Executive summary
Factory Farming is discussed in this paper, how it makes use of technology and how it has changed the world. As we delve further into the topic and observe the impacts and issues raised by factory farming, we might be forced to take a stand for or against it. Some important points and questions about factory farming will be raised and we will discuss the viability of them.
The process developed in 1940s-60s to produce farm animals in the largest quantity possible with the lowest cost. This means with minimal space, cheap food and low labor. The productivity of factory farms is a few hundred times that of the traditional free range farms.
This innovation changed the world by producing large quantities of food; enough to feed the population increase during and after the industrial revolution. Now the world is mainly fed by factory farming. Demographically it supported the industrialized countries’ growth and development.
Many issues have been raised about factory farming. It leads to health problems in the consumers, negative environmental impacts in terms of contribution to greenhouse gases, deforestation, water use, labor welfare, ethical treatment towards animals and the way it has shaped the society’s consumption patterns.
Factory farming has opened up many opportunities in the past especially in terms of technologically and socioeconomically. From today to the future, there will be more opportunities for other alternatives to factory farming to be looked at as it will help us be more sustainable.
There are many challenges to be faced by factory farming and challenges the world would face because of factory farming. We either curb it or embrace it. In the end, everyone has to take part to face this challenges. There could be idealistic outcomes but some serious considerations should really be put in place.
Physically it contributed to the obesity problem of the people in the richer countries, yet did not help to eradicate starvation in the poorer countries.
Economically it opened up new doors to the food and beverage industry in ways such as fast food, buffets to meet excessive demand.
Socially it encouraged consumerism in terms of the food people eat: wants are satisfied and food wastage is not a concern because it is assumed that there is always more than sufficient supply.
Thence, is factory farming really necessary? It could be that its existence created the demand for it, without it the consumption patterns may not have been so demanding and thus a need for such a system may never have arose.
As we look into the future, we would see if factory farming could keep up with the times. Most importantly, we will consider the sociological aspects of factory farming, to determine whether factory farming is the culprit or the victim.
1 Introduction
With developments in technology and discoveries of antibiotics, vitamins and growth hormones, it is possible to discard the traditional way of farming and bring farming indoors and grow animals in non-natural settings within a shorter period of time. 50 years ago, these developments took place and we have what we call Factory farming, gradually replacing traditional farming.
Factory farming, also known as industrial farming, is our modern society’s main method for meat production, contributing to majority of the (close to) 300 million tons of meat supplied in the world. It is also the cheapest and most economically efficient way to produce meat, which is why most meat producers embrace factory-farming methods. In order to feed the growing demand for meat, it is necessary for meat to be produced through factory farms. In this sense, it seems that factory farming is necessary for the developed world and is contributing to the growth of the world’s population. However, there are many other issues involved with factory farming. This includes the environmental, health and animal welfare impacts of factory farms that have aroused much discontentment and objections from advocates of the environment.
In this paper, the issues dealing with factory farming will be discussed. More importantly, how factory farming has changed the world and how it will progress in the future will be looked into.
2 Background
Traditional farming practices require large areas of land for the farm animals to roam about freely and feed on the pastures, while enjoying the warm sunlight for vitamin D. Yet, this requirement of huge land space is too costly given the Earth’s land scarcity. Thus farmers considered moving farming practices indoors, and with the help of scientific developments, this was possible.
In the 1920s, vitamin A and D was discovered and then added into animal feed. This meant that animals do not have to be exposed to sunlight in order to grow, thus, animals could be raised indoors and exercise is not required. It first began on a small scale with chickens, in some traditional farms. However, keeping animals together in a confined space led to spread of diseases and this posed a problem for the initial factory farms. To combat this, antibiotics were discovered in the 1940s and most of the fundamental issues of factory farming were curbed. Massive scale for animal factory farming truly began in the 1970s, beginning with egg production. Soon the adaptation and spread of factory farming was so rampant and widespread that by the early 2000s, farms were holding over a million hens in their factories throughout the world. The progress was possible largely due to the technological developments in the areas of providing necessary nutrients for the farm animals.
The animals that were raised in the factory farms include pigs, chicken for consumption and egg laying, cattle, dairy cows, turkeys, geese and fish. Out of these animals, the most common were chickens, pigs and cows. For these animals, large industrial farming accounts for more than 90% of the total produce of the meat, egg, dairy products, with the exception of beef (factory farming accounts for 78% of the total beef produced in the world).
These statistics are possible as the meat industry gets centralized in the hands of a few conglomerates. The large farms will buy over smaller farms and maximize the use of the land, such that more animals could be produced at lower costs, expanding on the economies of scales. This impacted the industry by driving out the smaller that made use of more traditional farming practices (which means higher costs). The smaller farms are unable to keep up with the competition and low meat prices and thus were forced into being bought over.
It is this economic and technological cooperation that helped developed factory farming into its current state today. The high demand for meat over the years drove the suppliers to increase their production by four-folds within less than 50 years. Per capita consumption of meat also doubled in the same period of the time. Although one might assume that the developed world is the main contributor to meat consumption increases, the rate of increase for meat consumption for the developing world is much higher, doubling their consumed quantity per capita within 20 years. With the current rate of increase in meat consumption, the demand for meat in the world is projected to double again by 2050, just as the global population is projected to hit 10 billion.
With factory farming, it was possible for the world to be fed with 300 million tons of meat, but this is already at the expense of 30% of the world’s usable land. With 600 million tons of meat to produce per year, factory farming has to expand its production rate or there has to be even more developments in the industry to increasing the quantity of meat produced per year.
2.1 Developments of Factory Farming
In this section, the technology and practices adopted by each main type of factory farm will be looked at. On most farms, the entire process from the birth of the animals to the rearing of the animals is very technical and there is no chance for workers to develop any feelings towards the animals. The animals are treated as meat producing tools. Some of the practices adopted by the factory farms in the bid to increase efficiency and lower costs are considered inhumane and lashed at by critiques.
2.2 Farming Methods
The typical setting of factory farms is lined up cages/pens for the animals. In most cases, the animals have just enough room to stand. They packed together in the ten thousands, where they feed, sleep pass waste in the same space. The animals are also injected with antibiotics and vitamins to prevent them for contracting diseases. Other injections or additions to the feed also take place to help the animals grow at a faster rate.
2.2.1 Broiler Chickens
These are chickens that are reared for their meat, each year, up to 9 billion chickens are produced and slaughtered for consumption. The birds are bred and genetically modified to have larger breasts and thighs that are in higher demand than the other parts of their bodies. They are able to grow to a size twice that of farmed chickens 50 years ago within 6 weeks whereas it took 17 weeks in the past to grow a chicken for slaughter. As the young chickens are thrown in the metal cages with less than a half a square foot of space, their bodies grow so quickly that their hearts and lungs are unable to keep up with the grow, thus many suffer from congestive heart failures. Similarly, the bones are unable to grow as fast, thus many chickens are crippled and are unable to support their own body weights. Living in congested conditions, the chickens have the tendency to fight due to the stress. To prevent the chickens from bruising each other, part of their beaks are cut off since young.
Once the chickens are brought to the slaughterhouse, they are hung by their feet and electrocuted then have their necks slit and dipped into boiling water to loosen their feathers before being treated. However, there are many outrages about the chickens inhumane way of being slaughtered as frequently, there are many of them that are not completely dead when they are being scalded, so they literally are cooked to death. To combat this, farms in UK have developed a gassing system, which removes oxygen from the atmosphere, leaving only other gases such as nitrogen in the station to knock out the animals. This helps to kill the chicken in a painless way and is supported by activists.
2.2.2 Layer Hens
These are hens that are lined up in rows of cages stacked in tiers by the millions. Each hen has a width of 4 inches to move in and they are fed from the front while they lay eggs at the rear onto on belts to be ported for processing. As the broiler chickens, these layer hens have their beaks cut off as well. Instead of 6 weeks however, these hens stay in the wire cages for 1 entire year laying 250 eggs. The rubbing against the wires leads to severe loss of feathers and they suffer from bruises and abrasions. The quantity of eggs lain by each hen severely depletes the nutrients in their bodies and they suffer from ‘fatty liver syndrome’ and a lack of calcium. Many hens die from laying eggs, while others that survive will be sent slaughterhouses. But because the health conditions of the hens are so poor, they will be used in low-grade chicken meat products or ground up for disposal as there is adequate chicken meat supply from broiler chicken farms.
2.2.3 Pigs
Pigs are intelligent and sociable animals that like to keep themselves clean. However in factory farms, they are put in crowded pens with concrete floors and metal bars. Piglets often have their tails bite off so as to minimizing tail biting. At every stage of the entire process of rearing pigs for pork, the pigs are confined within tight spaces so that higher costs savings will be incurred. From the sows’ gestation to farrowing, to the pigs’ fattening and transportation. They are always packed together. The pigs have to live with their food, feces and urine, making them prone to bacteria and diseases. The air in these factories are often so polluted that respiratory diseases are commonplace. Pigs are usually slaughtered when they are 6 months old at 250 pounds. The same issue occurs when the pigs are electrocuted as with the chickens, thus many farms are adopting the use of gassing.
2.2.4 Beef Cattle
For cattle farming, they are often kept in ranges, to feed and fend for themselves. However, the lack of care and exposure to changing weather conditions often causes illnesses and deaths. When the animals are ready for bidding, they will be rounded up and transported to stockyards or feedlots. In feedlots, the cows are subjected to similar environments as the pigs to fatten up before slaughter. They have similar issues pertaining to the slaughter process.
Another type of cattle, veal cattle, whereby the male calves born to dairy cows are removed from their mothers and kept in confined crates so that they will be unable to move and develop white veal which is when their meat are soft and unexercised. The calves are grown to 2-3 weeks and then sent to the slaughterhouse.
2.2.5 Dairy Cows
These cows are able to produce high quantities of milk per day, injecting them with Bovine Growth Hormone doubles the milk quantities derived from the cows. The cows are fed a diet that will help them produce more milk. Cows are milked up to 3 times a day by machines that will be attached to their udders to obtain the milk. In order to maintain the cows’ milk production, the cows are impregnated continuously. This means that they will give birth to a new cow every 10 months. Female calves are raised as dairy cows while male calves are sent to veal factories. The calves are separated from their mothers immediately after birth. Dairy cows usually live up to 4-6 years before they are too weak to produce adequate quantities of milk. They are then sent to slaughter and usually they are turned to ground beef as their meats’ condition is poor.
3 Issues, Challenges and Opportunities
3.1 Current Issues
There are many issues surrounding factory farming now. The main concerns are the humane treatment of the animals, environmental impact from the other produce of the farms, the health effects after consumption of the meat produced, and the economical impacts of the large factory farms. The methods used by factory farms are mainly profit-driven as this is the concern of the big corporations that own the farms. Technology is simply a means for the corporations to attain the scale and convenience of industrial farming.
An activist group against factory farming, Farm Sanctuary, speaks of factory farms as an industry that treats animals and nature as means of making profits. This leads to factory farms mistreating the animals, taking advantage of the environment and exploiting resources.
3.1.1 Ethical: Animal Welfare
Factory farming is claimed as a cruel system that disregards the welfare of animals. Animals are not slaughtered humanely, whereby many a times the animals are literally cut into pieces alive or scalded to death when they do not get electrocuted properly. Besides, the animals are also put through miserable living conditions where they live with their own manure and are confined within spaced that do no allow movement. This makes the animals very prone to illnesses and diseases. However, there are too many animals on the farms that the workers will overlook the sick ones. In the end, many of these animals die from illnesses within their enclosures without the workers knowing. The other animals will continue to live among the carcasses of their own kind. Even when the sick animals are noticed, the costs of curing the animals are too high, that they are frequently ignored and left to die.
The animals are also often deprived of proper social behavior, unable to play or interact properly. Chickens have beaks cut off, the pigs have tails cut off and cows have their newborn calves removed from them. Thus these animals often suffer from severe stress and fear from living in the warehouses or cages. They are frequently confined in crowded or small spaces that do not enable movement especially when they are being shipped between places. Many animals will die from discomfort. Yet the farms continue to overload the animals to save costs.
For there to be so many pigs, cows and milk produced every year, sows and dairy cows have to undergo continuous impregnation. Many of these animals often die of nutrient depletion and fatigue after giving birth too many times. A sow bears up to 20 piglets per year and cows at least once a year. The gestation and farrowing crates for the sows are in such poor conditions with lack of comfort that the animals are often in very poor shape after their labor yet have to undergo pregnancy as soon as within 7 weeks of their previous birth. The dairy cows have it worse as their calves are brought away the moment after birth whereas piglets get to stay with their mothers for 2-3 weeks before being brought to the pens for fattening. Similarly for chicken births, when male chicks are hatched, they are deemed useless as they cannot become layer hens, thus they will be disposed of immediately, either thrown into the dustbin as though a piece of rubbish or grinded into pieces. More often than not these two methods leave them are not enough to kill them and the chicks are left to rot and starve to death.
3.1.1.1 Downed Animals
When the ill treatment of the farm animals reaches its furthest extreme, the animals will collapse, or fall down, incapable of survival or even standing anymore. This termed ‘downed’. These animals are no longer profitable to the farmers. If in the case that the animals have reached the stage for slaughter, they will be pushed, forced, even bulldozed to the slaughterhouse. In the situation where there are barely able to move, they are discarded in a pile to be left to rot to death. No veterinarian treatment will be offered to the animals as it is deemed too costly. This happens the most frequently for dairy cows, which after years of pregnancy and constant milk production have their bodies and nutrients so deprived that they are barely alive. They are often buried alive as their flesh are too sickly to be consumed.
Thus, there are many non-government organizations that protest against the ethical treatment of the animals. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, Farm Sanctuary, Humane Society of the U.S. are a few of the more prominent animal welfare organizations that actively put down factory farming. It is claimed that farms can afford to provide better treatment to the animals with low increase in the costs and even if the costs are increased, the consumers should pay for it.
3.1.2 Social: The Livestock Revolution
Factory farming has fed the current world we live in to day. The modern society is guided by consumerism and capitalism, so is the attitude towards food. The modern man’s average consumption of meat is 40 kg per year from 21 kg 40 years ago, whereas countries like America consumes 125kg, China 52kg and Britain 80kg per year. This is in addition to all the eggs and milk we consume. There has been a term the ‘Livestock Revolution’ for this increase in meat consumption. This is what fuels the demand for factory farms, making the existence of these farms necessary and inevitable. This works vice versa. The fact that factory farms are created helps to encourage the increase consumption of meat per man. In the past, people were able to survive eating less meat every day, yet they have to eat more meat now and cannot cut down on their intake. The fact is: we do not need so much meat. The average protein intake per American is 110grams per day when we can simply survive with 30grams per day. Yet we still take in so much meat. This is due to their hunger for meat, and the mentality that they can afford to eat more meat, given that the factory farms can produce so much meat. It is the case where people prefer to eat meat over vegetables although they can chose to eat only vegetables if they want to. The truth is that the total meat we take in, despite its quantity and often is our main diet; it contributes to merely 30% of our protein intake. The current society always wants more and never less, for their material needs and much so reflected in their desire and demand for meat. In a certain perspective, we can say that factory farming is food’s equivalent to the industrial revolution, fueling high, excessive meat consumption as with consumerism does to consumer goods. The tendency for us to consume more than we need has led to us having excess. For food consumption, this has led to obesity, and consuming meat is one of the main causes. Factory farming contributes to this by supplying the meat required. Humankind’s needs (or greed) seem insatiable and every industry is fueling and feeding it literally.
3.1.3 Environmental
The environmental impacts of factory farming are so great that we cannot avoid or ignore them. As much as it is covered up and under publicized, it is the persistent and prominent. When most of the world points fingers of environmental degradation at transport, slash and burn practices, industrial factories, many overlook that factory farming alone contributes to 18% of the greenhouse gases emitted, more than transport. The global production of meat is going to increase in the years to come, it is required that the environmental impact of each ton of meat produced be reduced by half so that we are able to contain the negative impacts below the current level.
3.1.3.1 Climate
Factory farming is a major contributor to climate change. Besides emitting CO2, it emits 37% of the total emission of methane, 65% of nitrous oxide and 64% of ammonia emissions. These gases have global warming potential many times more than CO2. The latter contributes to acid rain as well.
3.1.3.2 Water
There are a lot of water shortages problems in the world right now; many parts of the world suffer from insufficient water or unclean water sources. Yet, animal farming continues to consume more water than any industry, accounting for more than 8% of the water used by the global human population, largely for irrigation of feed crops. It is also the largest source of water pollution, contributed by the animal wastes, antibiotics, chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. These enter the water system and contribute to degradation of coral reefs and dead zones of coastal areas (parts of the ocean which are unable to support any form of life). Factory farming is the largest contributor to the pollution of freshwater resources.
3.1.3.3 Land
The amount of land used by factory farms take up close to 30% of the total land surface of the planet for grazing and each year, rainforests are being cut down just to create more land for feed crop. The environmental footprint of each pound of beef is hundreds of times bigger than that of a pound of vegetables. The demand for land has led to mass deforestation, 70% of the Amazon forest has been cut down to be replaced by pastures or feed crops. The thing is, pastures and ranges degrade the land to a large extent due to overgrazing and it is difficult to replenish these lands, yet they are the only source of livelihood for people who depend on them.
3.1.4 Health
There are claims that consumption of the meat produced in factory farms does more good than harm to our health. Study has shown a correlation in the quantities of animal-derived food products consumed with diseases such as heart diseases, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. These are regarded ‘diseases of affluence’, which are more commonplace in developed countries where people are able to consume more expensive foodstuffs, which in most cases are meat products. Drugs, hormones, antibiotics and many other chemicals are in the meat we consumed, either directly injected into the animals or fed to them with the animal feed. As the animals are quickly fattened and slaughtered, the negative effects on them often do not surface, when we consume the meat, the collection of the chemicals in our system may cause more harm to our body than we can imagine. The development of pathogens, evolved germs that are able to resist the antibiotics used are potentially dangerous to our bodies as well. Many examples with regards to the artificial treatment of the meat we eat causing health problems have surfaced throughout the years, the Mad Cow Disease, H1N1 (Bird flu), Swine flu are all results of poor farming practices. The animals being artificially fattened up and sped up growth rates with genetic modifications and hormonal injections have led to an increase in the number of young children having premature puberty as well.
3.1.5 Labor Welfare
The animal farming industry employs more than 1.3 billion people in the world, and for many of the workers, it is their only source of livelihood. Many of these workers are poorly paid and work up to 16 hours a day for 7 days a week. They are subjected to stay in poorly furnished places provided the factories, sometimes with no beds or sanitary provision. They have very few opportunities to get out of the farms as they are constantly in debt due the high costs of living. Most of these workers spend their working hours killing animals or dragging, dumping animals. Some cut up animals, some feed animals, some help to separate the calves from their mothers, others grind up males chicks. Whatever job they are posted at the farm, there is some form of animal cruelty involved on their part. This has a very negative impact on the psychological wellbeing of these workers. Many of them have become unfeeling towards the squeals and cries of pain from the animals. There have been cases whereby the workers develop psychological problems and become animal abusers even when they are not on the farms. Besides these, the physical and health impacts of working on the farm towards them are detrimental to their wellbeing too. In cattle and pig feed pens, the air is so polluted from the gaseous emissions of the animals’ waste material that it increases the likelihood of these workers contracting respiratory diseases.
3.2 Future Challenges
As more of the world begins to scrutinize factory farming, the industry will be ensued with more challenges in the near future. The struggle for maintenance and support from the government and consumers would pose the greatest problems. As factory farms face problems of continuation, there would be even more challenges if the farms are to be maintained.
3.2.1 Economic
As the demand of land greatly increases while the supply falls short, land would become more costly. Yet, industrial farming requires a lot of land, especially for feed crops to maintain. It would pose a cost issue if feed would be more expensive to produce. This in turns raises the price of the meat produced as producers try to shift the burden to the consumers. All along, the meat producing industry has been largely sponsored and supported by the governments throughout the world. But with the rising competition for land for other uses such as biofuels and vegetation, it would be likely that feed crops will lose out, as they are indirect sources of food. Maintaining a subsidy for these factory farms will also mean an increment in government expenditure which may be a burden to most governments especially since the economy for many developed countries have not been performing well in recent years. Yet demand will continue to increase with rising affluence and increase in global population, soon food prices will be to high for meat to be easily affordable and this in turn poses a problem for farmers who are unable to maintain their facilities. If any of the oligopolies in the industry falls, there will be thousands of jobs that are lost as well, leading to unemployment.
3.2.2 Sustainability
There are many sustainability issues when it comes to factory farming. With deforestation and the consistent exploitation of the land. Most land will become spent and this would make it difficult for land to be used for farming again. This means that in the future there will be less arable land, in turn less crops and less feed for support the industry. The current level or a higher level to feed to projected growing demand of factory farming is thus unsustainable. It would be tougher to feed the world in the future.
3.2.3 Social
If factory farming sustains, most of the societies will simply continue to assume that they can keep up with their consumption patterns, in fact increase their intake of meat produce. This is because they do not see the true costs of factory farms if the farms continue to run. This will lead to a more unhealthy population in the developed countries. This is evident from US’s high obesity rate and high medical costs spent each year on people suffering from one of the diseases of affluence. The obesity and diabetes problems increase and the demand for the meats will not decrease.
3.3 Opportunities that factory farming opened up
Despite factory farming being a generally negative development in farming as discussed above, it has opened some opportunities along history.
3.3.1 From the beginning, factory farms made good use of technology discoveries by expanding productivity. The industry also encouraged the discovery of more forms of vitamins and antibiotics that could help to curb diseases and act as health supplements. It has also supported the world in the consumption demands. It is not fair to deny the contributions factory farming has made to the society by feeding us.
3.3.2 At present, factory farming is still spreading to the rest of the world (developing countries) that are beginning to adopt the practices, understanding the economical benefits of factory farming, whereas in the developed countries that have practiced factory farming for decades, such as the US and European nations, they are trying to look for substitutes for factory farming as they mostly realize the negative impacts of it and the sustainability/environmental issues involved. Thus there have been developments of sustainable farming practices and more humane gas chambers to kill the animals. These developments should not be undermined but embraced. Though they are just small steps, but they are in the correct direction that helps to eliminate unethical treatment of animals and increased sustainability of our earth for the future.
3.3.3 In the future, there would probably be even more awareness about the issues of factory farming. As the society becomes more informed and hopefully more compassionate, actions can be taken to help change the way factory farming is by making is more sustainable and environmentally friendly. But essentially, it all depends on the rate of consumption of meats that will determine how far factory farming will go. As the global demand for food increases, the current food produce per year will not be able to provide the needs of the future generation. The ways it can be done would be for the industries to explore. Factory farming could be developed or there can be measures taken to reduce meat intake to transfer to vegetable intake, which would greatly increase the sustainability of the food crops.
4 Key Observations
4.1 Factory farming is preferred and carried out due to its economic viability and the convenience it provides. It is resisting change because of these same reasons. Corporations are profit-driven and would thus do anything to maintain low costs. This is often at the expense of the other inputs of the factory farms, the animals, environment and labor. The costs of factory farming are not fully bore by the consumers and much less the producers which makes it so difficult for the two parties to reject the practice. The government continues to provide subsidies for factory farming in order to ensure that enough food is produced to feed the world.
4.2 Factory Farming is doing more harm than good in general, i.e. the costs far outweigh the benefits. This is even more obvious when the world begins to shift the focus towards sustainability. It has come to the point when the necessity of factory farming questioned since the negative externalities are so high. When the farms bring in economic benefits and the consumers welfare and enjoyment of the meat products, the rest of the production line and the third parties suffers. Such a level of harm cannot be sustained if we are to keep the planet livable and able to provide for our subsistence in the future.
4.3 Alternative solutions can actually help to provide the same economic benefits yet remove the problems that factory farming currently pose. The animal treatment practices can be easily changed, with increased roaming space for the animals and better sanitation and ventilation. More money can be spent to upkeep the conditions as well. There is thus more research and development into sustainable agriculture, which would indeed help to improve farming’s impact towards the earth. Yet it might not be possible for the same level of consumption to be sustained. Alternative consumption patterns should be considered as well.
4.4 Factory farming exists and grows because there is a demand that fuels it. So it is the interplay of supply and demand of producers and consumers that fuels it. In order to reduce factory farming completely and thoroughly, it is necessary for the source of the demand to be reduced. Consumers should be more concerned and aware about the true costs of the meat that they are consuming so that they will understand how their consumption decisions affect the situation. With a decreased in demand per person the supply could decrease. From the above discussion, it is clear that most of the consumers are consuming too much meat. Which means it is possible for them to decrease their meat intake, not at the expense, but more likely the benefit of their health.
5 Discussions and Analysis
5.1 The Benefits of Factory Farming over the years
In the past few decades from the emergence to the development and adaptation of factory farming, mankind has benefitted greatly from the products of factory farming in terms of higher yields per cost invested and greater quantities for consumption. Some technological advancement that has been made possible by the research for factory farming has also contributed to the health benefits of mankind. Factory farming is in its own right part of the industrial revolution. It made use of industrial methods to produce food and has fed the world population boom at that time period just as the industrial revolution has supported the economies then. As we accustom to the fact that meat can be produced on a large scale and there is more than enough meat to meet our demands, we have been able to ask for and consume so much more than ever before. Buffets and fast foods are possible only because factory farming has provided the necessary meat source. These types of dining are a crucial part of everyone’s life, bringing enjoyment and convenience.
5.2 The Importance of Factory Farming to the World
We come to question the importance of factory farming in our lives, besides the benefits mentioned in the above discussion, there seem to be few areas in our lives that benefit from factory farming, yet at the same time there seems to be no negative impact on our lives besides the possibility of negative health impacts which are the least of most people’s concerns since they do not pose a direct threat to their lives. However, taken from the worldview, factory farming seems to be doing a lot of harm to some aspects. It hurts the planet, it hurts the animals, and it hurts the workers. But that is about it. The question is whether these factors will outweigh the beneficial factors that factory farming entails. Yet taken from another perspective, the question is how necessary is factory farming to the world. If there never was the development of factory farming, the benefits never arose, would the world have came up with a better solution to feed the increased demand for meat.
In some ways, factory farming has developed because of the convenience required and the increase in demand for meat. Thus, it is necessary for meat to be produced at such a large quantity. However if there were never factory farms to produce so much meat, the world could never have fulfilled their need for meat nor would we have ever imagined that we could produce or eat so much meat such that there would never have been such a huge demand in the years that followed. Thus when considered this way, factory farms seemed to have created demand.
However, since we have already progressed so far along history, it is more important to consider what comes next. If the world’s government has the ability to implement regulations to remove all the negative externalities of factory farms, they would probably no longer be called factory farms and the whole industry will disappear. In place of it would probably be traditional farming practices or organic farming or sustainable farming, which would not be able to meet as much demand as factory farming previously could. It would take a while for the consumers to react and thus initial demand would still be the same. This will lead to rising food prices. Yet with the market forces in place, demand would soon reduce and prices would thus stabilize again. Consumption of meat products will never be the same as before and this is not necessarily a bad thing, if people are to substitute with vegetables instead, the health benefits will be tremendous.
5.3 Analysis of the Arguments against Factory Farming
There are many arguments against factory farming, claiming the negative impact of factory farms towards the environment and personal health as major concerns. While it seems that many of these arguments are well founded with prove, it takes someone who is concerned enough about the environment to actually bother about the impacts towards the environment and change their demand for meat. Whereas for the case for the argument on health, most consumers simply feel that the cases are not frequent enough and they want to enjoy food as much as they can regardless of the future detrimental health problems they may face. Which is why despite the many arguments made by activists and concerns raised by journalists, most of the world is unmoved to change their diet or join the fight to put down factory farming. Most people are not noble enough to give up the enjoyment they have for food just so that animals can be treated more humanely. To many, so long as they do not see it, it does not exist. The activists have gone to great lengths to surface evidence about factory farming, showing the real conditions inside the farms and slaughterhouse. There are also increasingly more scholars who are interested in this topic and many influential people who adopt a stance against factory farms. It seems as though the proofs are well backed. Besides, the people who first surfaced the issues are from non-profitable organizations, taking these steps will only help to mitigate the negative effects by a little yet they are still willing because they strongly believe it. Thus I would say that the arguments are well founded and true, but the sad truth is even if they are true, many people believe but do not see that need to take action.
6 Taking Things Forward
There are two directions to proceed in:
6.1 Continue Factory Farming
The main reason why factory farming will continue from where it is from now will be that the world feels that there is not issue with factory farming. Although many issues are raised regarding the matter, the action taken so far on factory farming is minimal. The same mass production of animals for meat and other products continues everyday, at an increasing rate instead of a decreasing instead of the other way forward. Instead of curbing our levels of consumption so that even if the global population increase, the current level of meat production would be sufficient, the industry is looking into methods of increasing the amount of meat produced at a lower cost, using the least valuable resources, so that it would be able to feed a larger population with a bigger appetite for meat per capita.
Yet the issues pertaining the continuation of factory farming are abundant too. The main reason for keeping up with factory farming is to increase meat output from the farms. Yet the sustainability issues are insistent and have to be dealt with. One of the main factors is that of feed crops. The amount of land required to grow crops for animal feed is too huge. The limited land resource has to be evenly distributed, and with increase in human population, cities will grow too. This means that more land will be required to build cities; on the other hand more land will be required for industrial use. The need for land to grow food crops will increase too. Where is the importance for land for feed crop ranked at? The matter of feed crops is that it is a part of the supply chain and not the end product. Hence, a huge quantity of land is required to grow feed to produce a much less amount of meat. The energy input is more than the energy output. This makes feed crop a very unpopular choice for land use. There is thus a need to make use of technology to provide alternatives to feed crop that require less land and water resources. This may be in the form of growth tablets that can be fed to animals, helping them to grow without the same quantity of intake of food.
The issues pertaining to the treatment of the animals’ waste material can also be mitigated if developments towards burning the feces for energy are successful. This will deem the by products of factory farms that were initially negative to the environment, beneficial instead.
The issues of labor welfare may also be curbed if mechanized systems replace the work of the humans. However this will probably lead to job losses and worsen the situation of these workers. Yet it is inevitable if it were to happen as many of these workers are working in inhumane conditions, leaving the job might be a better option for them, given that there are job replacements available.
6.2 Stop Factory Farming
Another road to take would be to remove factory farming and instead develop sustainable farming (or any other preferred farming methodologies) that will be able to meet the needs and demands of the world yet keep within the guidelines of being socially/environmentally responsible. This would take a humongous amount of effort from the farmers’ corporations and also the government, to provide funding for the necessary research and development. Technological advancements would definitely be prized if crops can be produced with lower water requirements. However it is inevitable that the costs will increase and the consumers will have to pay a higher price for their meat products. This will not decrease the demand for meat though as people who consume meat are mostly well-to-do and a 10-20% increase in prices for meat is not too much for them to cope with. Furthermore it is necessary that consumers pay the full costs for producing meat, given the size of the carbon footprint meat products usually have.
The main problem is whether there will be enough meat to sustain the rising demands from the growing population with organic or sustainable farming practices. If these farming methods were less productive than factory farming yet the demand faced is higher, it would not be able to support the levels of meat demanded for consumption, unless technology is able to bring up the levels of meat production in sustainable practices. With meat consumption levels expected to double from the current amount by 2050, the sustainable practices will have a lot of production to catch up with.
Yet, either direction it goes, the human population’s mindset and attitude towards farming and its products must change. The main issue is whether or not we should even maintain the current rate of consumption of meat. If the amount of meat every man consumes reduces by half, it would solve the supply problem in 2050. Our demand will ensure the sustainability of the farms. If we are not to eat meat, we can easily substitute meat products with vegetable products. These have significantly smaller carbon footprints and it is a way we can help to ensure sustainability. Changing our diet’s proportion of meat and vegetables will do a significant good to the demand market of meat.
Factory Farming was a result of humankind’s increased demand for meat as food in the past. Now that we wish to phase out factory farming in light of the issues raised, can we develop a lifestyle that will help to keep the world from resorting to factory farming? We are so used to fast food and enjoying more meat than necessary, it would be difficult for us to live in a world where meat its scarce. Yet our reduced demand for meat will really help the industry progress in the long run when there is sustainability and ethics in the whole line.
7 Conclusion
Factory Farming has been a crucial technological development in the previous century. It changed the world in more ways than one. But as we move long the 21st century, it is time for us to reconsider the necessity of it and welcome a new farming methodology that will meet the multi-faceted demands of today. Our discussion on this topic has showed us that factory farming shapes our demand for meat and it is now to high for sustainability and necessity. Thus while animal welfare may be the least of our concerns, our environment and the availability of the meat for consumption in the near future s our main concern. It is thus necessary for us to do something about factory farming methods. It has benefitted us a lot in the past that we are grateful for. But as it becomes a big bully to the earth and like a spoilt mother meets all our excessive demand for meat, change on farming methods have to be brought in. The world has changed and so farming has to change along with it.
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