat. Typically after being genetically altered, chickens no longer can support their weight causing them to lie down often, sit often and have leg deformities.

On top of that, all of the animals mentioned are kept in confined spaces, unable to roam and eat what they are born to naturally digest (like grass, fruit and leaves). They are forced to sit in their contaminated pens, amongst many other animals of their kind, while being force-fed and worked to their absolute fullest until their bodies give out and they are no longer able to produce anymore. Once they are no longer able to produce, they are then sent out to be slaughtered in the most dehumanizing extremes that I rather not even get into. Wow, I am sad.

So why is this concerning to those who eat factory farm meat? Well, let me tell you... Due to poor sanitation and waste management on factory farms, products leaving the factory can be contaminated and carry food borne illnesses like bacteria like E.coli and salmonella. Experts on the study of factory farms in the food industry believe that the outbreak of Swine Flu, many years ago, was caused by the overcrowding of pigs on factory farms and the storage of their waste.

The antibiotics given to these poor, beautiful creatures are also affecting human health. The use of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant bacteria, which results in certain bacterial infections becoming untreatable in humans. According to Farm Sanctuary, antibiotic resistant infections kill 90,000 Americans every year! Holy cow (pun-intended).

So people, before you go and buy the cheaper meat product in your grocery store, or order the conventional hamburger at a restaurant, think to yourself about all these horrifying things I am exposing you to. Look for the “free range,” the “organic,” the “cage-free” menu blurb, or the logo on the meat packaged products and go for it. You are doing your health (and livestock) a service by purchasing these better quality products.

P.S...if you are interested in learning more, I recommend watching the documentary Food Inc or simply just research online. Farm Sanctuary is a good place to start! There are so many sources that expose you to even more horrific details on factory farming!