Sunday, April 24, 2005

Mega Farms good or bad

In a time of coporate giants such as Walmart and Microsoft are Mega Farms being picked on. A mega farm is a farm which specializes in a certain aspect of producing a food product such as corn, chickens, or hogs. These farms are often family owned and target of much criticism. Economic pressures have helped spawn these mega farms which produce products at a fraction of the cost of regular farms. The question is, is the lowered cost and increased supply worth the enviromental cost of operating these large enterprises. Like many other mass producing ventures, these farms produce large amounts of waste and byproducts which are potentially harmful to the environment. Can these farms be regulated by the government, or should they be allowed to operate at will? Are these farms actually benifical to the public, or does the damage to the environment make them impracticle. Can taxes on manure disposal act to balance the cost, or will these taxes kill the industry?

No comments: