In this holiday season filled with love and compassion for others, I'd like to remind you about other living beings that share this beautiful Earth with you. People are known to have shown compassion for animals, but sometimes they're not aware of the sufferings that animals have to endure.

For many people, the word "farm" elicits the image of rolling green pasture, rustic barn filled with happy livestock animals. While those farms do exist in reality, they are not where most of the meat and dairy products that people consume on daily lives come from. Because of the increasing population and the shrinking land, more than half of the meat and dairy products in the world are produced in factory farms.

While factory farming may be the economical answer to the worldwide problem of increasing demand for meat, data have shown that factory farming have created more damage than we bargained for. The methods employed in factory farming often abuse the animals. Some animals were force-fed until their internal organ bursts, while others were starved to make them lay eggs non-stop. Poor waste management also adversely affects the environment by polluting our land, air, and water with harmful greenhouse gases. In the end, humans are also not immune to diseases caused by the unsanitary method of factory farming.


People often forget that their lives are inevitably interconnected with other beings and the Earth itself. Factory farming should be abolished because it is a form of animal cruelty, is harmful to the environment, and is hazardous to the human health. You don't have to be vegetarian or vegan, but be conscious on what you eat. On this joyous time of the year, join us in ending factory farms by choosing meat and dairy products from certified organic free-range farms.