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| '''Factory farming''' describes the raising of farm animals indoors under conditions of extremely restricted mobility<ref> - McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th edition, published by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.</ref> as part of a set of methods designed to produce the highest output at the lowest cost, using economies of scale, modern machinery, modern medicine, and ] for financing, purchases and sales.<ref>"Is factory farming really cheaper?" in ''New Scientist'', Institution of Electrical Engineers, New Science Publications, University of Michigan, 1971, p. 12.</ref><ref>"Factory farming," ''Encyclopaedia Britannica concise'', 2007.</ref> It is a subset of ] (which is a subset of ])<ref name=mc2>, CNN/Reuters, December 4, 2000.</ref> that is also known as '''confined animal feeding operations''' (CAFOs),<ref name=WW2006>"State of the World 2006," Worldwatch Institute, p. 26.</ref> '''concentrated animal feeding operations''',<ref name=CAFOCDCP>, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Department of Health and Human Services.</ref> or '''intensive livestock operations''' (ILOs).<ref name=ilo1></ref> | |||
| The practice is widespread in ]s. According to the ], 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced this way.<ref name=WW2006/> In the U.S., four companies produce 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 60 percent of pigs, and 50 percent of chickens;<ref>Testimony by Leland Swenson, president of the U.S. National Farmer's Union, before the House Judiciary Committee, September 12, 2000, cited in Scully, Matthew. ''Dominion'', St. Martin's Griffin, p. 29.</ref> according to its National Pork Producers Council, 80 million of its 95 million pigs killed each year are reared in factory farms.<ref name=Scully29>Scully, Matthew. ''Dominion'', St. Martin's Griffin, p. 29.</ref> Proponents of factory farming argue for the benefits of increased efficiencies, while opponents argue that it harms the environment,<ref name=CBC2000/> creates health risks,<ref name=mc0>{{cite news|url=http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=madcowdairy28&date=20031228|title=Supplements used in factory farming can spread disease|author=Blaine Harden|publisher=The Washington Post|date=], ]}}</ref><ref name=CAFOCDCP/><ref name=hogs1>{{cite web|url=http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/mera/iloodoreffects.html|title=The Association of Health Effects with Exposure to Odors from Hog Farm Operations|publisher=North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services|date=], ]|author=A. Dennis McBride, MD, MPH}}</ref> and abuses animals.<ref name=Kaufmann/><ref name=CBC2000>, CBC, July 28, 2000.</ref> | |||
| ==Origin and use of the term "factory farming"== | |||
| The origin of the term ''factory farm'' is not clear, although the ] attributes the first recorded use to an American journal of economics in 1890, while it did not enter pejorative use until the 1960s. <ref></ref> A 1998 documentary film, '']'', showed the term being used within the agricultural industry as descriptive of "factory-like" farming operations. It is now used widely by mainstream news organizations. | |||
| ''Webster's New Millennium'' dictionary calls it "a system of large-scale industrialized and intensive agriculture that is focused on profit with animals kept indoors and restricted in mobility."<ref>, Webster's ''New Millennium Dictionary of English'', Preview Edition (v 0.9.6). Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. (accessed: April 04, 2007).</ref> The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' writes that "capital investment in ... factory farms is high, and production is carried on by giant companies."<ref>"History of the organization of work: Factory farms," ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 2007.</ref> | |||
| ==History== | |||
| The practice of factory farming is a relatively recent development in the ], and the result of scientific discoveries and technological advances. Early examples include ], ], and various forms of ]. | |||
| Innovations in agriculture beginning in the late 1800s generally parallel developments in ] in other industries that characterized the latter part of the ]. The identification of ] and ] as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic ]s, making possible more intensive types of agriculture. The discovery of ]s and their role in animal ], in the first two decades of the ], led to vitamin supplements, which in the 1920s allowed certain livestock to be raised indoors, reducing their exposure to adverse natural elements. The discovery of ]s and ]s facilitated raising livestock in larger numbers by reducing disease. Chemicals developed for use in ] gave rise to synthetic ]s. Developments in shipping networks and technology have made long-distance distribution of agricultural produce feasible. | |||
| ==Current status== | |||
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| "Confined animal feeding operations" (U.S.) or "intensive livestock operations",<ref name=ilo1/> can hold large numbers (some up to hundreds of thousands) of animals, often indoors. These animals are typically cows, hogs, turkeys, or chickens. The distinctive characteristics of such farms is the concentration of livestock in a given space. The aim of the operation is to produce as much meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost. | |||
| ===Example: Carrolls' Farms=== | |||
| F.J. "Sonny" Faison, the CEO of Carrolls Foods in North Carolina, the second-largest hog producer in the U.S. (recently purchased by ]) has said: "It's all a supply-and-demand price question ... The meat business in this country is just about perfect, uncontrolled supply-and-demand free enterprise. And it continues to get more and more sophisticated, based on science. Only the least-cost producer survives in agriculture."<ref name=Scully255>Scully, Matthew. ''Dominion'', St. Martin's Griffin, 2002, pp. 255-256.</ref> At one of Carrolls's farms, Farm 2105, twenty pigs are kept per pen, each pen is 7.5 square feet, and each confinement building or "hog parlor" holds 25 pens.<ref name=Scully259>Scully, Matthew. ''Dominion'', St. Martin's Griffin, pp. 259.</ref> As of 2002, the company kills one million pigs every 12 days.<ref name=Scully258>Scully, Matthew. ''Dominion'', St. Martin's Griffin, 2002, p. 258.</ref> | |||
| Carrolls' Farms switched to the total confinement of animals in 1974. The animals are better off, according to Faison: | |||
| {{Quotation|They're in state-of-the-art confinement facilities. The conditions that we keep these animals in are much more humane than when they were out in the field. Today they're in housing that is environmentally controlled in many respects. And the feed is right there for them all the time, and water, fresh water. They're looked after in some of the best conditions, because the healthier and content that animal, the better it grows. So we're very interested in their well-being — up to an extent.<ref name=Scully258/>}} | |||
| ===Methods=== | |||
| Food is supplied in place, and artificial methods are often employed to maintain animal health and improve production, such as therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements and growth hormones. Growth hormones are not used in chicken meat production. In meat production, mechanical methods are also sometimes employed, such as de-beaking of chickens and physical restraints, to control undesirable behaviours. | |||
| ===Environmental issues=== | |||
| The designation "confined animal feeding operation" in the U.S. resulted from that country's 1972 Federal Clean Water Act, which was enacted to protect and restore lakes and rivers to a "fishable, swimmable" quality. The ] (EPA) identified certain animal feeding operations, along with many other types of industry, as point source polluters of groundwater. These operations were designated as CAFOs and subject to special anti-pollution regulation.<ref>Sweeten, John et al. . MidWest Plan Service, Iowa State University, July 2003.</ref> | |||
| In 24 states in the U.S., isolated cases of ] has been linked to CAFOs.{{Fact|date=May 2007}} For example, the ten million hogs in North Carolina generate 19 million tons of waste per year.{{Fact|date=May 2007}} The U.S. federal government acknowledges the ] issue and requires that ] be stored in ]. These lagoons can be as large as 7.5 acres. Lagoons not protected with an impermeable liner can leak waste into groundwater under some conditions, as can runoff from manure spread back onto fields as fertilizer in the case of an unforeseen heavy rainfall. A lagoon that burst in 1995 released 25 million gallons of nitrous sludge in North Carolina's New River. The spill allegedly killed eight to ten million fish.<ref>Orlando, Laura. ''McFarms Go Wild'', ''Dollars and Sense'', July/August 1998, cited in Scully, Matthew. ''Dominion'', St. Martin's Griffin, p. 257.</ref> | |||
| ===Ethical issues=== | |||
| The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and dead animals in a small space poses ethical issues. ] and ] activists have charged that intensive animal rearing is cruel to animals. As they become more common, so do concerns about ] and ground water contamination, and the effects on human health of the pollution and the use of antibiotics and growth hormones. | |||
| ===Health issues=== | |||
| One particular problem with farms on which animals are intensively reared is the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Because large numbers of animals are confined in a small space, any disease would spread quickly, and so antibiotics are used preventively. A small percentage of bacteria are not killed by the drugs, which may infect human beings if it becomes airborne. | |||
| According to the U.S. ] (CDC), farms on which animals are intensively reared can cause adverse health reactions in farm workers. Workers may develop acute and chronic lung disease, musculoskeletal injuries, and may catch infections that transmit from animals to human beings. | |||
| The CDC writes that chemical, bacterial, and viral compounds from animal waste may travel in the soil and water. Residents near such farms report nuisances such as odors and flies, as well as adverse health effects.<ref name="CAFOCDCP"/><ref name="hogs1"/> | |||
| The CDC has identified a number of pollutants associated with the discharge of animal waste into rivers and lakes, and into the air. The use of antibiotics may create antibiotic-resistant pathogens; parasites, bacteria, and viruses may be spread; ], ], and ] can reduce oxygen in surface waters and contaminate drinking water; pesticides and hormones may cause hormone-related changes in fish; animal feed and feathers may stunt the growth of desirable plants in surface waters and provide nutrients to disease-causing micro-organisms; trace elements such as ] and ], which are harmful to human health, may contaminate surface waters.<ref name=CAFOCDCP/> | |||
| ==Arguments for and against== | |||
| ===Supporting view=== | |||
| ] on an industrial farm. ]] | |||
| Proponents say that large-scale intensive farming is a useful and proven agricultural advance. The argued benefits include: | |||
| *'''Low cost''' — Intensive agriculture tends to produce food that can be sold at lower cost to consumers. | |||
| *'''Efficiency''' — Animals in confinement can be supervised more closely than free-ranging animals, and diseased animals can be treated faster. Further, more efficient production of meat, milk, or eggs results in a need for fewer animals to be raised, thereby limiting the impact of agriculture on the environment. | |||
| *'''Economic contribution''' — The high input costs of agricultural operations result in a large influx and distribution of capital to a rural area from distant buyers rather than simply recirculating existing capital. A single dairy cow contributes over $1300 US to a local rural economy each year, each beef cow over $800, meat turkey $14, and so on. As Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff states, “Research estimates that the annual economic impact per cow is $13,737. In addition, each $1 million increase in PA milk sales creates 23 new jobs. This tells us that dairy farms are good for Pennsylvania's economy.” <ref>Dairy in Pennsylvania: A VITAL ELEMENT FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT</ref> | |||
| *'''Industry is responsible and self-regulating''' — Organizations representing factory farm operators claim to be proactive and self-policing when it comes to improving practices according to the latest food safety and environmental findings. | |||
| *'''Food safety''' — Reducing number and diversity of agricultural production facilities results in easier management. Smaller facility numbers permit easier government oversight and regulation of food quality. Processing foodstuffs through centralized mediums leads to standardization, which protects general food safety, removing unsafe rogue elements. | |||
| *'''Animal health''' — Larger farms have greater resources and abilities to maintain a high level of animal health. Larger farms can make use of expert veterinarians, while smaller non-industrial farms are limited to farmer's ability to care for his livestock. Under certain definitions of industrial agriculture, industrial agriculture also permits the use of antibiotics to prevent and treat diseases, while non-industrial agriculture, to minimize cost and meet certain other goals, often will not prevent or treat bacterial diseases but will instead hope illness clears up without intervention. | |||
| *'''Pollution control''' — Large farms can maintain and operate sophisticated systems to control waste products. Smaller farms are unable to maintain the same standards of pollution control. By consolidating waste products, farmers can efficiently manage waste. | |||
| Proponents also dispute the food borne illness argument. They note the fact that '']'' grows naturally in most mammals, including humans, and that only a few strains of ''E. coli'' are potentially hazardous to humans. They also note that diseases naturally occur among chickens and other animals. Properly cooking food can effectively remove risk factors by killing bacteria. Proponents argue that there is widespread demand for a cheap, reliable source of meat. | |||
| ===Opposing view=== | |||
| ]s are confined most of their lives in 2 ft by 7 ft ] crates.<ref>, ''factoryfarming.com''.</ref><ref name=Kaufmann>Kaufmann, Mark. , ''The Washington Post'', January 26, 2007.</ref> Pork producers and many veterinarians say that sows are prone to fighting if housed together in pens. The largest pork producer in the U.S. said in January 2007 that it will phase out gestation crates from its 187 pig nurseries over the next ten years, because of concerns from its customers, including ].<ref name=Kaufmann/> They are also being phased out in the ], with a ban effective in 2013 after the fourth week of pregnancy.<ref>, The Humane Society of the United States, January 6, 2006.</ref>]] | |||
| Opponents say that what they refer to as ''factory farming'' is cruel,<ref>, PETA</ref><ref>Comis, Don, USDA Agricultural Research Service. "." in Agricultural Research. March 2005. p. 4-7.</ref><ref>Smith, Lewis W., USDA Agricultural Research Service. “” in Agricultural Research. March 2005. p. 2.</ref> that it poses health risks, and that it causes ] damage. | |||
| In 2003, a ] publication stated that "factory farming methods are creating a web of food safety, animal welfare, and environmental problems around the world, as large agribusinesses attempt to escape tighter environmental restrictions in the European Union and the U.S. by moving their animal production operations to less developed countries." <ref>Nierenberg, Danielle. '''' ''World Watch Magazine'': May/June 2003.</ref> | |||
| Arguments include: | |||
| *'''Mad Cow Disease''' — Factory farming techniques may lead to a higher incidence of ], also known as mad cow disease, which in turn is claimed to cause ] in humans.<ref name=mc0/> In light of recently discovered cases of mad cow disease, in 2000 during his term in office as Germany's ], Dr ] called for a stop of the practice of factory farming, asking instead for a more 'consumer-friendly' policy,<ref name="mc2" /> while British scientists called for farmers move away from intensive agriculture, saying the end of factory farming was the only way to kill mad cow disease.<ref name=mc2/> | |||
| *'''Other diseases''' — ] may lead to ]. In natural environments, animals are seldom crowded into as high a population density. Disease spreads rapidly in densely populated areas. Animals raised on antibiotics are breeding ] strains of various ] ("superbugs").<ref>'', ''ScienceDaily'', July 5, 2005.</ref> Use of animal vaccines can create new viruses that kill people and cause ] threats. ] is an example of where this might have already occurred.<ref> According to the ] article ''H5N1 Outbreaks and Enzootic Influenza'' by ] et. al.:"Transmission of highly pathogenic H5N1 from domestic poultry back to migratory waterfowl in western China has increased the geographic spread. The spread of H5N1 and its likely reintroduction to domestic poultry increase the need for good agricultural vaccines. In fact, the root cause of the continuing H5N1 pandemic threat may be the way the pathogenicity of H5N1 viruses is masked by co-circulating influenza viruses or bad agricultural vaccines."( ''H5N1 Outbreaks and Enzootic Influenza'' by ] et. al.) Dr. Robert Webster explains: "If you use a good vaccine you can prevent the transmission within poultry and to humans. But if they have been using vaccines now for several years, why is there so much bird flu? There is bad vaccine that stops the disease in the bird but the bird goes on pooping out virus and maintaining it and changing it. And I think this is what is going on in China. It has to be. Either there is not enough vaccine being used or there is substandard vaccine being used. Probably both. It’s not just China. We can’t blame China for substandard vaccines. I think there are substandard vaccines for influenza in poultry all over the world."() In response to the same concerns, Reuters reports Hong Kong infectious disease expert Lo Wing-lok saying, "The issue of vaccines has to take top priority," and Julie Hall, in charge of the WHO's outbreak response in China, saying China's vaccinations might be masking the virus."() The BBC reported that Dr Wendy Barclay, a virologist at the University of Reading, UK said: "The Chinese have made a vaccine based on reverse genetics made with H5N1 antigens, and they have been using it. There has been a lot of criticism of what they have done, because they have protected their chickens against death from this virus but the chickens still get infected; and then you get drift - the virus mutates in response to the antibodies - and now we have a situation where we have five or six 'flavours' of H5N1 out there."( ''Bird flu vaccine no silver bullet'' 22 February 2006)</ref> | |||
| *'''Air and water pollution''' — Large quantities and concentrations of waste are produced.<ref>{{cite web | title=Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms | work=National Resource Defense Council | url=http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp | accessdate=2006-05-30}}</ref> ]s, ]s, and ] are at risk when animal waste is improperly recycled. Pollutant gases are also emitted. Contaminants such as dust or foul smells can pollute air. | |||
| *'''Ethics''' — ]: Crowding, drugging, and performing surgery on animals. Chicks are ] hours after hatching, commonly by slicing off the beak. Confining hens and pigs in barren environments leads to physical problems such as ] and joint pain, and also boredom and frustration, as shown by repetitive or self-destructive actions known as stereotypes.<ref>, European Commission, and , European Food Safety Authority (7-Mar-2005)</ref> | |||
| *'''Resource overuse''' — Concentrated populations of animals require a commensurately large amount of ] and are depleting ] in some areas. {{Fact|date=February 2007}} | |||
| *'''Destruction of Biodiversity''' — Industrial farming wipes out large areas of land to house a single variation of one species, usually foreign to the region, thus eliminating the entire local ecosystem. | |||
| *'''Tracking''' — With the intensive farming system it is difficult to track the source of food, let alone food borne disease, back to particular animals. Sometimes food purchased on one side of the country may have been produced on the other side. Hamburger meat may contain the meat of as many as 1000 cows.<ref> Scholosser, Eric, interview with Morgan Spurlock;</ref> This causes concern among consumers concerning the origin of foods and among government officials concerning the origin of disease. The ] is one proposed way the USDA is attempting to remedy this problem. With "traditional" farming techniques this problem is eliminated because the consumer can buy directly from the producer. <ref>Schlosser, Eric, Fast Food Nation; </ref><ref>Eisnitz, Gail, Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry</ref>This can lead to other problems, however, as food purchased directly from farmers does not have to be processed according to industrial standards and undergoes no official quality evaluation. | |||
| == See also == | |||
| {{commonscat|Industrial agriculture}} | |||
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| ==Sources and notes== | |||
| {{reflist|2}} | |||
| ==Further reading == | |||
| ;Government regulation | |||
| * - from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture | |||
| ;Commissions assessing industrial agriculture | |||
| *, Independent commission studying the effects of intensive animal production | |||
| ;Proponent, neutral, and industry-related | |||
| *, article on case studies of the impact of large scale agriculture | |||
| *, Farm and Ranchers association | |||
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| ;Criticism of factory farming | |||
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| * resources for consumers | |||
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| * - Article with links to photos and videos of factory farming | |||
| * - Video of Foie Gras production | |||
| * Promoting sustainable, responsible, and ethical animal husbandry | |||
| * from The Humane Society of the United States | |||
| * - Video of hens in battery cages at various intensive egg farming facilities. (2/4/06) | |||
| * - a parody of '']'' | |||
| * - the second installment of the Meatrix parodying ''The Matrix'' | |||
| * - a PETA-produced factory farm tour narrated by ] | |||
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| * - Undercover investigation of a Tyson Foods processing plant | |||
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