health & well-being

Poor agricultural practices also have an adverse effect on human health. Pesticides, including hormone-disrupting chemicals used in intensive agriculture have been linked to several health effects from allergies to infertility to brain damage [1]. Often these chemicals are used in tandem with others, creating cocktails whose effects have not yet been studied [2]. Diseases such as BSE show where intensive animal farming and an emphasis on cheap feed at any cost can lead. Intensive animal farms are "a haven for disease"[3] because of cramped conditions and a lack of proper sanitation for the animals. The wide-ranging use of antibiotics in farm animals has been linked to development of resistance to antibiotics in disease causing bacteria.

[1] John Humphrys "These Toxic Times" in The Great Food Gamble London, Hodder & Stoughton, 2001 p 48.
[2] ibid
[3] Dr Tim O'Brien "Factory Farming and Human Health" Hants, Compassion in World Farming Trust, 1997 p 1.