Life Down on the Factory Farm

    It seems most people view farm life for animals as picturesque, being surrounded by wooden red barns and lush green pastures. The reality is far from this public perception. Beginning around 1980 most "cattle" operations have been consolidated to the point where four main producers now occupy about eighty percent of the market (FactoryFarming.com, "Beef"), the poultry industry consist of around fifty corporations which comprises nearly one hundred percent of the total industry in the United States (Singer, 96). While the farmers of yesteryear may have had a “general” concern for the well being of their livestock, these new major corporations have no such leanings. Enter the factory farm, a place where animals are merely a commodity and are accordingly treated as such. Animals are housed in long metal buildings and denied most, if not all, of the natural impulses and behaviors of life; thus often developing neurotic behavior such as cannibalism. When housed outside little or no shelter is provided them for protection from inclement weather. Natural selection is a thing of the past, pigs, cows, chickens and turkeys are now engineered to become what the pork, beef, dairy, and poultry producers want.

Though there is no unanimous definition of what constitutes a factory farm there are a number of characteristics which are common to such operations. The Grace Factory Farm Project lists the commonalities of said operations as such;

• “Hundreds to thousands of animals (cows, pigs, chickens or turkeys mainly) confined together, using as little space as possible, with little or no access to sunlight, fresh air or natural movement. In some facilities, the number of animals produced yearly is in the millions.

• The use of antibiotics, chemicals and/or hormones to promote faster growth and ward off disease that would otherwise run rampant in factory farm conditions.

• The use of "lagoons" to store massive amounts of raw manure.

• Metal buildings that confine animals indoors.

• The use of cages to restrict the natural behavior of animals.

• Mutilation of animals such as debeaking poultry, clipping pigs' tails and teeth, and docking cows' tails, which is considered "standard" procedure.

• The corporation that owns/controls the CAFO [confined or concentrated animal feeding operations] also owns the feed company, slaughterhouse, and final stages of production (also referred to as vertical integration).

• Separation of the ownership, management, and labor of the operation. Industrial agriculture is also moving toward contract growing, where family farmers sign away ownership of their animals through a contract with a major corporation. The corporation controls all aspects of raising the animals, and the farmer is left with the risk, overhead, waste and any dead animals.

• The owner receives price premiums and preferential access to markets or credits because of the size of the facility or the contract signed with one particular corporation.

• The facility has the capacity to negatively impact neighboring property values.

• Emphasizes high volume and profit with little or no regard for environmental quality, human health, safe food, humane treatment of animals, and the rural economy (Grace, "Facts").”

These factory farms are concerned with little outside of profit. The more animals that can be placed in the least possible space the better the return on a factory farm’s investment. Factory farms can withstand a certain number of deaths and still make a sizeable profit. Often animals are kept in environments that are conducive to death such as the overcrowding of chickens in battery cages. For instance, the cages battery chickens find themselves in are 12 by 18 inches (about as wide as a piece of paper and one and a half times as long). So overcrowded are these cages that it is routine for the factory farm to have “between 10 and 15 percent” of the chickens housed there to die in one year. Given that “many producers have over 500,000 layers and the largest have over 10 million,” it is clear to see that a vast number of these birds die every year just because the conditions they are housed under are less than adequate (Singer, 96). Poultry producers are urged to house four, and under favorable egg market conditions five, birds in a cage because the eggs produced by such cramped confinement far outweighs the lives lost to such a process (Singer, 118). Simply, that these animals died is of no concern so long as the financial return exceeds, what I will reluctantly term, the “losses.” As was stated above, even when the market is doing well and the price of eggs is inflated, a situation where crowding conditions could be eased via the increased profit garnished, chickens are instead crowded more to increase egg production and maximize profit.

This is a small example of the mindset of the factory farm, and a brief look into a few aspects of the treatment of animals under said operations. Now that you are aware of what a factory farm entails feel free to explore even further via the “Ethical Vegan” menu and select a type of production to learn more.

Works Cited

FactoryFarming.com. 4 March 2003. FactoryFarming.com. 4 March 2003 < http://www.factoryfarming.com/beef.htm >.

Grace Factory Farm Project. 4 March 2003. Grace Factory Farm Project. 4 March 2003 < http://www.factoryfarm.org/facts-ffintro.html >.

Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.

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Posted/Updated: 1/03/04