在农业部门，越来越多可以提高产量的科技快速的被吸收，农产品的低价更刺激了使用更多成本减少的科技，进而导致价格的进一步下降。

在传统的农耕文明中，人类曾经与其他动物和谐相处，一个农场可能有猪、牛、羊、鸡等各种动物，因为农民知道这样有利于农场的多样性，过几个月，农民可能把这些动物移到另一片草地上去，鸟儿啄草里的虫子和其他昆虫，同时将他们高硝酸盐的肥料储存在草地里。

传统农耕确实就是自然的一部分，但是从20世纪70年代开始，所有的农耕文明改变了，动物仅仅作为人类肉食的来源而存在，而为了更快更多的获得这个来源，动物养殖逐渐工厂化了。

家禽：

大多数家禽都在养殖场养殖，这些鸡拥挤在一个鸡笼子里，他们甚至不能伸展翅膀，当那些下蛋的母鸡的产量开始下降时，他们就会被禁食和水几天时间，然后颠倒昼夜，这个过程使他们蜕皮并且所有的羽毛都脱落，然后就再一次开始下蛋，但是仅有几周时间。之后，当这个过程耗尽之后，这只鸡就会被用来炖鸡汤，另外一些小鸡被磨碎作为动物饲料，甚至当他们还活着。

猪：

猪在养殖场的生活可能是最悲惨的了，猪仔动物中是属于非常聪明的，至少像狗一样聪明。但是他们常常生活在一个小栅栏中，甚至不能转身，有些时候一些猪的尾巴会被咬掉。为了让他们尽快地增重，会让他们吃大量的荷尔蒙，当他们被带到屠宰场时，因为他们的腿长期缺乏锻炼，有时候会因为无法支撑全身的体重而折断。

牛：

肉牛现在的命运也很悲惨，常常在一个满是泥的地方。等到屠宰的时候，他们被强迫赶上卡车，在卡车上，他们常常读过几天几夜的时间，尽管很多国家有法律规定在特定的时间内要喂食物和水，但是却经常被忽视了。如果牛倒下不能行走了，也会被无情的拖出来，然后屠宰就开始了。

奶牛的命运也如此，为了增加牛奶的产量，大量的荷尔蒙喂养，当小牛出生后几天时间就离开了妈妈，甚至从来没有感觉到草是什么样子，他们一生只是被拴在一个栅栏中。养殖场的牛通常每年都要下小牛，就像人类一样，牛有九个月的怀孕期，所以这种每年的生产对于母牛来说很艰难。

当我们看到这些动物在养殖场的待遇后，我们就不难想象在这样一个空间里会有多少疾病的产生，也就不难理解疯牛病和禽流感的产生了。

8/11: Industrial farming and traditional farming

In the agricultural sector, more and more output-increasing technologies have been rapidly adopted, and the low price of agricultural commodities has stimulated the use of even more cost-saving technologies, leading to a further decrease in prices. 

In traditional farming cultures, humans once harmoniously co-existed with other animals; a farm might have had pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, and other kinds of animals, because the farmers knew that this was beneficial for the farm’s diversity.  After a few months, the farmer might move these animals to another pasture, the chickens pecking at the worms and other insects in the grass while depositing their nitrogen-rich manure on the pasture.  

Traditional farming really is a part of nature, but beginning in the 1970s, all of farming culture changed.  Animals only existed as the source of meat for humans, and in order to obtain more of this source more quickly, animal-raising gradually came to follow a factory model. 

Poultry:

The vast majority of poultry is raised in factory farms.  These chickens are squeezed into a chicken coop; they aren’t even able to stretch their wings.  When the output of the laying hens starts to fall, they aren’t given any food or water for a few days, and then they confuse day and night.  This process makes them molt and drop all of their feathers, and they start laying eggs again, but only for a few weeks’ time.  After that, when this process is finished, the chicken is stewed for soup.  Also, some chicks are ground up for animal feed, sometimes while they are still living. 

Pigs:

The life of a pig on a factory farm is perhaps the most wretched; pigs are among the most intelligent animals, as smart as dogs at least.  But they often live in small pens, not even able to turn around, and sometimes their tails are gnawed off.  To make them gain weight as quickly as possible, they are made to eat a large amount of hormones, and when they are taken to the slaughterhouse, their legs sometimes snap, unable to support the weight of their bodies because they haven’t used them in so long. 

Cows:

The fate of a steer is also very miserable; they are often kept in filthy conditions.  When the time comes for slaughter, they are forced into a truck; they often spend a few days and nights on the truck, and although many countries have laws that stipulate how frequently the cattle should be fed and watered, these are often ignored.  If a steer falls and is unable to move, it will be mercilessly pulled out, and then the slaughtering begins.

The fate of milk cows is like this as well.  To increase milk production, they are fed large amounts of hormones.  A few days after a calf is born, it leaves its mother; it may never even feel grass.  Their whole lives will be spent tied up in a pen.  Cows on in factory farms often give birth to one calf a year; they are like humans, in that they have a gestation period of nine months, so giving birth every year like this is very hard on the mother cow. 

When we see the treatment of these animals on factory farms, it’s not difficult to imagine how many diseases are caused in a space like that, and it’s not difficult to understand the spread of mad cow disease and avian flu.