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Factory farming, a system or method of intensive animal farming or industrial farming, is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, often in barren and unnatural conditions. The practice aims to produce the highest output at the lowest cost by relying on economies of scale, modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. To increase the yield, synthetic hormones may be used to speed growth, while antibiotics and pesticides mitigate the spread of disease exacerbated by crowded living conditions.

Factory farming attracts controversy in that the advantages such as making food production more efficient, cheap and available for a growing population are balanced against the harm the environment, the health risks of the approach and the potential abuse of animals. Criticism has increased in Europe due to a series of events associated with modern farming techniques, including incidents of swine fever, BSE, foot and mouth and bird flu together with concern over animal welfare.

The term

The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the first recorded use of the term to an American journal of economics in 1890. It is now used widely by mainstream news organizations, including the BBC, The Washington Post, and CNN. A 1998 documentary, A Cow at My Table, shows the term is also used within the agricultural industry, although it is regarded by sections of the industry as a term used by activists. The Encyclopaedia Britannica writes that the term is "descriptive of standard farming practice in the U.S." and frequently used by animal rights activists. Webster's New Millennium defines it as "a system of large-scale industrialized and intensive agriculture that is focused on profit with animals kept indoors and restricted in mobility."

In the U.S., factory farms are also known as confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), concentrated animal feeding operations, or intensive livestock operations (ILOs).

History

Agriculture had adopted more intensive methods during the 18th century, with this growth in production best characterised by the Agricultural Revolution, where improvements in farming techniques allowed for significantly improved yields, and supported the urbanisation of the population during the Industrial Revolution.

Innovations in agriculture beginning in the late 19th century paralleled developments in mass production in other industries. The identification of nitrogen and phosphorus as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers, making possible more intensive types of agriculture. The discovery of vitamins and their role in animal nutrition, in the first two decades of the 20th century, led to vitamin supplements, which in the 1920s allowed certain livestock to be raised indoors. The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines facilitated raising livestock in larger numbers by reducing disease. Chemicals developed for use in World War II gave rise to synthetic pesticides. Developments in shipping networks and technology have made long-distance distribution of agricultural produce feasible.

According to the BBC, factory farming in Britain began in 1947 when a new Agriculture Act granted subsidies to farmers to encourage greater output by introducing new technology, in order to reduce Britain's reliance on imported meat. The United Nations writes that intensification of animal production was seen as a way of providing food security. The agriculture correspondent of The Guardian wrote in 1964:

Factory farming, whether we like it or not, has come to stay. The tide will not be held back, either by the humanitarian outcry of well meaning but sometimes misguided animal lovers, by the threat implicit to traditional farming methods, or by the sentimental approach to a rural way of life. In a year which has been as uneventful on the husbandry side as it has been significant in economic and political developments touching the future of food procurement, the more far-seeing would name the growth of intensive farming as the major development.

Nature of the practice

File:Factory-farm-exterior.jpg
Warehouses in which chickens are confined in a "concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO).
Interior of a hog confinement barn
Cows in a CAFO in the U.S.
File:Factory-farm-dairy-barn.jpg
The entrance to a dairy barn

Scale

Agricultural production across the world doubled four times between 1820 and 1975 to feed a global population of one billion human beings in 1800 and 6.5 billion in 2002.

During the same period, the number of people involved in farming dropped as the process became more automated. In the 1930s, 24 percent of the American population worked in agriculture compared to 1.5 percent in 2002; in 1940, each farm worker supplied 11 consumers, whereas in 2002, each worker supplied 90 consumers.

The number of farms has also decreased, and their ownership is more concentrated. In the U.S., four companies produce 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 57 percent of pigs and 50 percent of chickens. In 1967, there were one million pig farms in America; as of 2002, there were 114,000, with 80 million pigs (out of 95 million) killed each year on factory farms as of 2002, according to the U.S. National Pork Producers Council. According to the Worldwatch Institute, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced this way.

Although Europe has become increasingly skeptical of factory farming, after a series of diseases such as BSE (mad cow) and foot and mouth disease affected its agricultural industries, globally there are indications that the industrialized production of farm animals is set to increase. According to Denis Avery of the Hudson Institute, Asia increased its consumption of pork by 18 million tons in the 1990s. As of 1997, the world had a stock of 900 million pigs, which Avery predicts will rise to 2.5 billion pigs by 2050. He told the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley that three billion pigs will thereafter be needed annually to meet demand. He writes: "For the sake of the environment, we had better hope those hogs are raised in big, efficient confinement systems."

Distinctive characteristics

Factory farms hold large numbers of animals, typically cows, hogs, turkeys, or chickens, often indoors, typically at high densities. The aim of the operation is to produce as much meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost. Food is supplied in place, and a wide variety of artificial methods are employed to maintain animal health and improve production, such as the use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth hormones. Physical restraints are used to control behavior regarded as undesirable. Breeding programs are used to produce animals more suited to the confined conditions and able to provide a consistent "product".

The distinctive characteristic of factory farms is the intense concentration of livestock. At one farm (Farm 2105) run by Carrolls Foods of North Carolina, the second-largest pig producer in the U.S., twenty pigs are kept per pen and each confinement building or "hog parlor" holds 25 pens. As of 2002, the company kills one million pigs every 12 days. Carrolls, which is owned by Smithfield Foods, switched to total confinement in 1974. The company's chief executive officer, F.J. "Sonny" Faison, 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." The animals are better off in total confinement, according to Faison:

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.

Key issues

The environment

One of the most obvious environmental problems that arises out of high density farming is that animals produce significant amounts of waste that need to be disposed of, both within the housing and then also from the factory site. Whilst in low density outdoor farming this can be coped with by stock and crop rotation, intensive techniques, especially on the industrial scale of a factory farm, have the potential to create significant environmental hazards.

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 United States Environmental Protection Agency (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.

In 24 states in the U.S., isolated cases of groundwater contamination has been linked to CAFOs. For example, the ten million hogs in North Carolina generate 19 million tons of waste per year. The U.S. federal government acknowledges the waste disposal issue and requires that animal waste be stored in lagoons. These lagoons can be as large as 7.5 acres. Lagoons must be protected with an impermeable liner, but can nonetheless leak waste into groundwater under some conditions, and runoff from manure spread back onto fields as fertilizer can leak into surface water 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.

Denis Avery of the Hudson Institute's agricultural think-tank, the Center for Global Food Issues, has called modern farming a "conservation triumph," because it involves getting higher yields of crops and livestock from land. He predicts that, after 2050, three billion pigs will be needed annually to meet demand: "For the sake of the environment," he writes, "we had better hope those hogs are raised in big, efficient confinement systems."

The use of controlled indoor environments means that animals unsuited to the local climate can be farmed, for example, the UK has one of the few climates well suited to the outdoor farming of pigs.

Ethics

The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and the potential for dead animals in a small space poses ethical issues. It is recognised that some techniques used to sustain intensive agriculture can be cruel to animals. As awareness of the problems of intensive techniques has grown, there have been some efforts by governments and industry to remove inappropriate techniques.

In the UK, the Farm Animal Welfare Council was set up by the government to act as an independent advisor on animal welfare in 1979. and expresses its policy as five freedoms: from hunger & thirst; from discomfort; from pain, injury or disease; to express normal behaviour; from fear and distress.

There are differences around the world as to which practices are accepted and there continue to be changes in regulations with animal welfare being a strong driver for increased regulation. For example, the EU is bringing in further regulation to set maximum stocking densities for meat chickens by 2010, where the UK Animal Welfare Minister commented, "The welfare of meat chickens is a major concern to people throughout the European Union. This agreement sends a strong message to the rest of the world that we care about animal welfare.”

However, given the assumption that intensive farming techniques are a necessity, it is recognized that some apparently cruel techniques are better than the alternative. For example, in the UK, de-beaking of chickens is deprecated, but it is recognized that it is a method of last resort, seen as better than allowing vicious fighting and ultimately cannibalism. With the evolution of factory farming, there has been a growing awareness of the issues amongst the wider public, not least due to the efforts of animal rights and welfare campaigners. As a result gestation crates, one of the more contentious practices, are the subject of laws in the U.S., Europe and around the world to phase out their use as a result of pressure to adopt less confined practices.

Health problems and nuisance

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (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.

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; ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphorus 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 arsenic and copper, which are harmful to human health, may contaminate surface waters.

In the European Union, growth hormones are banned on the basis that there is no way of determining a safe level. The UK has stated that in the event of the EU raising the ban at some future date, to comply with a precautionary approach, it would only consider the introduction of specific hormones, proven on a case by case basis. The various techniques of factory farming have been associated with a number of European incidents where public health has been threatened or large numbers of animals have had to be slaughtered to deal with disease. Where disease breaks out, it may spread more quickly, not only due to the concentrations of animals, but because modern approaches tend to distribute animals more widely.. The international trade in animal products increases the risk of global transmission of virulent diseases such as swine fever, BSE, foot and mouth and bird flu.

Arguments for and against

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Supporting view

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.”
  • 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 E. coli 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

Opponents say that factory farming is cruel, that it poses health risks, and that it causes environmental damage.

In 2003, a Worldwatch Institute 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."

Arguments include:

  • Mad cow disease — Factory farming techniques may lead to a higher incidence of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, which in turn is claimed to cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. In the light of recently discovered cases of mad cow disease, Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, called for a halt of the practice of factory farming, asking instead for a more 'consumer-friendly' policy, while British scientists called for farmers to move away from intensive agriculture, saying the end of factory farming was the only way to kill mad cow disease.
  • Other diseases — Overpopulation may facilitate the spread of disease. Many communicable diseases spread rapidly under such conditions. Animals raised on antibiotics may develop antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria ("superbugs"). Use of animal vaccines can create new viruses that kill people and cause flu pandemic threats. H5N1 is an example of where this might have already occurred.
  • Air and water pollution — Large quantities and concentrations of waste are produced. Lakes, rivers, and groundwater 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 — Cruelty to animals: Crowding, drugging, and performing surgery on animals. Chicks are debeaked hours after hatching, commonly by slicing off the beak. Confining hens and pigs in barren environments leads to physical problems such as osteoporosis and joint pain, and also boredom and frustration, as shown by repetitive or self-destructive actions known as stereotypes.
  • Resource overuse — Concentrated populations of animals require a commensurately large amount of water and are depleting water resources in some areas.
  • 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. This causes concern among consumers concerning the origin of foods and among government officials concerning the origin of disease. The National Animal Identification System 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. 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

Notes

  1. Sources discussing "intensive farming", "intensive agriculture" or "factory farming":
    • Fraser, David. Animal welfare and the intensification of animal production: An alternative interpretation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005.
    • Turner, Jacky. "History of factory farming", United Nations: "Fifty years ago in Europe, intensification of animal production was seen as the road to national food security and a better diet ... The intensive systems - called 'factory farms' - were characterised by confinement of the animals at high stocking density, often in barren and unnatural conditions."
    • Simpson, John. Why the organic revolution had to happen, The Observer, April 21, 2001: "Nor is a return to 'primitive' farming practices the only alternative to factory farming and highly intensive agriculture."
    • Baker, Stanley. "Factory farms — the only answer to our growing appetite?, The Guardian, December 29, 1964: "Factory farming, whether we like it or not, has come to stay ... In a year which has been as uneventful on the husbandry side as it has been significant in economic and political developments touching the future of food procurement, the more far-seeing would name the growth of intensive farming as the major development." (Note: Stanley Baker was the Guardian's agriculture correspondent.)
    • "Head to head: Intensive farming", BBC News, March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of BSE from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the Green Party. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."
  2. Sources discussing "industrial farming" , "industrial agriculture" and "factory farming":
    • "Annex 2. Permitted substances for the production of organic foods", Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: "'Factory' farming refers to industrial management systems that are heavily reliant on veterinary and feed inputs not permitted in organic agriculture.
    • "Head to head: Intensive farming", BBC News, March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of BSE from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the Green Party. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kaufmann was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. "EU tackles BSE crisis", BBC News, November 29, 2000.
  5. "Is factory farming really cheaper?" in New Scientist, Institution of Electrical Engineers, New Science Publications, University of Michigan, 1971, p. 12.
  6. "Factory farming," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007.
  7. ^ Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, 2002, p. 258.
  8. ^ Avery, Dennis. "Big Hog Farms Help the Environment," Des Moines Register, December 7, 1997, cited in Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, p. 30. Cite error: The named reference "Avery1997" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ Harden, Blaine. "Supplements used in factory farming can spread disease", The Washington Post, December 28, 2003.
  10. ^ "Concentrated animal feeding operations", Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Department of Health and Human Services.
  11. ^ McBride, A. Dennis. "The Association of Health Effects with Exposure to Odors from Hog Farm Operations", North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, December 7, 1998.
  12. Oxford English Dictionary, Second Ed. — factory
  13. Alberta Farm Animal Care Update, Fall 2005
  14. Britannica concise definition
  15. Factory farming, Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6). Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. (accessed: April 4, 2007).
  16. "Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOS)/Factory Farming", Library of Michigan Bibliography.
  17. ^ "State of the World 2006," Worldwatch Institute, p. 26.
  18. Comparative Standards for Intensive Livestock Operations in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
  19. "The History of Factory Farming", United Nations.
  20. Baker, Stanley. "Factory farms—the only answer to our growing appetite?", The Guardian, December 29, 1964.
  21. It doubled between 1820 and 1920; between 1920 and 1950; between 1950 and 1965; and again between 1965 and 1975. Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, p. 29.
  22. ^ Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, p. 29.
  23. Testimony by Leland Swenson, president of the U.S. National Farmers' Union, before the House Judiciary Committee, September 12, 2000.
  24. Shen, Fern. "Md. Hog Farm Causing Quite a Stink," The Washington Post, May 23, 1999; and Plain, Ronald L. "Trends in U.S. Swine Industry," U.S. Meat Export Federation Conference, September 24, 1997, cited in Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, p. 29.
  25. ^ Avery, Denis. "Commencement address," University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, May 21, 2000, cited in Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, p. 30.
  26. Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, pp. 259.
  27. Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, 2002, pp. 255–256.
  28. Sweeten, John et al. "Fact Sheet #1: A Brief History and Background of the EPA CAFO Rule". MidWest Plan Service, Iowa State University, July 2003.
  29. Orlando, Laura. McFarms Go Wild, Dollars and Sense, July/August 1998, cited in Scully, Matthew. Dominion, St. Martin's Griffin, p. 257.
  30. "Intensive farming is 'conservation triumph'," Chemistry and Industry, December 1, 1997.
  31. http://www.fawc.org.uk/reports/pigs/fawcp006.htm Farm Animal Welfare Committee Report
  32. http://www.kt.iger.bbsrc.ac.uk/FACT%20sheet%20PDF%20files/kt32.pdf UK DEFRA comment on de-beaking recognising it as cruel
  33. http://www.fawc.org.uk/default.htm Farm Animal Welfare Council
  34. http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2007/070508b.htm DEFRA press release
  35. http://www.kt.iger.bbsrc.ac.uk/FACT%20sheet%20PDF%20files/kt32.pdf UK DEFRA comment on de-beaking recognising it as cruel
  36. Animal rights concerns grow in California
  37. Washington Post: Largest Pork Processor to Phase Out Crates
  38. http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2006/jul/vpcreport
  40. Dairy in Pennsylvania: A VITAL ELEMENT FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
  41. "Cruelty to Animals: Mechanized Madness", PETA
  42. Comis, Don, USDA Agricultural Research Service. "Settling Doubts about Livestock Stress." in Agricultural Research. March 2005. p. 4–7.
  43. Smith, Lewis W., USDA Agricultural Research Service. “Forum—Helping Industry Ensure Animal Well-Being.” in Agricultural Research. March 2005. p. 2.
  44. Nierenberg, Danielle. Factory Farming in the Developing World World Watch Magazine: May/June 2003.
  45. ^ Cite error: The named reference mc2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  46. "Agricultural Antibiotic Use Contributes To 'Super-bugs' In Humans", ScienceDaily, July 5, 2005.
  47. Webster, Robert G. "H5N1 Outbreaks and Enzootic Influenza", CDC.
  48. "Factory farms are responsible for bird flu, according to a new report". NF News. February 20, 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  49. Stephen Leahy (February 21, 2007). "Report Blames Factory Farms for Bird Flu". IPS. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  50. "Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms". National Resource Defense Council. Retrieved 2006-05-30.
  51. "The Welfare of Intensively Kept Pigs—Report of the Scientific Veterinary Committee—Adopted 30 September 1997, European Commission, and "Opinion of the AHAW Panel related to the welfare aspects of various systems of keeping laying hens", European Food Safety Authority (7 March 2005)
  52. Scholosser, Eric, interview with Morgan Spurlock;
  53. Schlosser, Eric, Fast Food Nation;
  54. Eisnitz, Gail, Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry

Further reading

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