1/12/15

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 41 (which I unfortunately titled as Assignment 36 - sorry). See the links to the reading and assignment below.

"Words/Meaning" from Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (here is the rest of the book in case you are interested)

Our Daily Bread - full movie (contained the first video we watched in class today) - NOTE: segments of this film depict conditions in real slaughterhouses

Assignment 41 Eating Animals

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences. Use examples and vocabulary to support your responses.

Content Comprehension

1. What is a CAFO?

2. What are some ecological impacts of CAFOs?

Response and Discussion

3. What is your reaction to what you saw/read today?

4. As consumers, do you think that we have the right to know how the animals we eat are being raised? Do you want to know?

5a. Richard Lobb of the National Chicken Council says in the film Food, Inc., “In a way, we’re not producing chickens, we’re producing food.” What does this statement mean? Do you agree or disagree with it?

b. Lobb continues, “What these systems have been able to produce are a lot of food on a small amount of land at a very affordable price. Now somebody explain to me - what’s wrong with that?” Respond to this statement.

6. How do you think farm animals should be treated?

7. Suppose that we (as in all consumers) come to a consensus that even food animals deserve to have a right to a certain quality of life.

a. What might be some repercussions of this position? What effects could it have?

b. Who should have the responsibility to oversee the treatment of food animals? Companies? The government? Individuals/consumers?

Free Response Practice

8. Maintaining dairy cattle in a CAFO requires large quantities of water and produces vast quantities of wastewater and manure. The increasing number of CAFO dairies in eastern New Mexico and West Texas is contributing to significant groundwater contamination and the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. Consider a CAFO with 1,000 dairy cows and answer the following questions.

a. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average dairy cow can consume up to 200 L of water daily. An additional 120 L per cow per day is required to wash the milking equipment and milking area. How many liters of water are required to operate this dairy daily?

b. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average dairy cow produces 55 kg of wet manure daily. How many metric tons would this dairy produce each day? (1,000 kg = 1 metric ton)

c. The recommended maximum manure application rate for a farm site with low runoff potential is approximately 275 kg per hectare. What size farm would be required to apply all of the manure produced by this dairy each day?

d. Identify one environmental problem that could be caused if the rate of runoff of nitrogen from the manure into natural waters became excessively high. Describe one way to prevent this problem.

e. If this same dairy herd was raised in a free-range operation, identify and explain one environmental problem, other than water pollution, that would be minimized or eliminated.