BENEFITS: To Your Health | Quality of Life| Taking Care of the Planet| Wildlife Benefits | Smaller is Better | Taste the Difference
QUALITY OF LIFE
Promoting Animal Welfare (and Human Welfare) through Pasture-Based Farming
Many of us have heard the stories of large-scale factory farms: Tens of thousands of chickens or hogs crammed into tiny, enclosed spaces, unable to move, denied sunlight and fresh food, living lives that many regard as intolerable. Is this the price that animals—and humans—have to pay for a modern-day food system? Hardly. Not only are animals raised on pasture healthier, they also enjoy a quality of life that is immeasurably higher than animals raised in intensive confinement.
When animals are raised on carefully managed pastures, they are able to eat when they’re hungry, exercise at will, move into shade during the heat of the day, and rest when they’re tired. They can move to new grass and regularly enjoy clean and spacious environments. Mothers are free to suckle their young. As a result, they’re less likely than confined animals to suffer from stress, become ill, or contract an array of diseases.
However, pasture-based farming is not just better for animals; it’s better for farm workers, too. Farmers working on grass-based operations are more likely to enjoy a healthier work environment than those who work on large-scale factory farms. They’re less likely to suffer from respiratory problems resulting from the dust, ammonia, and dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide so common in confinement facilities.1
The information on this section of our website is reprinted from The Great New About Grass produced by: Eating Fresh Publications, 2004. A full version of this publication can be dowloaded by clicking here.
Endnotes:
1 Shannon Hayes. The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook: Healthy Cooking and Good Living with Pasture-Raised Foods. Eating Fresh Publications, New Jersey. 2004.
2 Grassland Birds: Fostering Habitats Using Rotational Grazing. Dan Undersander, Stan Temple, Jerry Bartlet, Dave Sample, Laura Paine. University of Wisconsin System. Cooperative Extension Publishing. 2000.
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