Life Within Factory Farming
- Jul 26, 2021
- 3 min read
Credit: Jeff Moore
What is Factory Farming to begin with? Factory farming is a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions. The main purpose behind the aspect of factory farming is where animals, from birth, are bred to grow unnaturally fast causing much harm to animals. Another large portion of the purpose behind factory farming is to maximize meat, egg, and milk production for the food industry, in order to gain a greater profit. Nearly 10 billion animals are killed for human consumption each year who are initially raised on factory farms.
Backstory
The United States was initially founded as an agrarian society. Farmers gradually began fencing in their livestock by the late 1800s. In the late 1920s, poultry became the first large-scale farmed animal in line for production. Poultry is basically a domestic fowl, for example, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese. Chickens were the main products that were heavily relied upon and still are today. With chickens in popular demand, the profits within factory farming increased drastically.
For almost 50 years, chickens were the main produce until pigs stole the spotlight. In the 1970s, pig farmers appeared onto the scene and tended to the mass production process, and began shifting pigs within factory farming. Before we knew it, cow farmers slowly shifted into the picture.
Credit: iStock/PatrickPoendl
Treatment
The harsh treatment behind the scenes of factory farming only starts off with how animals are confined in such tight quarters that they can barely move, let alone behave normally. Within the inhumane practices of factory farming, animals have to endure the most. In situations like how pregnant cows have to spend each of their pregnancies confined to a gestation crate-a metal enclosure that is scarcely wider and longer than the sow herself- or how four or more egg-laying hens are packed into a battery cage, a wire enclosure so small that the hen cannot spread her wings.
These cages not only restrict all the animals' freedom of movement but also causes the animals to fuss at each other due to how tightly they are enclosed within the cages. In order to accommodate each animal within the cages, parts of their body would get cut off in order to make “space” within the cages.
Aside from the harsh treatments within physical cages, internally the animals are being produced in unhealthy ways. 99% of factory-farmed animals have been genetically manipulated to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than they naturally would. Some chickens grow so unnaturally large that their legs cannot support their outsized bodies, and they suffer from starvation or dehydration when they can’t walk to reach food and water.
Medication is also a big factor that intentionally helps with the aspect of unnatural breeding. Antibiotics are used to make animals grow faster and to keep them alive in unsanitary conditions. Researchers have studied and composed that a lot of antibiotics can initially lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can also threaten human health.
How can you help
Stay educated on topics such as the harsh treatment behind factory farming, it's important we are aware of what is going on and come up with solutions that can initially benefit our world and society as a whole. It is also important to spread the knowledge you have gained from this topic and spread it to those unaware of these crucial circumstances.
With the concept itself, there are many things you can do that will help ease the burden factory animals have to endure. For example: eat less meat, dairy, and eggs as a way of protesting against the harsh treatment of factory animals.
Lastly, you can always fight for the rights of the factory farm animals. The concept of farm animals today is dominated by industrialized operations known as ‘concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs, or ‘factory farms’) that maximize profits by treating animals not as sentient creatures, but as production units. Raised by the thousands at a single location, animals in factory farms are confined in such tight quarters that they can barely move, let alone behave naturally.
Resources
5 Ways You Can Help Farm Animals. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://awionline.org/content/5-ways-you-can-help-farm-animals
Factory Farming: The Industry Behind Meat and Dairy. (2020, May 01). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/
Inhumane Practices on Factory Farms. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://awionline.org/content/inhumane-practices-factory-farms
Student Project: Factory Farming: Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://libraryguides.law.pace.edu/factoryfarming
Oxford Languages and Google - English. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
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