Large-Scale is the Problem

Maybe we haven’t learned anything from the Great Egg Recall of 2010; at least not enough–not yet. The egg farm mentioned in William Neuman’s New York Times article, and many farms like it, try to adjust their large-scale models of production to address unhygienic conditions and other problems that arise from being so big.

The factory farm model confines thousands of animals into a closed environment that is condusive to the spread of diseases like E. coli and salmonella.

Egg farms can install systems of fans and conveyor belts to dry manure, build airtight entrances to facilities, vaccinate chicks to be bacteria-resistant and set rodent bait traps around the perimeter of their henhouses, but these expensive and cumbersome strategies are not the big picture solution to safe food production. Our broken food system only addresses the symptoms, not the disease — the disease itself is the result of the very model of industrial production they are trying to preserve.

One way to lessen the risk of salmonella contamination at an egg farm is not to have 200,000-400,000 chickens in one location within hen houses the size of two football fields. Because factory farms contain thousands of food animals in crowded conditions, finding ways to use or dispose of enormous amounts of manure becomes a challenge. Larger amounts of manure can create a greater risk of food contamination. Sometimes, you can adjust the system to fix the problem. But in the case of many factory farms, the system is the problem.

-Rich Bindell