Alternatives to intensively farmed food

Consumers can often make a choice between intensively farmed and non-intensively farmed products. Intensive farming is an unnatural system that aims to get the maximum output from the animals. As a result, the animals often spend their lives under physiological and psychological stress and are prone to illness and injury. Intensive farming depends on inputs such as antibiotics, hormones and other veterinary drugs to keep the animals productive in conditions that are not conducive to good health.

Alternatives to intensive farming

The philosophy of good free-range and organic farms is to work in cooperation with nature. They aim to keep animals in conditions that are closer to their natural environment and natural behaviour patterns. They often use more traditional breeds of animal that have better resistance to disease and to parasites. They do not allow the routine use of drugs such as antibiotics and hormones to control infection and to boost productivity. The animals grow more slowly and have longer and more natural lives.

Free-range and organically farmed animal products

Milk: Most intensively farmed dairy cows are bred and managed to produce so much milk that they are no longer sufficiently productive after around two to three years and are slaughtered. Some intensively farmed cows have little or no access to pasture and spend their lives on concrete floors in sheds. They suffer badly from lameness and mastitis (a very painful inflammation of the udder) and from chronic physiological exhaustion. They are routinely treated with antibiotics in an attempt to control the bacteria that cause mastitis. If you buy organic milk, you will be supporting a farming system where the cows enjoy longer and healthier lives and you are much less likely to be drinking antibiotic residues.

Eggs: Hens in good free-range and organic farms have a large pasture to roam in (or an outdoor run or veranda in countries with severe winters) and a sufficiently roomy shed for night time protection. This contrasts with the cruel life of a hen in a battery cage. If you buy free-range or organic eggs, you are buying a product from a hen that has had a healthy and active life - and, what’s more, you are helping to end the use of battery cages globally.

Chicken meat: Intensively farmed meat chickens (broilers) have been bred to be so fast-growing that they are often unable to reach adulthood without dying from heart and lung failure or skeletal disease. They live in crowded sheds, containing up to tens of thousands of chickens, on litter covered with chicken manure. The ammonia in the manure causes sores on the skin of their legs and breasts. In many countries, they are fed growth-promoting antibiotics to keep them growing and to keep down the infections that are encouraged by the unhealthy conditions. Chickens kept in good free-range and organic farms grow more slowly, have healthier hearts, stronger skeletons and better immune systems. They have access to outside runs where they can exercise and behave naturally. If you buy free-range or organic chicken meat, you reduce your chances of eating residues of antibiotics or other chemicals or of contracting antibiotic-resistant diseases.

Pork: In intensive farms, female breeding pigs are kept confined in crates so narrow that they cannot turn around. This cruel confinement often leads to chronic frustration, heart disease, digestive disorders, urinary infections, constipation, lameness and muscle weakness, as well as a short lifespan. Young pigs being reared for meat are routinely treated with antibiotics to encourage fast growth and to treat diarrhoea caused by being weaned too young and being kept in crowded conditions. In contrast, breeding pigs in good free-range or organic farms have room to exercise and opportunity to make a nest in which to give birth to their piglets. Young pigs are weaned at an age when they can cope with the stress without becoming ill and antibiotics are not routinely used. If you buy free-range or organic pork, you are greatly reducing your chances of picking up antibiotic-resistant bacteria or eating residues of antibiotics.

Beef cattle: Intensively farmed cattle are fattened indoors for either all or the last months of their lives in crowded sheds or outdoor feedlots. In the US and some other countries, most cattle for beef are treated with hormones to make them grow faster. If you buy beef from good traditional free-range and organic farms, the animals will have been reared in natural conditions on pasture and you will avoid eating hormone and antibiotic residues in your beef. You will also increase the proportion of the healthy omega-3 essential fats in your diet.

The questions to ask at the
supermarket or farmers’ market:

• Were the animals fattened indoors or in a feedlot?
• Did the animals have access to fresh air and an outside run?
• How much space did each animal have on the farm?
• Were the animals kept in cages or crates?
• How many animals were kept together on the farm?
• What was the air quality in the animal sheds?
• Were the animals given antibiotics? If so, for what reason?
• Were the animals treated with hormones?
• Were the animals given any other feed additives?
• What infectious diseases were there on the farm?
• How was manure or slurry disposed of?
• How long did the animals live?

Where do your eggs come from? Have a look at the videos below to find out...

Free-range eggs >

Battery eggs >