The Pros And Cons Of Factory Farming

A known fact of all humanity is that everyone needs to eat. "And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker” So God made a farmer” (Harvey). Farming gets a bad rap for a lot of things. Most of what people think about farming that do not have anything to do directly with it are misconceptions. Many people are up in arms about the rights and wrongs of factory farming. Tons of questions get brought up when people hear the term factory farming. The most famous question asks about the ethics of factory farming. Factory farming is ethical for three major reasons. It shows more efficiency, it allows for greater availability and variety, on the other hand, however, it risks the occurrence of animal cruelty
Most people would assume false statements about these types of farms. A farm that meets the requirements of a factory farm has to have more than one thousand beef cattle, seven hundred dairy cattle, or two thousand five hundred swine. “A factory farm is a large-scale industrial operation that houses thousands of animals raised for food- such as chickens, turkeys, cows, and pigs- and treats them with hormones and antibiotics to prevent disease and maximize their growth and food output” (11). Factory farms do not all fit under this definition as most people would think without having prior knowledge on the subject. Factory farming first came about after World War Two because agricultural scientists became worried about supplying enough food for everyone. Many people had previously left farming due to the coming of industry during and after the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression (Desch and
This type of farming has many more advantages than it has disadvantages. Factory farming can be more efficient, it allows for greater availability and variety, however, this type of farming can also lead to the occurence of animal cruelty and animal confinement. It can show much more efficiency by saving farmers quite a bit of capital by having more animals on their property on the same amount of space. Many ways on a factory farm are also cheaper and faster making the farmer quite a bit more money in turn. It can allow for greater availability and variety of products for farmers as well. With more being produced on one farm, more products are readily available to consumers at a much quicker pace. When farmers can gain more capital more quickly they are also able to make more investments towards raising different types of crops that they previously could not because of the price tag on the item. On the contrary there are many people against the subject of factory farming due to some of its controversial practices. It can lead to the risk of an occurrence of animal cruelty and confinement. The animals could be packed into extremely small areas in order to take up less space and save money on the farm. Some people would say that this practice shows animal cruelty due to the animal never seeing anything different than their pens (11). Though factory farming may have some downsides to it, this