Intensive farming and human health

It's not only the animals that suffer

The risks to human health from intensive farming are well-documented and relatively well-known in the developed world. In 2003 the American Public Health Association urged federal, state and local governments and public health authorities to impose a temporary halt to new intensive farms until more scientific data about the risks they pose to human health had been carried out. In the EU they are being phased out on animal welfare grounds. You can read the background to this section of the website in WSPA's Industrial animal agriculture – the next global health crisis? (PDF 1,179KB) >> In the developing world, however, intensive farming is increasing rapidly.

Chronic diseases

All over the world, societies are moving from rural to urban lifestyles. The diseases we suffer from are changing too. Whereas in the past the main causes of disease were infections and hunger, now people are suffering from chronic diseases that are connected with eating too much of the wrong sorts of food.

Foodborne diseases

Research has shown that, although intensive farming increases the amount of cheaper animal products available, the overcrowding of animals encourages infectious diseases, known as foodborne diseases, which can be passed to humans.

Antibiotics and additives

It's estimated that at least half of all antibiotics sold are used for farmed animals. The use of antibiotics to protect intensively farmed animals from diseases and to make them grow faster can also affect human health. Other additives are given in animal feed to speed up growth and protect intensively farmed animals from disease.

Unhealthy environment

In traditional farming, animals such as pigs, chickens and cows live in much smaller groups than they do on factory farms. They have space to move around, and their manure is recycled as a valuable fertiliser and source of fuel. But when animals are kept together in unnaturally large numbers, the amount of waste they produce can become an environmental health problem which is dangerous both for the animals and for people living near the farms. The health of workers in factory farms and slaughterhouses can also be at risk.

Consumer choice

Consumers can often make choices between consuming intensively farmed and non-intensively farmed products. Intensive farming is an unnatural system that aims to get the maximum output from intensively reared animals. Well-run free-range and organic farms work in cooperation with nature and aim for conditions where animals are more likely to be healthy. Choosing alternatives to intensively farmed food is not only better for your health; it gives farmed animals a better life and helps to protect the environment.