LYRICS
From VOA Learning English,
this is the Agriculture Report.
Demand for meat, milk and eggs
is growing around the world.
To meet that demand,
the way these products are produced is changing.
The change is from small farms
to large industrial operations.
This has already happened in the United States.
But not everyone is happy with the change.
As a result, there is also a growing demand
for products growing locally on small farms.
In Clinton, North Carolina, some old buildings
are all that remain from the days
when James Lame raised hogs next to his home.
He saw that small farmers were having trouble
competing with companies that own large farms.
"They had better consistency,
better pork quality, better genetics.
So after college, in '98,
I decided to try and modernize."
He stopped raising hogs in small building
and built two industrial-scale hog barns,
each of them holds 1,500 hogs.
Nearly all pigs are raised this way
in the United States now.
The government says
the efficiency of large-scale production
in a controlled environment
has helped reduce the price of a pork chop
by nearly 20 percent since 1998.
These efficient and intensive production methods
are being used around the world,
many experts say that is a good thing
as the demand for meat grows.
But livestock expert Carolyn Opio points out
that the land, water
and feed required to produce it are limited.
"If we are to produce within the constraints
that we are facing today, efficiency, I think, is key."
Mrs Opio is with the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization,
but the results of the efficiency
are not always necessarily good.
The waste from thousands of confined animals
can pollute waterways, and produce greenhouse gases.
And some health experts are concerned about the antibiotics
and other chemicals being put in the animal's feed.
Others criticize the conditions in which the animals are kept.
So today a growing number of people
are like Kevin Summers in Amissville, Virginia,
are returning to small-scale farming.
"In order to feed the world, I think this is a better way,
It's a cleaner way. It's a more humane way."
More Americans today say they want to know
where their food comes from,
some might like the way Kevin Summers raises his hogs.
"I can see the entire process unfold
before my eyes and know that they had a good life
and were healthy and happy."
The hogs eat damaged apples and old pumpkins,
this reduces food waste,
but this kind of farming also means higher prices.
Even so, Kevin Summers as he believes
it would still be possible to meet global demand this way.
"It would just involve people making the choice
to buy this kind of food and say that,
'I care about something other than just the cost.'"
And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English,
I'm Karen Leggett.