Factory Farms In America

According to a U.S.D.A. census published in 2009 small farms notably those with sales less than $1,000 increased significantly since 2004 going from “580,000 to close to 700,000.” This growing number of small farms is shocking compared to the years before 2004 when small farms were not on the rise as large factory farms began to take control making the farming industry a place for corporations not the traditional family owned farm. These same corporations continue to put pictures of the quaint little red barn farms, with large silver silos glistening in the sun, surrounded by fields of golden wheat ready for harvest, on the sides of milk cartons and meat packages. However, this is far from what they’ve become and part of the reason why America has seen an increase in small farms as everyday people put in the work to realize just how cruel the industries methods have become. When
comparing traditional farms dating back farther than the United States to factory farming that was first seen in 1947 there are three essential differences: the treatment of animals, the methods of growing crops, and the health of the consumer.
Most people's initial instinct when they think about livestock is to imagine cows roaming in expansive green fields, living in harmony with the pigs and chickens that stick close to the barn to be fed and taken care of by loving farmers. But, sadly the reality of the industry does not satisfy the imaginations and the practices of small farms that have the time and consideration to treat living creatures with the dignity they deserve. When speaking of livestock factories the animals have become product and with product corporations tend to do everything to make their product the most profitable it can be, even if it is at the expense of lives. The list of horrifying atrocities the factory farm industry commits everyday is far longer than any essay could cover but a few
of the most heartbreaking examples of horrid treatment comes from the cow portion of livestock factory farming. With cows there are two separate businesses the dairy and meat industries that both confine many of their cattle into very tight factories for the majority of their lives only to be kept alive as long as it takes for them to be profitable. Dairy cows are unnaturally impregnated constantly to continue producing milk and when baby calves are born they are stripped from their mothers within minutes of birth never to see them again, and to be subjected into the same life their mother’s had faced. Dairy cows are cramped in large factories that use milking machines to move through cows at the most efficient pace that is exhausting to the animals as they are always in a relentless cycle of impregnation, birth, and milking. Meat cows on the other hand are raised and then slaughtered finding their suffering at the end of their life when they are whipped and beaten to force them into slaughterhouses that many attempt to avoid as they realize their impending fate. Once take inside they are slaughtered alive usually still