[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:03.09]this is the Agriculture Report.
[00:06.09]Demand for meat, milk and eggs
[00:09.02]is growing around the world.
[00:11.31]To meet that demand,
[00:12.71]the way these products are produced is changing.
[00:16.63]The change is from small farms
[00:19.07]to large industrial operations.
[00:21.66]This has already happened in the United States.
[00:25.54]But not everyone is happy with the change.
[00:28.73]As a result, there is also a growing demand
[00:32.57]for products growing locally on small farms.
[00:36.60]In Clinton, North Carolina, some old buildings
[00:40.56]are all that remain from the days
[00:42.85]when James Lame raised hogs next to his home.
[00:47.79]He saw that small farmers were having trouble
[00:51.27]competing with companies that own large farms.
[00:55.06]"They had better consistency,
[00:56.80]better pork quality, better genetics.
[00:59.49]So after college, in '98,
[01:02.64]I decided to try and modernize."
[01:04.48]He stopped raising hogs in small building
[01:07.67]and built two industrial-scale hog barns,
[01:11.92]each of them holds 1,500 hogs.
[01:16.44]Nearly all pigs are raised this way
[01:19.63]in the United States now.
[01:21.92]The government says
[01:23.62]the efficiency of large-scale production
[01:26.65]in a controlled environment
[01:28.84]has helped reduce the price of a pork chop
[01:32.29]by nearly 20 percent since 1998.
[01:36.92]These efficient and intensive production methods
[01:41.11]are being used around the world,
[01:43.74]many experts say that is a good thing
[01:47.13]as the demand for meat grows.
[01:49.63]But livestock expert Carolyn Opio points out
[01:54.16]that the land, water
[01:55.76]and feed required to produce it are limited.
[01:59.29]"If we are to produce within the constraints
[02:02.87]that we are facing today, efficiency, I think, is key."
[02:06.77]Mrs Opio is with the United Nations Food
[02:09.73]and Agriculture Organization,
[02:12.17]but the results of the efficiency
[02:14.31]are not always necessarily good.
[02:17.04]The waste from thousands of confined animals
[02:21.53]can pollute waterways, and produce greenhouse gases.
[02:27.22]And some health experts are concerned about the antibiotics
[02:32.26]and other chemicals being put in the animal's feed.
[02:36.35]Others criticize the conditions in which the animals are kept.
[02:41.48]So today a growing number of people
[02:45.01]are like Kevin Summers in Amissville, Virginia,
[02:48.84]are returning to small-scale farming.
[02:52.68]"In order to feed the world, I think this is a better way,
[02:56.03]It's a cleaner way. It's a more humane way."
[02:59.21]More Americans today say they want to know
[03:03.85]where their food comes from,
[03:05.84]some might like the way Kevin Summers raises his hogs.
[03:10.72]"I can see the entire process unfold
[03:12.91]before my eyes and know that they had a good life
[03:15.81]and were healthy and happy."
[03:17.75]The hogs eat damaged apples and old pumpkins,
[03:22.19]this reduces food waste,
[03:25.48]but this kind of farming also means higher prices.
[03:30.01]Even so, Kevin Summers as he believes
[03:34.92]it would still be possible to meet global demand this way.
[03:38.72]"It would just involve people making the choice
[03:40.86]to buy this kind of food and say that,
[03:43.75]'I care about something other than just the cost.'"
[03:46.69]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English,
[03:52.77]I'm Karen Leggett.