How does farms affect the environment

It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. Environmental Impacts of Factory Farming Factory farming is a major contributor to water and air pollution as well as deforestation. David N. This article addresses the environmental impacts of factory farming and the intersection of animal and environmental law. Clean Air Act The Clean Air Act CAA is a federal statute that has undergone revisions and amendments , but still does not list factory farms as a categorical source of pollution.

Cowspiracy Cowspiracy , a documentary film, addresses the impacts of factory farming on the environment. Nutrient pollution is a causal factor in toxic algae blooms affecting lakes in China, the United States, and elsewhere. Parts of the Gulf of Mexico are regularly afflicted in this manner. Nitrogen accumulation in water and on land threatens biodiversity and the health of native plant species and natural habitats.

In addition, fertilizer application in soil leads to the formation and release of nitrous oxide, one of the most harmful greenhouse gases. With the global population continuing to skyrocket, the tension will continue to grow between continued agricultural growth and the ecological health of the land upon which humans depend. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.

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If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. For thousands of years, humans have modified the physical environment by clearing land for agriculture or damming streams to store and divert water.

As we industrialized, we built factories and power plants. For example, when a dam is built, less water flows downstream. This impacts the communities and wildlife located downstream who might depend on that water.

Use these resources to teach your students how humans modify the physical environment and the compounding impacts those changes have. To irrigate is to water crops by bringing in water from pipes, canals, sprinklers, or other man-made means, rather than relying on rainfall alone.

Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock. Encyclopedic entry. Because most organisms need oxygen to live, few organisms can survive in hypoxic conditions. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students.

Skip to content. Image Rice Fields in Bali More than half the planet's suitable land has been cultivated for crops, like these terraced rice fields in Bali, Indonesia.

For example, forest clearance to grow the crops and rear the animals reduces vital carbon 'sinks' and releases gases previously stored in the soil and vegetation. Factory farming also requires large amounts of energy in order to function.

This isn't just to rear the animals, but also to grow the vast amounts of feed they need. The rest is needed for factors such as heating, lighting and ventilation.

It's not just carbon dioxide that's the problem: gases including methane and nitrous oxide, also produced in significant quantities, are released through various sources including animal waste and fertiliser use.

Both gases are much more potent than carbon dioxide. Climate change is already harming food production 4 and these impacts are projected to increase over time, with potentially devastating effects. Higher temperatures, for example, could place further stress on water-scarce regions and make it harder to rear animals and grow food crops. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity 5 climate change may affect plant growth and production by promoting the spread of pests and diseases, increasing exposure to heat stress and encouraging soil erosion due to stronger winds.

Pimentel 6. Added heat stress, shifting monsoons, and drier soils may reduce yields by as much as a third in the tropics and subtropics, where crops are already near their maximum heat tolerance. Factory farming intensifies climate change. By taking action against factory farming, we are not just creating a food and farming revolution; we are also tackling one of the world's greatest sustainability challenges. Simply sign up to receive email updates from Compassion in World Farming to hear about urgent campaign actions and other ways you can help end cruelty to farm animals.

We rely on the health of ecosystems for our general well-being - they provide our food, our water, even our air 9. Despite this, the survival of countless plant and animal species around the world is currently threatened While there is a range of factors driving this extinction crisis, a critical component is factory farming. Factory farming can create a range of pollution problems, fragmenting and even destroying natural habitats. This can drive out or even kill the animals and plants that inhabit them.

The range of wastes from factory farms can be particularly problematic, leaking into water courses and, in the worst cases, leaving vast "dead zones", where few species can survive. Some of the nitrogen will also become gaseous, turning into ammonia, for instance, which creates problems such as water acidification and ozone layer depletion.

The deliberate destruction of natural habitats is also a significant driver of biodiversity loss. Because the farm animals need to eat so much, we need a lot of land to grow the feed. In fact, around one third of the world's crop lands are already given over to growing animal feed 3. Unfortunately, because space for crops is already at a premium, we are seeing a push for land in parts of Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, including environmentally valuable grasslands and forests.

The scientists who discovered this concluded that intensive agriculture, rather than family farms, was the dominant driver The problem isn't just limited to tropical regions though; increasing pressure on crop lands around Europe, for example, is leading to the disappearance of a wide variety of plants and animals As covered in our climate change section, factory farming produces substantial greenhouse gas emissions - These emissions are intensifying climate change and making certain habitats increasingly hostile to live in.

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity 5 , climate change may affect plant growth and production by promoting the spread of pests and diseases, increasing exposure to heat stress and changing rainfall patterns, and encouraging soil erosion due to stronger winds.

One of the largest, found in the Gulf of Mexico, was estimated in to be the size of Massachusetts - square kilometres. Nature Factory farming endangers the survival of other animals and plants, with impacts including pollution, deforestation and climate change. FAO 3.