factory farming essay conclusion

Home — Essay Samples — Economics — Industry — Factory Farming

Essays on Factory Farming

Factory farming and its indelible adverse impacts, factory farming and ethics in animal liberation by peter singer, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences

+ experts online

How Industrial Farming Can Eliminate The Negative Impacts of Factory Farming

Evaluation of yields from organic farming vs. sustainable agriculture, the pluses of using combine harvesters in farming, the job of an agricultural mechanic, let us write you an essay from scratch.

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

A Look at The Importance of Agriculture in The Community

Meat seller on the basis of training and occupation related factors, the implications of varying levels of cattle grazing, the impact of culture on consumer behaviour within the food industry sector, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

A Review on Precision Agriculture: Technologies and Challenges

Vegetarianism and an argument against factory farming, comparison of organic farming and conventional farming, advantages and disadvantages of organic and conventional farming, causes of animal abuse and its impact: a harsh reality, relevant topics.

• Real Estate
• Cosmetology
• Non-Profit Organization
• Construction
• Coal Mining
• American Dream
• Penny Debate

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Factory Farming: What It Is and Why It's a Problem

Factory farms are disastrous for the environment, nearby communities, consumer health, and animal welfare.

F actory farming is the primary way that the United States and many other countries produce popular animal products like hamburgers, cheese, and eggs. But it’s far from a flawless process. Factory farming causes significant damage to rural communities, surrounding environments, and the farmed animals themselves. Today, advocates from a broad range of backgrounds are increasingly calling for a shift away from these harsh industrial practices to give rise to a more just, equitable food system.

What is factory farming?

Factory farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), are a modern industrial method of raising farmed animals, who are collectively known in industry parlance as livestock. At its core, factory farming is a form of intensive agriculture designed to maximize profits using as few resources as possible. On factory farms, large numbers of animals are confined in small spaces, which often means keeping animals indoors for the duration of their lives.

Factory farming is an increasingly common way to raise animals for food, focusing on species such as cows , pigs , chickens , and fish . CAFOs can also be used to farm animals for non-food purposes, such as minks farmed intensively for their fur.

What happens on factory farms?

On factory farms, animals are not given any choice about how to live their lives. They're raised to grow quickly so that they can be turned into products as swiftly as possible. Various bodily mutilations, extremely tight and crowded confinement , and lives spent entirely indoors are routine aspects of life for factory-farmed animals.

Inhumane treatment

Inhumane treatment occurs on factory farms wherever animal cruelty is ignored, though definitions of cruelty vary widely between stakeholders. For example, definitions of animal cruelty used by the CEOs of big meat companies will differ drastically from those used by grassroots animal advocates . While producers often claim to root out inhumane treatment of farmed animals wherever possible, many advocates believe that factory farms are inherently inhumane .

When routine factory farming practices are taken into consideration, such as separating mother cows from infants , which often results in mothers crying for days; castrating male animals without anesthetics; or never once allowing animals to experience the outdoors—save for a terrifying journey in the back of a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse—there is little about the experience of farmed animals in the factory farming system that appears to be humane.

Chickens are debeaked

Chickens' beaks are a vital part of their physiology. The way humans use our hands to explore our environment, chickens use their beaks, pecking at food and other objects 14,000 to 15,000 times each day . In factory farms, this behavior can take an ugly turn. When chickens are trapped in the overcrowded conditions that are typical of CAFOs—which prevent them from exploring their surroundings or expressing any of their natural behaviors—they often turn this pecking behavior onto fellow chickens, resulting in injury, cannibalism, and even death.

Rather than provide chickens with more freedom and space to help eliminate damaging pecking and cannibalism, many companies instead cut off parts of the chickens' beaks. Using a machine equipped with a hot blade, which in some operations can debeak as many as 15 chickens per minute, top beaks are cut either by half or two-thirds, while the bottom beak is trimmed by a quarter of its length. There is evidence that debeaking causes pain to chickens not only during the cutting but chronically throughout their lives.

Wild chickens, or those kept in non-intensive farming conditions, do not become cannibalistic or need their beaks trimmed to properly socialize with one another. Factory farming practices give rise to these abnormal behaviors.

Cows and pigs are tail-docked

Animals on factory farms, such as cows, pigs, and sheep, routinely have their tails removed—a process known as tail-docking . These procedures are generally carried out without anesthetics, forcing animals to endure immense pain. In fact, certain regions have banned tail-docking entirely because of the long-term pain it causes farm animals.

Tail-docking is done for a number of reasons. In pigs, much like chickens, the stressful, unnatural conditions on factory farms drive the animals to bite one another's tails, causing injuries and sometimes infections. Tail-docking is designed to remove the tuft of hair at the end of the tail that can lure other pigs to bite. The practice is also designed to cause pain on the pig's tail so that they more actively avoid being bitten.

In cows, tail-docking is performed to make milking easier and more comfortable for workers. The dairy industry reports purported benefits for cows in terms of improved hygiene, but some studies refute these claims. Tail-docking is prohibited in several European countries, but many North American countries have yet to ban the practice.

Animals are confined

Extreme confinement is the defining feature of factory farms. It causes boredom, frustration, stress, and other serious welfare concerns for farmed animals. The most intensive confinement system for cows is called a tie stall and is used on dairy cows. Each cow spends all her time tied into a single stall, followed by a loose stall in which cows are allowed to roam around a small shed. Still, these cows spend their whole lives indoors.

One study found that confinement of any sort , when compared with raising cows in a pasture, negatively affects welfare in many respects. Many chickens raised for the egg industry are kept in battery cages , with roughly the same amount of space as a piece of lined paper. Female pigs used for breeding are held in gestation crates so small that they cannot turn around for the duration of their lives.

Genetic manipulation

Genetic manipulation in factory farms can take many forms. Factory-farmed animals can be bred to possess certain traits; for example, broiler chickens are often designed to grow bigger breasts, since breast meat is a favorite among consumers. This added body weight is unnatural for the birds and causes a host of debilitating medical conditions as the birds age.

Genetic manipulation can also lead to worsening conditions for animals. Cows are often grown without horns, enabling more cows to be packed into smaller areas. While this may increase farm outputs, it detracts from animal welfare.

Genetic modification carries risks to both human and animal health. Over time, acquiring such desired traits in farmed animals can lead to each individual becoming nearly genetically identical, which augments the already-high pandemic risk inside CAFOs. Under normal circumstances, individual genetic variations act as speed bumps on the road to viral transmission. Large numbers of genetically identical animals allow viruses to spread much faster and potentially become more virulent.

Why does this still happen?

There are many reasons that factory farming remains the dominant method for raising animals for food in the United States. The animal agriculture industry wields serious financial and political clout, allowing the industry’s harmful effects on human health and the environment to go largely unregulated . The conditions on factory farms also remain obscured, thanks to ag-gag laws and other legislation.

Public perception of farmed animals plays a role in the proliferation of factory farms as well, since animals are generally not viewed as deserving a life beyond their exploitation by humans. These beliefs are often cultural and at times can be attributed to a lack of understanding regarding animals' proven sentience or abilities to experience pain and negative psychological effects from captivity. In recent years, public understanding of animal sentience is thought to be changing in some countries, arriving at a point that is in greater alignment with science.

The two biggest factors behind the continuation—and dramatic increase —of factory farming in the US and around the world are the rise in global meat consumption and the growing demand for cheap meat. Countries like the US, Brazil, and China help meet this demand by generating a surplus of animal products, which can be exported abroad. There is big money and political power behind industrial animal agriculture pushing to keep welfare standards low, governmental subsidies high, and consumer demand soaring.

Why is factory farming bad?

Factory farming is bad for the environment, the communities near these facilities, consumer health, and animal welfare. Below are a few key issues surrounding factory farming.

Animal welfare

Animal welfare philosophy and legislation are grounded by the Five Freedoms , a framework denoting the kind of living conditions animals should not be subjected to. The Five Freedoms are:

Freedom from thirst, hunger, and malnutrition

Freedom from discomfort and exposure

Freedom from pain, injury, and disease

Freedom from fear and distress

Freedom to express normal behavior

The conditions on a typical factory farm make it impossible for animals to fully achieve even one of these freedoms. Harsh confinement, such as battery cages and gestation crates , makes it impossible for animals to express their full repertoire of natural behaviors. It is also notoriously difficult to discern whether a farm animal is experiencing fear, since this would require the close monitoring of every animal in an attempt to monitor their affective emotional state. The routine mutilations of debeaking, tail-docking, and other procedures are all injuries that can cause chronic pain, and they often go unmonitored.

While some factory farms have made attempts to improve welfare or align with the Five Freedoms, they largely—and arguably always—come up short.

Environmental impact

Raising animals for food is a resource-intensive activity . Animals require water, medications, climate controls that often rely on fossil fuel energy sources, and shelter. Food is among the biggest resources required. Vast swaths of land must be planted with mono-crops such as corn and soy to feed animals. In the Amazon rainforest, crops for animal feed are among the primary drivers of deforestation .

Pollution from factory farms is another huge issue, contaminating the air, land, and water around facilities. According to a report from Food and Water Watch, a single hog produces around one and a half tons of manure every year, and all the hog farms in the US produce a total of about 167 million pounds of waste—equivalent to the waste produced by half the country’s human population. Hog waste is particularly dangerous since it is generally not treated before being released into the environment, leading to surface and groundwater contamination.

Human health issues

Human health can be negatively affected by factory farms. Environmental pollution disproportionately affects lower-income, minority communities who live next to or near factory farms. The Food and Water Watch report details air pollution from broiler farms, since chicken manure contains toxins such as ammonia, which causes respiratory irritation and is linked to lung disease. Environmental pollution from factory farms is what drives these businesses into lower-income communities in the first place. Factory farms operate off of the assumption that people in these places will put up less of a fight than more affluent, white-dominated areas. This is an example of environmental racism .

Human health is further affected by factory farms through the bacterial contamination of meat, such as salmonella and E. coli, both of which are caused by fecal contamination and are extremely common in chicken meat.

Antibiotic resistance is another looming health threat. Animals are often given antibiotics throughout their lives as a preventative measure against illness. However, these drugs are often applied liberally, killing most of the bacteria but allowing small, drug-resistant “superbugs” to survive and multiply. Trace amounts of these bacteria may be eaten directly by consumers of factory-farmed products, causing severe, sometimes incurable illness. The United Nations estimates antibiotic resistance could kill 10 million people and force 24 million people into extreme poverty by 2050.

Rural communities

Many rural communities in the United States trace their origins to small farms, composed of an interdependent economic ecosystem of small farms and businesses that support them. But small farms have difficulty competing with CAFOs , since smaller operations generally cannot deliver products to match the low prices and high volumes that factory farms are able to achieve—especially when CAFOs produce a surplus of product, resulting in artificially lowered prices and driving small farms out of business.

As a result, across America the number of farms has dramatically decreased since the onset of factory farming in the early 1960s, while the number of animals at remaining farms has increased steadily. The closing of small farms often affects other businesses that provide farm equipment, feed, or services (such as restaurants and movie theaters) to rural communities. Factory farms also provide fewer jobs than smaller farms, given the high degree of mechanization that allows fewer people to manage more animals. These compounding factors can lead communities to become hollowed out and all but collapsed because of factory farms.

Workers in factory farms tend to live in rural, lower-income communities composed of people of color who often come from immigrant backgrounds and can be undocumented. Meatpacking plants—where animals are killed and processed—are among the country's most dangerous workplaces , causing a large number of injuries while providing little pay or adequate health benefits. Farmworkers also tend to be among the least unionized in the country.

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, workers at meatpacking plants were forced to continue showing up for work, since their jobs were deemed “essential” by the federal government. As a result, thousands of people lost their lives and likely brought the infection home to their families and communities. Factory farms do little to mitigate these and other health risks for workers, or for the communities they call home.

How are animals killed on factory farms?

The federal Humane Slaughter Act is supposed to ensure that animals are rendered unconscious before they are bled out or dismembered. However, these regulations are not readily enforced by USDA. The agency often defers to the factory farming industry to regulate itself.

Even at the best of times, a trip to the slaughterhouse can mean more than a quick and painless death. Some chickens are forced to endure live-shackle slaughter , where their legs are jammed into metal clamps and hung upside down, often resulting in broken bones. A conveyor belt carries them toward an electrified bath of water, where their heads are dunked. The bath is supposed to stun them; however, many birds avoid this bath or are not properly stunned and remain conscious for the slaughter, when their throats are slit and their abused bodies thrown into scalding hot water meant to de-feather them. This is perhaps the single greatest cause of animal suffering in slaughterhouses.

Cattle are commonly killed using a stun-gun (or stunner) , which is essentially a gun with a retractable bolt instead of a bullet. This bolt is fired into the brain between the eyes of a cow, rendering them braindead.

Pigs can be electrocuted with an apparatus applied to their temples.

Where is factory farming most common?

The US invented the factory farm, so it’s not surprising that the country relies on factory farming for virtually all animal products. The 2020 report by Food & Water Watch found dense livestock concentrations in the following states (and others), about half of which are in the Midwest:

• Mississippi
• North Carolina

Factory farming facts and statistics

There is a lot to learn about factory farming, and given the sheer size of this growing industry, the numbers are often difficult to fathom. Below are a few facts and statistics that form a brief snapshot of intensive animal agriculture.

• Factory farming is driving the consolidation of farms in the United States. The total number of farms in the US decreased by 50 percent between 1960 and 2002, while the total number of farmed animals skyrocketed.
• As of 2020, there are roughly 1.6 billion animals confined within the 25,000 factory farms spread across the United States.
• Roughly 99 percent of animals in the US are raised on factory farms.
• A single broiler chicken factory farm can produce about 500,000 birds every year.

How can we stop factory farming?

There are many actions you can take to help put a stop to factory farming. Here are a few ways you can connect with The Humane League to end the abuse of animals raised for food:

• Join the Fast Action Network (FAN)
• Volunteer with us
• Learn more about our campaigns

Factory farming has many downsides for humans, animals, and the environment. The practice is perpetuated by multinational corporations and backed in large part by world governments and the political establishment. A food system without factory farms—which would be far more equitable and just, and far less damaging to people, animals, and the environment—is long overdue. No matter where you live or what skills you bring to the table, everyone is welcome to join the fight for a more just food system.

More like this

6 Cruel Ways That Pigs Are Abused on Factory Farms

Pigs are subjected to horrific conditions on factory farms, but their suffering is unseen. Learn the truth about what happens behind closed doors.

Factory farm to table: the truth behind cheap meat, eggs, and dairy

Explore the cruelty that exists behind closed doors and impacts us all.

The Impact of Factory Farming Research Paper

In the past, factory farming was regarded as a technological triumph that would sustain food sufficiency in the growing world population. Today, a growing concern from various experts, including agriculturalists, as well as scientists and policymakers, perceives factory farming as a dead end, a mistaken agricultural approach, and destructive invention to the living systems (Pluhar 455). Factory farming poses serious health threats that cannot be overlooked. Several scientific researchers have shown that the modern practice of factory farming is an increasingly acute danger to human health, the environment, and animal welfare. Until recently, animal welfare associations have avoided the controversial factory farming debates, focusing instead on other conventional aspects such as pet overpopulation and frequent instances of animal cruelty. However, a clash between the moral agents including the animal rights activists and the influential agribusiness businesses appears unavoidable.

Intensive animal confinement and mechanized production procedures generate an enormous volume of animal products used in human consumption (Williams 373). An urgent attention on effects of factory farming to human health, environment and animals is paramount to curb possible disastrous effects in future. Failure to contain and control these methods can lead to a global crisis. Despite the many merits associated with this method, the extent of danger it poses to humanity overweighs all outstanding advantages associated with it. The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production investigation research 2008 on the impact of factory farming confirmed the harmful effect posed by products produced through this method and recommended a 10 year for the closure of the most intensive production techniques used in factory farming, including battery cages, force feeding birds to reap their fatty livers for foie gras and gestation crates (The Characteristics of Industrial Agriculture 1). The researchers concluded that the current factory farming is quite purely unacceptable due to its harmful effects on humans, environment, and animals. These findings came at a time when not only the United States but also the global demand for animal products, particularly meat, has risen to their highest point yet. Based on findings explored from a variety of ethical viewpoints, especially utilitarian and rights based perspectives, there is a need to consider other alternatives.

This short writing was meant to highlight that the world we live in today is highly dependent on factory farming and the deep, everlasting impacts it has on our society and lifestyles. Although highlighting the advantages that provide sustainability and economic stability is important, the aim of this paper is to bring forth the wide array of disadvantages and threats to the society and environment that these methods bring. But with all that being said, the industrial livestock production has become a very important part of how the world functions and how the food supply is dependent on it and is distributed across the globe.

Harm to Animals

Disease and life expectancy.

Most of the issues that are connected with the factory farming effect on animals are caused by such factor as overcrowding. Large numbers of birds and animals are kept on small territories, which facilitates the spreading of infections. The fish population is also subject to this problem, as the long-term overcrowding may lead to the higher competition for food and result in stress and decline of the immune defense, which can cause the growth of disease rates (Gregory & Grandin, 2007, p. 136). Moreover, the inability of animals to live a natural life results in their shorter life span, which is also disadvantaging for humans as they do not receive enough proteins that could potentially be developed through more sustainable methods (Fick, 2008, p. 163). Thus, the conditions of flock and cattle raising are not only harmful to animals but they also strongly decrease the population, resulting in the lack of food for people.

Painful Practices

The ways of keeping birds and animals used in factory farming are often cruel and causing pain. For instance, there is a practice of beak trimming of chicken that is done to prevent the cases of cannibalism among birds kept in small rooms (Poultry Hub, 2017, para. 1). Besides, most chickens are kept in cages for the most of their lives, which causes various health issues with legs and feathers since they are not adjusted to stand or rub against the wire. These birds need worms and other organic food found in the earth for their optimal growth and functioning (Healthy Eating Politics, 2017, para. 2). However, in the case of factory farming, it is almost impossible to keep an eye on the great numbers of chicken roaming the open ground. Moreover, not all countries have yet adopted the regulations that would allow slaughtering farm animals without them feeling stressed during the process.

Ethical Concern

It is not surprising that more and more people become concerned with the conditions in which farm animals are raised. Although it is true that the large portion of the world’s population is primarily concerned about the cost of products, most people in the developed countries are willing to pay more for food that has been produced in a sustainable way. This is one of the results of the grand survey conducted for ASPCA the last year (ASPCA, 2016, para. 5). Other key findings include the misconceptions about the popular labels regarding the industry and the small literacy in the field of monitoring the farm animal welfare. These results show that although people are concerned with the state of farm animals, they do not make much effort to study the subject in depth. Marketing is a powerful tool to make people believe that the food they consume is eco-friendly, yet a little portion of customers studies whether these claims are true. It is possible that the primary concern of people who choose sustainable food producers is to look better in public through supporting the modern ethical trends. However, even this artificial interest has already created a demand for the new agricultural techniques that would prevent the animal suffering. It may possibly occur in the future that the developed countries will pass the laws prohibiting the factory farming. In any case, the survey made for ASPCA clearly shows that people lack education in matters concerning animal cruelty in the field of the food production.

Harm to Humans

Farmers’ health state.

It is not only animals who suffer health issues from the factory farming methods. People who work on farms also go through the illness cases directly caused by the use of chemicals during their work. For instance, the study of the rice field workers in the Philippines has shown that they experience problems with sight, blood pressure, and digestion (Naylor, 1996, p. 64). The research connects these problems with the extensive use of pesticides for tackling weeds. Another evidence shows that the long-term exposure to the sun can cause problems with skin such as the early aging and melanoma cases (Ulimwengu, 2009, p. 1). Besides, people who work directly with animals are regularly exposed to viruses and diseases that can be transmitted to humans. While this issue can be present in natural farming, the intensive methods pose higher risks due to the larger numbers of cattle.

Disease Spreading

The spreading of diseases among other people is also influenced by the factory farming. The overcrowded facilities create perfect conditions for the development of viruses and pathogenic bacteria (Geer, 2014, para. 2). Because of a large number of animals, viruses can mutate to get new forms, which is happening every year. Studies suggest that the factory farming could lead humanity to the situation of the so-called “antibiotic apocalypse” when new viruses would be resistant to all forms of medicine (Woolfe, 2016, para. 1). This estimation seems particularly accurate, as scientists are currently observing the growing number of flu forms which become harder to treat each year. All the vaccines that are currently used in the healthcare system may become ineffective due to the rapid development of the new disease types, and humanity may need to rethink the whole treatment ways to tackle this problem along with changing the ways in the agricultural field.

Antibiotics and Hormones

Apart from the threat of the disease spreading, factory farming is a source of the population’s health state worsening, as the majority of meat and dairy products are full of antibiotics and hormones used on animals to prevent them from falling ill or to help them gain mass. When antibiotics are consumed by people, they can cause the extinction of the natural microflora in the digestion system, resulting in the malfunctioning of the whole body. Hormones are even more dangerous, as they change the vital processes in a body that can lead to such problems as diabetes and obesity. The recent survey made by the National Research Center shows that people become more concerned about reducing antibiotics in food production (National Research Center, 2015, p. 3). More than half of the respondents answered that they find this matter to be very important. However, it is impossible to reject the usage of medicine in factory farming since the large numbers of animals cannot be kept healthy if they live at the same place. It becomes evident that the current methods in agriculture are not satisfying as perceived by the majority of the American population. The problem is further deepened by the food producers who do not state on their products that animals were treated with antibiotics and hormones. It might be the task of the government that needs to address this issue and make the farming safer by obliging producers to regulate the amount of medication they use since ensuring the interest of citizens is the country’s top priority.

Harm to Ecology

Deforestation.

The fact of destroying the natural landscape by factory farming is probably the most pressuring issue caused by this industry. Such problem as deforestation is the biggest one, as it can be traced in the emerging states like Ghana, where there is an urgent need to create a more effective department of agriculture, as the country is suffering from the inappropriate land usage (Asante, 2005, p. 185). Asia is also suffering from the current practices. For instance, vast territories of the mangrove forests are suitable for shrimp farming, which is causing a gradual destruction of these areas (Barbier & Sathirathai, 2004, p. 56). It is easy to predict that if the current methods of farming continue to prevail, the state of the Earth will change in the next several decades. Forests provide oxygen and protect the planet from overheating. Failure to save these precious territories will result in the climate change.

Loss of Species

Deforestation and changing of other areas lead directly to the shortage of fauna species. As animals lose their natural habitats, they have to adapt to the new conditions, which is impossible to achieve in the short run. The World Wide Fund for Nature claims that 50 percent of the world’s lands have been turned into farming territories, which is threatening animals living there (WWF, 2016). The fauna world is not the only one suffering, as plants are also endangered in the changing world. The growth of the population in the United Kingdom has caused the increase in the territories used for the farming purposes, which resulted in the extinction of hundreds of domestic species (Marshall, 2016). While people strive to feed themselves properly, they forget the importance of their surrounding and it may soon happen that humanity will find itself to be one of the few species left on Earth.

Pollution and Starving

The issue of pollution is widely discussed in public. It is no longer surprising that farming causes water and soil contamination that heavily impacts the environment. However, it is much less discussed that pollution can harm the food production itself. The research made recently is based on the interview conducted with several farmers in Thailand who are growing rice (Khai & Yabe, 2013). One of the most peculiar answers given by the respondents is that water pollution is causing the production of rice to grow in cost. Contaminated water and soil prevent crops from the proper development, as many of them die. This information may serve as a reason for rethinking the modern ways of farming. Many regions of the world, and especially Asia, are dependent on rice, and the increasing cost of this product may lead to the starvation of millions of people. This fact undermines the initial idea of factory farming which lies in providing affordable food to as many people as possible through cheaper technologies and less workforce required to produce the product. It is possible that the problem of overpopulation is the primary cause to the fact that humanity cannot afford to switch to the more natural methods in agriculture. However, if things will be kept the way they are now, humanity may face famine along with the other problems already described in this paper. It is evident that the more lands are polluted by farming, the less territories can be used for food production in the future.

Summarizing all the factors stated above, it becomes clear that factory farming presents more disadvantages than offers benefits to people. Although this method of agriculture provides food for the large numbers of consumers, it cannot satisfy this need in the long run. Factory farming affects the whole planet and can no longer be supported if humans want to ensure they live in the healthy environment It becomes evident that, while this method of farming is extremely developed in the world and is currently the only option to produce large quantities of food, countries’ administration offices must thing of the new ways to eliminate the existing problems.

This paper has discussed in detail the issues caused by factory farming. Firstly, the cruel practices regarding animals can no longer be sustained in the modern world where people have come to an understanding of the life importance of every creature. Secondly, the impact of factory farming on the human health is also disturbing, as many people are currently suffering from diseases and viruses acquired through the consumption of meat and dairy products. Finally, the effect that the current methods in agriculture industry have on the environment are devastating as they destruct the land and sea habitats and cause many species of flora and fauna to go extinct.

It becomes evident that people are becoming more concerned with the situation. While the mass interest in the topic is essential, it should become the task of the governments to form laws and regulations that would change the current situation. Luckily, many administration representatives, especially in the developed states, have already paid their attention to the problem. It may be expected in the nearest future that factory farming would become much less harmful for people and environment since there are no real alternatives that could substitute this technique at the moment.

Nowadays, more and more businesses start campaigns to support the environment. Even food producers try to ensure potential customers their products are eco-friendly and good for health. The growing number of food suppliers who use natural farming methods supports the demand for the green technologies in agriculture. All of these trends can serve as a signal to the forthcoming end of such practice as the factory farming as it is known today.

Asante, M. S. (2005). Deforestation in Ghana: Explaining the chronic failure of forest preservation policies in a developing country . Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

ASPCA. (2016). New research finds vast majority of Americans concerned about farm animal welfare, confused by food labels and willing to pay more for better treatment . Web.

Barbier, E., & Sathirathai, S. (2004). Shrimp farming and mangrove loss in Thailand . Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Fick, G. W. (2008). Food, farming, and faith . Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Geer, A. (2014). 5 modern diseases on the rise because of factory farming. One Green Planet . Web.

Gregory, N. G., & Grandin, T. (2007). Animal welfare and meat production . Cambridge, MA: CABI.

Healthy Eating Politics. (n. d.). Free range chickens . Web.

Khai, H. V., & Yabe, M. (2013). Impact of industrial water pollution on rice production in Vietnam. In N. W. T. Quinn (Ed.), International perspectives on water quality management and pollutant control (pp. 61-85). Rijeka, Croatia: INTECH.

Marshall, C. (2016). Nature loss linked to farming intensity. BBC News . Web.

National Research Center. (2015). Natural food labels survey . Web.

Naylor, R. (1996). Herbicides in Asian rice: Transitions in weed management . Stanford, CA: Stanford University.

Poultry Hub. (2016). Beak trimming . Web.

Ulimwengu, J. M. (2009 ). Farmers health status, agricultural efficiency, and poverty in rural Ethiopia . Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Woolfe, S. (2016, October 17). Factory farming could lead us to “antibiotic apocalypse.” The Canary . Web.

WWF. (2016). Farming: Habitat conversion & loss . Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, December 8). The Impact of Factory Farming. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-factory-farming/

"The Impact of Factory Farming." IvyPanda , 8 Dec. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-factory-farming/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'The Impact of Factory Farming'. 8 December.

IvyPanda . 2022. "The Impact of Factory Farming." December 8, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-factory-farming/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Impact of Factory Farming." December 8, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-factory-farming/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Impact of Factory Farming." December 8, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-factory-farming/.

• Impact of Antibiotics on Farm Animals
• The Process of Raising Factory Farm Chickens
• Smart Farming and Sustainable Agriculture
• Moral Status of Animals at Factory Farming
• Swidden Agriculture: Shift Farming
• Standards for Confining Farm Animals
• Agriculture and Farming in Abu Dhabi
• Farming and Animal Consumption
• Agriculture Improvement: The US Farm Bill
• Organic Farming for Sustainable Food Production
• British Growing Peanuts in Tanzania
• Soil Erosion, Its Factors and Preventive Measures
• Osmosis in Living Organism: Germination Experiment
• Urban Agricultural Impact on Human Life
• Antibiotics for Beef Cattle: Usage Ways

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Economics

Essay Samples on Factory Farming

Why agriculture is important field.

Imagine not being able to eat your favorite food, or not being able to go to your favorite restaurant, or not being able to have Thanksgiving or Christmas feast with your family or being able to go trick or treating. The question that connects this...

• Agriculture
• Factory Farming
• Organic Farming

The Pride of Cows and Their Milking Process

Which part of the cow’s milk we drink doesn’t come from a cow? Could it be the blotting paper, the sodium hydroxide, the borax, the vegetable fat, or all of the above? On an average middle class household, 9 out of 10 houses consume milk...

Prediction of Lameness in Cows in the Cattle Farming

Introduction A significant problem the cattle farming is trying to solve, is the identification of lameness in cattle. The aim of the research is to present a unique computational analysis for lameness prediction based on machine learning and deep learning methods. Lameness is one of...

The Test Delivery Method to Give a Milk Booster to Dairy Cows

Health and performance of farm animals are largely dependent on their nutritional status. Livestock feeds provide animals with the protein, carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals according to their need. Some cattle feeds are designed to be the primary source of food for the animals, while...

Why Factory Farming Should Be Banned

Did you know. “ninety-nine percent of the U.S farm animals never get to express natural behaviour” (according to onegreenplanet.org.) Factory farming is a cruel thing, and affects a lot of things that we might not think about. We should care about this because we should...

Stressed out with your paper?

Consider using writing assistance:

• 100% unique papers
• 3 hrs deadline option

Farming Today, and What it Means for Our Tomorrow

The year 2017 was about one degree Celsius warmer than an average year on Earth, and from now on, each year is only going to get warmer (NASA). This is what scientists have dubbed climate change, and it has been happening for years. Climate change...

Factory Farming: Immoral Treatment of Animals

Oh, how farming has changed over the years. Many peoples’ first thoughts on farming correlates with a home owned farm, a family working together on that farm, animals raised in a pasture, and doing things the old school way. However, nowadays, this is not exactly...

The Origin Of Wheat & Its Global Producers & Importers

Wheat was the first crop/cereal to be developed by human. In a few places in the Middle East it was being growed, after getting successful it was repeated soon after 8000 Bc. The general population of Jericho are the primary known to have lived principally...

• Genetic Engineering

Antibiotic Factory Farming: Repercussions and How to Deal with Them

Aspirations for a world more stable and better off than yesterday and a politically driven race between international superpowers for technological advancement tomorrow now dictate the world in which we live. This industrialization of the modern day has transformed our lives socially and economically as...

• Antibiotics
• Natural Resources

The Rise Of Corporate Agriculture In The USA

The rise of corporate agriculture to dominate the Economics of rural and farm communities has been one of the most devastating events in the United States. As companies expanded many rural areas have suffered economically, politically, and environmentally. It causes bankruptcies and an increase on...

• New York City

Apple Pest Management And Their Adaptation Practices Towards Climate Change

Apple production plays a vital socio-economic role in the Fes-Meknes region of Morocco. It is the main source of income for a large segment of small and medium-sized farmers in mountainous areas where it is considered among the most adapted tree crops to the edaphoclimatic...

• Climate Change
• World Problems

Best topics on Factory Farming

1. Why Agriculture Is Important Field

2. The Pride of Cows and Their Milking Process

3. Prediction of Lameness in Cows in the Cattle Farming

4. The Test Delivery Method to Give a Milk Booster to Dairy Cows

5. Why Factory Farming Should Be Banned

6. Farming Today, and What it Means for Our Tomorrow

7. Factory Farming: Immoral Treatment of Animals

8. The Origin Of Wheat & Its Global Producers & Importers

9. Antibiotic Factory Farming: Repercussions and How to Deal with Them

10. The Rise Of Corporate Agriculture In The USA

11. Apple Pest Management And Their Adaptation Practices Towards Climate Change

• Consumerism
• Non-Profit Organization
• International Trade

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

Factory Farming Essay

Introduction Factory farming is a cheap and effective way to ensure that everyone can have affordable access to various meats. It’s an advanced system that optimizes food output as quickly as possible to keep up with the global demand for more protein rich food sources. However, diseases flourish with how factory farming is modeled. This is due to the animals being kept in tight quarters, crammed together under the roof of a warehouse. To combat diseases, factory farms use antibiotics to cure anything and everything that infects the animals before they are processed.

This problem should be cared about as almost everybody eats meat that was processed in a farm and by nderstanding the situation one can make better decisions when it comes to nutrition. By causing destruction to humans and the environment, there needs to be solutions to this problem such as reducing the use of antibiotics, using alternatives to antibiotics, and understanding antibiotic abused products as a consumer. What are antibiotics? Antibiotics have been around for almost a century. Since its discovery, antibiotics have been used excessively by not only people, but also animals.

In fact, the Natural Resources and Defense Council found that 80% of the antibiotics manufactured in the United States is actually given to animals (“Reduce Antibiotic Misuse in Livestock”, 2017) with the majority of its most specifically to farm animals. The animals that live in factory farms aren’t immune to illness and infection, so farmers prescribe them with high doses when they are suffering from a malady. For healthy animals, farmers add low doses in the feed and water to prevent future health problems (“Antibiotic Use in Livestock Production”).

This does seem like a logical and safe solution to the problem of livestock getting sick, but the overuse of antibiotics has a serious and negative side effect. The misuse of antibiotics in farm animals is breeding antibacterial resistant organisms called superbugs. Superbugs are created when the bacteria living within the animals become resistant to antibiotics through overexposure. The strongest bacteria strains survive the exposure and then pass on the resistance trait to the next generation while the weak and often time es helpful bacteria gets killed.

In the end, the antibiotic is no longer effective (“Effects of Antibiotics on Animal Feed – Presentation”). These superbugs that emerge are much stronger than their ancestors, making it more difficult for the human body to combat them. According to the Federal Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, “the extensive use of antimicrobial drugs has resulted in drug resistance that threatens to reverse the medical advances of the last seventy years”. Since antibiotics have been used so widely and for so long, antibiotic resistance has become a major public health threat.

It’s been found that the use of antibiotics in animals contributes to the lack of effectiveness of human medication (“The Overuse of Antibiotics in Food Animals Threatens Public Health | Consumers Union”). This affects everyone, no matter what their social and economic status is. Anyone purchasing factory farmed meats, even unknowingly, is at risk of falling victim to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Diseases Due to Antibiotics Contrary to popular belief, farm animals are less likely to become sick even when they are abused by the overuse of antibiotics but this is not the case for humans.

Any creature can carry an illness without experiencing the symptoms of it so the way humans tend to get superbugs is through eating the factory farmed meat. Birds provide an optimal environment for one such bacteria called Campylobacter. This is the bacteria that causes Campylobacteriosis. Symptoms of this illness include diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever within two to five days after exposure to the organism. Some infected people do not have any symptoms but in people with compromised immune systems, Campylobacter occasionally spreads to the bloodstream and causes a serious life-threatening infection.

The use of fluoroquinolone, an antibiotic approved by the government, has given rise to a highly resistant strain of this bacteria. The use of such chemicals compromises not just one drug, but can have an effect on other similar medication as well. This happened in Europe, where bacteria started becoming resistant to vancomycin, a drug used to treat several life threatening diseases. Due to this, doctors had to use synercid, a drug of last resort for the treatment of vancomycin-resistant infections.

However, this drug’s effectiveness is threatened in the United States because of the use of virginiamycin as a growth promoter in chickens and pigs (“Infectious Disease Campylobacter General Information | Foodborne Illnesses | CDC”). This means that the cost of medication, both in terms of research and consumption and distribution will increase. One of the most common superbugs out there is Salmonella. Every year, Salmonella is estimated to cause one million foodborne illnesses in the United States, with 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths.

Most people infected with Salmonella experience diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps twelve to seventy-two hours after infection (“The Overuse of Antibiotics in Food Animals Threatens Public Health | Consumers Union”). With the increasing use of antibiotics in animals, this bacterium is becoming more and more resistant to current drugs. Consumer Reports tested in 2013 and 2014 that more than two-thirds of chicken samples were contaminated with Salmonella and more than sixty percent of those bacteria were resistant to one or more antibiotics. A superbug outbreak can be serious enough to command the attention of the Center or Disease Control.

One such case occurred in 2011, in which ground turkey was linked to one hundred thirty-six illnesses and one death, all caused by a strain of Salmonella resistant to four different antibiotics, ampicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline and gentamicin. Some 36 million pounds of ground turkey were recalled (“The Overuse of Antibiotics in Food Animals Threatens Public Health | Consumers Union”). When such large amounts of food get wasted, not only does the meat get wasted, but also the resources that go into raising it including the feed, water, and cost of medications.

While not disputing the existence of these superbugs, the farming industry argues essentially that what happens on the farm stays on the farm. They claim that there may be some superbugs there, but they don’t affect people. However, there are two main routes by which superbugs can leave the farm and infect humans. One is a direct route, in meat and poultry products, and the other is an indirect route through the environment. Antibiotics don’t only affect humans, but can have serious repercussions on the environment as well. Farm animals need to release bodily waste and the waste has to go somewhere.

When an animal defecates, the bacteria inside of it live on in the manure and contaminate the soil, contaminating rivers when it rains due to runoff. According to Farm Sanctuary, “Factory farms yield a relatively small amount of meat, dairy, and eggs for this input, and in return produce staggering quantities of waste and greenhouse gases, polluting our land, air, and water and contributing to climate change” (“Farm Sanctuary”, 2017, para. 1). Using Alternatives to Antibiotics Even if factory farms ban antibiotics altogether, there are still options like probiotics to keep the food bacteria free.

The use of probiotics for farm animals has increased considerably over the last fifteen years. Probiotics are living microorganisms which can benefit health for the host when administered in appropriate and regular quantities. Once ingested, the probiotic microorganisms can modulate the balance and activities of the gastrointestinal microbiota, whose role is fundamental to gut homeostasis. It has been demonstrated that numerous factors, such as dietary and management constraints, can strongly affect the structure and activities of the gut microbial communities, leading to impaired health and performance in livestock animals (F&H, 2008).

What We can do as Consumers As a consumer, reducing the consumption of meat all together is a great way to prevent catching a superbug, reducing risks of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and obesity. While it is healthier for the body to consume less meat it is also healthier for the planet. Factory farms use large amounts of food and water to raise the animals before they get slaughtered. If the demand for meat goes down, less resources will be used (“Why Meatless? – Meatless Monday”, 2003). Conclusion

I imagined there is no good deed I can execute to contribute to the problem of factory farming. I was mistaken. I did not go as far as to resort to vegetarianism; but in helping support the end of factory farming, I made a few steps. One, I dug a little deeper into my pockets to purchase meats, cheeses, bread, butter, and just about whatever I needed in joining the boycott of factory farms. For instance, New Leaf, a grocery store right across the street from my home has been open for years and not once did I step foot in the establishment until recently.

Thanks to this assignment, I have a new, favorite, “go-to” store. Not only are the prices reasonable and the quality of food exceptional, they, too, have taken a step in boycotting factory farms by offering foods family farmed, USDA Organic, American Grassfed Certified, Animal Welfare Approved, and so much more. By finding solutions such as reducing the use of antibiotics, using alternatives to antibiotics, and understanding antibiotic abused products as a consumer, there can be an increase to overall well-being of not only humans but also the environment.

All of these solutions are not only feasible but also actionable as they are grounded to reality and achievable through current resources. Aside from humans and the environment, the forgotten victims of this issue are the farm animals themselves. Perhaps by issuing these solutions, the welfare of farm animals can be increased as well as their place of captivity can be remodeled so that further outbreaks and transmission of diseases can be drastically reduced.

In the end, these solutions spell out a win-win situation for humans, animals, and the environment alike. Factory farming trickles down to the fact that the meat I am so proud to consume and feed my family is beyond disturbing. Although the concept of factory farming has been around since the beginning of time, the industry is now a potential threat not only to the animals themselves but our well-being, the environment, and the economy as well.

More Essays

• Disadvantages Of Free Range Farming Essay
• Persuasive Essay On Organic Farming
• 60 Petri Dish Essay
• Essay On Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
• Teenagers Involved In The Spaghetti Factory Incident Essay
• What Role Did The Farming Play In The Industrial Revolution Essay
• Eating Meat Research Paper
• Essay about Cross Contamination In Fast Food
• Summary: The Negative Effects Of The Fast Food Industry Essay
• Antibiotic Resistance Lab Report Essay

• Environment
• Information Science
• Social Issues
• Argumentative
• Cause and Effect
• Classification
• Compare and Contrast
• Descriptive
• Exemplification
• Informative
• Controversial
• Exploratory
• What Is an Essay
• Length of an Essay
• Generate Ideas
• Types of Essays
• Structuring an Essay
• Outline For Essay
• Essay Introduction
• Thesis Statement
• Body of an Essay
• Writing a Conclusion
• Essay Writing Tips
• Drafting an Essay
• Revision Process
• Fix a Broken Essay
• Format of an Essay
• Essay Examples
• Essay Checklist
• Essay Writing Service
• Pay for Research Paper
• Write My Research Paper
• Write My Essay
• Custom Essay Writing Service
• Admission Essay Writing Service
• Pay for Essay
• Academic Ghostwriting
• Write My Book Report
• Case Study Writing Service
• Dissertation Writing Service
• Coursework Writing Service
• Lab Report Writing Service
• Do My Assignment
• Buy College Papers
• Capstone Project Writing Service
• Buy Research Paper
• Custom Essays for Sale

Can’t find a perfect paper?

• Free Essay Samples
• Factory Farming

Essays on Factory Farming

Technology and its Impact on Agricultural Operations Technology has improved farmers' agricultural operations in recent years. The employment of contemporary farming techniques has increased in an effort to boost food yield at lower sustaining costs. However, technology has also brought with it risks like nitrate pollution, eutrophication, and increased soil salinity,...

Found a perfect essay sample but want a unique one?

Request writing help from expert writer in you feed!

The Negative Effects of Keeping Farm Factory Secrets The Editorial contends that the fewer Americans hear of what happens in the farm factories sector, the healthier, due to animal mistreatment and violence. For eg, the board mentions very sick cows being drugged by the neck over cement floors, pigs being battered...

Words: 1015

Related topic to Factory Farming

You might also like.

We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it.

• Essay Database >
• Essays Samples >
• Essay Types >
• Argumentative Essay Example

Factory Farming Argumentative Essays Samples For Students

2 samples of this type

Do you feel the need to examine some previously written Argumentative Essays on Factory Farming before you begin writing an own piece? In this free collection of Factory Farming Argumentative Essay examples, you are provided with a fascinating opportunity to examine meaningful topics, content structuring techniques, text flow, formatting styles, and other academically acclaimed writing practices. Using them while crafting your own Factory Farming Argumentative Essay will surely allow you to finish the piece faster.

Presenting high-quality samples isn't the only way our free essays service can help students in their writing endeavors – our authors can also compose from scratch a fully customized Argumentative Essay on Factory Farming that would make a solid basis for your own academic work.

Free Argumentative Essay About Peta (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals)

Introduction, why it is better to buy food locally than from large companies argumentative essays example.

Don't waste your time searching for a sample.

Get your argumentative essay done by professional writers!

Just from $10/page

Password recovery email has been sent to [email protected]

Use your new password to log in

You are not register!

By clicking Register, you agree to our Terms of Service and that you have read our Privacy Policy .

Now you can download documents directly to your device!

Check your email! An email with your password has already been sent to you! Now you can download documents directly to your device.

or Use the QR code to Save this Paper to Your Phone

The sample is NOT original!

Short on a deadline?

Don't waste time. Get help with 11% off using code - GETWOWED

No, thanks! I'm fine with missing my deadline

The Minnesota Daily

Get MN Daily NEWS delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday!

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Players, coaches and fans react to cancelation of Gophers football annual spring game 6328 Views

Residence hall rapes at highest percentage in recent years 2813 Views

Bill would increase minimum wage to $15, eventually $20 2628 Views

Shashank Murali resigns as Undergraduate Student Government president 1399 Views

Mackenzie Scott donates “life-changing” $2 million each to 9 Minnesota nonprofits 984 Views

Factory farming: A moral issue

There is a growing consensus that factory farming of animals – also known as CAFOs, or concentrated animal feeding operations – is morally wrong. The American animal rights movement, which in its early years focused largely on the use of animals in research, now has come to see that factory farming represents by far the greater abuse of animals. The numbers speak for themselves. In the United States somewhere between 20 million and 40 million birds and mammals are killed for research every year. That might seem like a lot – and it far exceeds the number of animals killed for their fur, let alone the relatively tiny number used in circuses – but 40 million represents less than two days’ toll in America’s slaughterhouses, which kill about 10 billion animals each year.

The overwhelming majority of these animals have spent their entire lives confined inside sheds, never going outdoors for a single hour. Their suffering isn’t just for a few hours or days, but for all their lives. Sows and veal calves are confined in crates too narrow for them even to turn around, let alone walk a few steps. Egg-laying hens are unable to stretch their wings because their cages are too small and too crowded. With nothing to do all day, they become frustrated and attack each other. To prevent losses, producers sear off their beaks with a hot knife, cutting through sensitive nerves.

Chickens, reared in sheds that hold 20,000 birds, now are bred to grow so fast that most of them develop leg problems because their immature bones cannot bear the weight of their bodies. Professor John Webster of the University of Bristol’s School of Veterinary Science said: “Broilers are the only livestock that are in chronic pain for the last 20 percent of their lives. They don’t move around, not because they are overstocked, but because it hurts their joints so much.”

Sometimes their legs collapse under them, causing them to starve to death because they cannot reach their food. Of course, the producers then cannot sell these birds, but economically, they are still better off with the freakishly fast-growing breeds they use. As an article in an industry journal noted, “simple calculations” lead to the conclusion that often “it is better to get the weight and ignore the mortality.” Another consequence of the genetics of these birds is that the breeding birds – the parents of the ones sold in supermarkets – constantly are hungry, because, unlike their offspring that are slaughtered at just 45 days old, they have to live long enough to reach sexual maturity. If fed as much as they are programmed to eat, they soon would be grotesquely obese and die or be unable to mate. So they are kept on strict rations that leave them always looking in vain for food.

Opposition to factory farming, once associated mostly with animal rights activists, now is shared by many conservatives, among them Matthew Scully, a former speech writer in President George W. Bush’s White House and the author of “Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy.” In Scully’s view, even though God has given us “dominion” over the animals, we should exercise that dominion with mercy – and factory farming fails to do so. Scully’s writings have found support from other conservatives, like Pat Buchanan, editor of The American Conservative, which gave cover-story prominence to Scully’s essay “Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism – for Animals,” and George F. Will, who used his Newsweek column to recommend Scully’s book.

No less a religious authority than Pope Benedict XVI has stated that human “dominion” over animals does not justify factory farming. While head of the Roman Catholic Church’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the future pope condemned the “industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds.” This “degrading of living creatures to a commodity” seemed to him “to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.”

Some people think that factory farming is necessary to feed the growing population of our planet. The truth, however, is the opposite. No matter how efficient intensive pork, beef, chicken, egg and milk production becomes, in the narrow sense of producing more meat, eggs or milk for each pound of grain we feed the animals, raising animals on grain remains wasteful. Far from increasing the total amount of food available for human consumption, it reduces it.

A concentrated animal feeding operation is, as the name implies, an operation in which we concentrate the animals and feed them. Unlike cattle or sheep on pasture, they don’t feed themselves. There lies the fundamental environmental flaw: Every CAFO relies on cropland, on which the food the animals eat is grown. Because the animals, even when confined, use much of the nutritional value of their food to move, keep warm and form bone and other inedible parts of their bodies, the entire operation is an inefficient way of feeding humans. It places greater demands on the environment in terms of land, energy and water than other forms of farming. It would be more efficient to use the cropland to grow food for humans to eat.

Factory farming, overwhelmingly dominated by huge corporations like Tyson, Smithfield, ConAgra and Seaboard, has contributed to rural depopulation and the decline of the family farm. It has nothing going for it except that it produces food that is, at the point of sale, cheap. But for that low price, the animals, the environment and rural neighborhoods have to pay steeply.

Fortunately there are alternatives, including eating a vegan diet, or buying animal products only from producers who allow their animals to go outside and live a minimally decent life. It is time for a shift in our values. While our society focuses on issues like gay marriage and the use of embryos for research, we are overlooking one of the big moral issues of our day. We should see the purchase and consumption of factory-farm products, whether by an individual or by an institution like a university, as a violation of the most basic ethical standards of how we should treat animals and the environment.

I will be speaking at 7 p.m. Thursday at Ted Mann Concert Hall.

Peter Singer is a philosopher and professor of bioethics at Princeton University and laureate professor at the University of Melbourne. Please send comments to [email protected] .

Accessibility Toolbar

• Powered with favorite Love by Codenroll

Comments (0)

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Moscow Holds Parley on Farm Crisis

By Theodore Shabad;Special to The New York Times

• Feb. 19, 1972

MOSCOW, Feb. 18 —The Soviet Union announced today that the party and government leaders of the 15 republics had been summoned to Moscow to hear a speech by Leonid I. Brezhnev, the national party chief, about the difficult agricultural situation this year.

The unusual ono‐day conference yesterday was disclosed today in all major newspapers. It reflected the gravity of farm prospects as unusually cold weather in the southern regions, combined with little snowfall, appeared to have killed a major part of the winter grain crop.

The Kremlin meeting, which was also attended by high officials from national ministriesl and other agencies concerned with agriculture, also indicated concern that the current emphasis on wheat cultivation was not yielding the forage grains needed for expansion of livestock herding—a principal goal of the Five‐Year Plan for 1971‐75.

Spring planting has usually been the subject of a press and radio campaign designed to exhort collective and state farms to do a good job. This year an additional note of anxiety appears to have crept into official comment because of the destructive winter.

The slow start for 1972 follows a year in which over‐all farm production showed no gain over the previous year. Soviet planners had been counting on an advance toward the higher goals set for 1975.

The cautiously worded announcement of the Kremlin meeting gave no details of the matters discussed except to say that they involved “problems of preparing and carrying out spring field work, as well as the further development of animal husbandry.”

The summoning of the party first secretaries and the premiers was in keeping with the national leadership's practice of assigning responsibility for economic performance to the officials of the republics.

Constant Exhortation Needed

The constant need for exhorting officials and rank‐andfile workers and farmers to do their utmost to raise output appears to be built into the Soviet system, where the means of production are owned collectively or by the state and where any profit motive is largely absent.

Editorials in Pravda, the principal Communist party newspaper, generally set the tone for such exhortations. Today's, entitled “Approaching the Spring,” began by gingerly reminding readers of the impact of the cold wave. “The harsh January frosts have damaged winter grains in some places and some portion may have to be replanted,” it said.

Winter wheat, which is planted in late autumn and harvested in June, accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the crop. Spring wheat, which represents the rest, is planted in spring and is ready for harvest in August.

Western specialists estimate that as much as a third of the winter crop may have been damaged.

As usual, the Pravda editorial told readers that bigger harvests depended on proper cultivation.

“To determine clearly what crops are to be given priority, to estimate beforehand the required amount of work and to plan carefully the organization of labor—these should be matters of dominant concern to local party, government and farm agencies and to the managers and specialists, on individual farms,” it said.

The editorial praised regions where farm equipment had been properly overhauled during the winter and was ready for the spring campaign.

“But by no means everywhere has equipment been readied in good conscience,”

it continued. “In Lipetsk Province, for example, 214 tractors were checked and 23 of them had to be sent back to the shop for additional repairs. In Yaroslavl Province, 36 out of 253 tested tractors were out of commission.”