How intensive farming affects human nutrition

All over the world, societies are changing rapidly from rural to urban lifestyles. Our diet is also changing. Some of the most important changes in diet are that we now consume more meat, dairy products and eggs, fats, soft drinks and energy dense foods. We consume less or not enough staples, grains and cereals, fruit and vegetables, fibre and water.

The diseases we suffer from are changing as a result of our diet. Whereas in the past the main causes of disease were infections and hunger, now people are suffering from diseases (known as ‘chronic diseases’) that are connected with eating too much of the wrong sorts of food. More people are shopping in multinational-owned supermarkets and are sometimes persuaded to choose their food according to TV advertising and supermarket promotions rather than for balanced nutrition.

According to food policy experts, as many people are affected by an excess of calories (1.2 billion – 1.7 billion) as are suffering from a deficiency of calories and protein. Between 1971 and 2001, more than half of US adults became overweight; a further one in four became clinically obese. But the change is happening fastest in developing countries.

The chronic diseases in which our diet plays an important part are obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and several types of cancer. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is a need for a global health campaign to prevent chronic diseases, which are now the largest cause of disease and preventable deaths.

WHO says that:

Chronic disease is responsible for 60% of all deaths worldwide. 80% of chronic disease deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Almost half of chronic disease deaths occur in people under the age of 70. Around the world, chronic disease affects women and men almost equally. The major risk factors for chronic disease are an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and tobacco use. Without action, 17 million people will die prematurely this year from a chronic disease. One billion adults are overweight or obese - without action, this figure will surpass 1.5 billion by 2015. 22 million children under five years old are overweight. Tobacco use causes at least five million deaths each year. Chronic diseases are very expensive for society: from 2005 to 2015 they could cost China US$ 558 billion, India US$ 236 billion, and the Russian Federation US$ 303 billion. There has been an epidemic of diabetes in both developed and developing countries, mainly due to people being overweight or obese. The growing number of overweight children is now a major health concern, with ‘junk food’ and lack of physical activity the most likely causes.

Chronic diseases are common and costly, but they are one of the most preventable types of disease, because they depend so much on our own choices about lifestyle. One of the three main risk factors for chronic disease is an unhealthy diet. The WHO has a global goal to reduce chronic diseases by 2 per cent a year up to 2015, thus saving 36 million lives. To do that, people are recommended to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and to eat less fatty, salty and sugary foods. Salt, fat and sugar are often high in junk foods and fast foods such as hamburgers and ready-cooked meals.

How healthy is intensively-farmed chicken meat?

Studies have shown that fast-growing factory farmed chickens contain more fat and less iron than traditional breeds of chicken that are usually farmed in free-range or organic conditions. Factory farmed meat chickens may be a major factor in rising levels of obesity among people. In traditional farming, chickens roam free, eating natural foods such as herbs and seeds. Intensively farmed chickens are given high energy foods and are very inactive. The result is that a typical supermarket chicken in the West contains more fat than protein, with 2.7 times as much fat as in 1970 and 30 per cent less protein.

Omega-3 fatty acids and intensive farming

Intensively farmed cattle are fed on grain rather than grass in order to increase their production of meat and milk. This unnatural diet has been shown to affect the quality of their meat and milk. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, lacking in many modern diets, are essential to human nutrition and are associated with reduced risk of heart and circulatory disease, arthritis and other conditions.

Scientific analysis has shown that cattle that have grazed naturally have a much higher proportion of Omega-3 fats in their meat and milk than cattle fed on grain.

Intensive farming and human diet

Many experts agree that a diet that is lower in animal products (meat, animal fat, milk products) and higher in plant-based products is healthier and reduces the risk of chronic diseases.

Intensive farming has greatly increased the availability of cheaper protein and fat from animal sources. Industrialised farms supply lower-cost, standardised animal products to fast food restaurants and caterers. Often the products do not reach the poorest of the world’s poor. Instead, factory farming has contributed to over-consumption of fats and meats among increasing numbers of people, as large commercial farmers and multinational companies encourage consumers to buy these ‘cheap’ products in greater quantities.

Fast food and children’s diets

Experts agree that fast food can be a cause of unhealthy diets and obesity. For this reason, the expansion of fast food globally is a cause for concern. The fast food industry is reported to be growing at 40 per cent a year in India and there are over 500 McDonald’s restaurants and 1,200 KFCs in China. In some Chinese cities, almost one child in five is classed as obese by the WHO.

Among other countries, the UK has realised how important children’s diets are for their health and future development and has decided to drastically reduce, or completely ban, fast foods such as hamburgers from school menus.