Do We Need Factory Farming to Feed the World?
Food security is defined as the state of having regular access to affordable, nutritious food. The goal of any food system should always be to ensure food security for all people. But the industrial corporate model of today is built to prioritize profit margins and shareholder gains instead. This race to the bottom line comes at the cost of farmers, consumers, and the environment.
“[Market economies] have never provided food security and never will.”
—Dr. John Ikerd, Food Systems Expert
The food system we have
We currently grow enough food to feed around 10 billion people. But before we celebrate such a significant bounty, the harrowing fact is that most of this food is not grown for human consumption. Instead, much of it goes to biofuels and to creating animal feed for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
In the United States alone, over 15 million households experienced food insecurity in 2017. That same year, about 90% of American-grown cereal grains were used for purposes other than feeding people. We could increase food security and more readily address hunger across the country by taking the land and resources used to produce these grains and growing food for human consumption instead.
Mega corporations are so entrenched in our food system that American “freedom of choice” is beginning to feel like an illusion. These companies would have us believe that their industrial model is the only way for us to feed a growing population. They paint themselves as heroes while flooding the market with their products, polluting the environment, and exploiting farmers. But if they were truly heroes, our nation’s food security would have gotten better with industrialization.
The fact is that the percentage of people experiencing food insecurity today is greater than it was in the 1960s when our nation’s food policies first began to shift in favor of large corporations. Suddenly our government started prioritizing the industrialization and consolidation of our food system at the expense of small family farms.
The food system we envision
Farming and land stewardship should go hand in hand. Many farmers choose this challenging occupation out of a deep desire to care for the land. Craig Watts, Transfarmation farmer and former poultry grower for Perdue, said: “[Farming is] part of me, in the blood. It’s a calling. I like to watch things grow.”
Factory farming as the dominant means of food production has caused extensive environmental, social, and economic destruction. This system relies heavily on fossil fuels, water, and grains, contributing to global crises and shortages. In some areas, water is already becoming a precious and scarce commodity.
On the other hand, local and regional food systems are not only capable of feeding their communities—they excel at it. During the pandemic, local producers and distributors provided food for their communities when many grocery store shelves were bare. With shorter supply chains and more flexibility, they did not face the difficulties many global distributors faced.
We must break free from the grip of corporate control. We need policies that support a free, competitive market of small independent producers. We must stop propping up an industry that is destroying communities and the planet for profit.
The Transfarmation Project® is proud to offer an alternative for farmers looking to escape industrial animal agriculture. Farm transitions not only benefit farmers but help communities, the planet, and animals.