WHAT IS A FACTORY FARM?

Factory Farm - (noun)

A large-scale farming enterprise [syn: agribusiness]

Factory Farming is a term animal activists created for an operation the government calls CAFO’s, Concentrated (or confined) Animal Feeding Operations. These farming operations are defined by Wikipedia as the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at very high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory.  

These facilities are not the green pastures, red barns and white fences that most people imagine when they think of a farm. These unethical operations are able to turn out food in such high quantities, but have little regard for the environment, animal welfare, or food safety. To increase their profits, factory farms often put the health of the animals they care for and consumers at risk. These operations are becoming an epidemic. This issue has been a growing concern for many years, not just because of animal cruelty, but also because of the over consumption, health, and environmental concerns.

According to the HSUS report 10 billion animals are raised and killed for meat, eggs and milk every year in the U.S. This is an astonishing number given that as of now the US Census Bureau states their are currently 305,826,660 people in the US. That means we consume approximately 32 times the amount of meat than the amount of people in this country. For this reason I am focusing my research on the problem of over consumption in the United States and the effects it has on animal cruelty. Factory farming is a growing issue across the world, but is more of a concern right here in our own backyard.

Population numbers continue to rise and unfortunately it leads to mass production that has resulted in incredible pain and suffering for the animals. Animals today raised on factory farms have had their genes manipulated and are pumped full of antibiotics just so they can be kept alive. In the food industry, animals are no longer considered animals at all; they are food producing machines. They are confined to small cages with metal bars, ammonia-filled air and artificial lighting or no lighting at all. They are subjected to horrible mutilations: beak searing, tail docking, ear cutting and castration. Even the most minimum humane standards are enforced in this industry and more regulations need to be put in place to ensure that these animals are protected from these horrible acts.