Factory Farming

Factory farming, also called intensive animal farming or industrial livestock production, is a form of animal agriculture in which large numbers of animals are raised in confined conditions with the aim of maximising production while minimising cost. It is the dominant method of producing meat, eggs and dairy in many industrialised countries and is expanding in parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa. Factory farming is one of the most frequently cited reasons for ethical veganism.

History

Intensive methods developed from the early to mid-20th century, enabled by the discovery of vitamins A and D (which allowed animals to be kept indoors without sunlight), the use of antibiotics, selective breeding and mechanisation. Broiler chicken production in the United States was among the first sectors to industrialise, followed by egg, pig and dairy production. The British writer Ruth Harrison’s book Animal Machines (1964) drew public attention to these practices and led the UK government to commission the Brambell Report (1965), which proposed what later became known as the “Five Freedoms” of animal welfare.

Definitions

There is no single international definition of a factory farm. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency uses the term concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) for facilities where animals are confined for at least 45 days a year and that exceed certain size thresholds. Other definitions focus on stocking density, indoor confinement and the degree of industrialisation.

Common practices

Practices commonly associated with factory farming include:

• Confinement systems such as battery cages for laying hens (see egg industry), gestation crates (sow stalls) and farrowing crates for pigs, and individual pens for calves.
• High stocking densities in broiler chicken sheds and fish farms.
• Rapid growth breeds, particularly broiler chickens bred to reach slaughter weight in a few weeks, which has been associated with leg disorders and heart problems.
• Physical alterations such as beak trimming in poultry, and tail docking and castration in pigs, sometimes without pain relief.
• Routine use of antibiotics, historically including use for growth promotion, which has been linked to concerns about antimicrobial resistance.
• Early separation of young animals from their mothers, as in the dairy industry.

Scale

Factory farming accounts for the majority of animal products in many countries. The Sentience Institute, a US think tank, estimated in 2019 that over 99% of farmed animals in the United States were living in factory farms, based on analysis of US Department of Agriculture census data. Globally, data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicate that tens of billions of land animals, the large majority of them chickens, are slaughtered for food each year, and that number does not include fish, which are counted by weight rather than individually.

Animal welfare concerns

Critics, including animal welfare organisations and many veterinarians, argue that intensive systems prevent animals from performing natural behaviours such as rooting, nesting, dust-bathing and grazing, and cause chronic stress, injury and disease. Supporters of intensive farming argue that indoor systems can protect animals from predators, weather and some diseases, and that they allow food to be produced at lower cost.

Environmental and public health concerns

Intensive livestock operations have been associated with:

1. Water and air pollution from concentrated manure.
2. Greenhouse gas emissions (see environmental impact of animal agriculture and veganism and climate change).
3. Demand for feed crops such as soy and maize, linked to land-use change.
4. Antimicrobial resistance and the risk of zoonotic diseases, including avian influenza.

Regulation and reform

Some jurisdictions have restricted particular practices. The European Union banned conventional battery cages for laying hens from 2012 and restricted the use of sow stalls from 2013. In the United States, California’s Proposition 12, approved by voters in 2018, set minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens, breeding pigs and veal calves. Many vegans regard such reforms as insufficient, arguing that the underlying problem is the use of animals itself (see speciesism). Others support reforms as a way to reduce suffering in the short term.

See also

• Animal Sanctuaries
• Veganism
• How to Go Vegan