Down On The Factory Farm Analysis

Peter Singer’s “Down on the Factory Farm” and E.B. White’s “Death of a Pig” illustrate practices of raising animals for human consumption. The care and environment provided for the animals by both White and the factory farmer’s that Singer discusses can be labelled as ‘animal husbandry’. White and the factory farm worker’s animal husbandry methods can be deemed as ethical, or unethical. Bernard E. Rollin defines good animal husbandry as “keeping the animals under conditions to which their natures [are] biologically adapted, and augmenting these natural abilities by providing additional food, protection, care, or shelter” (6). Through this definition of ethics and the criteria established by the “Principles” found in James P. Sterba’s “Reconciling Anthropocentric and Nonanthropocentric
Singer’s article criticizes factory farms for industrializing their farming practices and sacrificing good animal husbandry practices for increases in production. Singer indicates the ridiculous amount of animals affected by factory farm mistreatment by stating “[t]he use and abuse of animals raised for food far exceeds, in sheer numbers of animals affected, any other kind of mistreatment” (“Down on” 19). Singer evaluates the reasoning behind factory farmer’s unethical practices, and concludes that “farming is competitive and the methods adopted are those that cut costs and increase production” (“Down on” 20). By cutting costs and increasing production rates factory farming industry workers accumulate more wealth, and consumers are able consume more meat then physically necessary. One can evaluate this luxury the “Principle of Disproportionality” which states that “[a]ctions that meet nonbasic or luxury needs of humans are prohibited when they aggress against the basic needs of animals” (Sterba