Facts About Factory Farming

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In the agricultural field, factory farming is a new concept of modern days. The sole aim of this system of farming is optimum production and minimum costs. But the hazardous affects of factory farming has often been overlooked.

Fact 1 What Is Factory Farming

Factory farming is an industrial operation that is carried out in large farms. Here livestock is raised in large numbers by using modern scientific methods. Livestock like cattle, fish and poultry are kept in large numbers even in battery cages and raised mainly for human consumption unlike normal farming methods of raising cattle and poultry.

Fact 2 History Of Factory Farming

Factory farming is a new development that is the result of scientific discoveries and Industrial revolution. In the later years of the 19th century, innovative ideas in the agricultural fields were developed that included mass production. Vitamins were discovered that offered nutrition to animals and so vitamin supplements were used to raise chicken indoors also. Antibiotics and vaccines prevented diseases among livestock thus improved raising them in larger numbers. Synthetic pesticides were also used for business purposes. Shipping networks also added to the transportation of such factory farmed produce to faraway places and increased income of the businesses. But whether this method of rearing animals is hygienic and ethical is a controversial matter and various questions have been raised against this practice by animal welfare organizations around the world.

Fact 3 Methods Of Factory Farming

The methods of rearing animals and fish in factory farms simply for business bring tears to normal humans. Instances of the situations in which they are farmed are:

  1. The number of animals kept in cage or a space is so small that they do not have the minimum space to move their limbs.
  2. These areas are often located near garbage dumps where foul air containing ammonia and dust chokes their throats and can cause blindness also.
  3. Unnatural methods of increasing growth with the help of artificial lights and administering hormones and antibiotics is harmful for both the animals and their consumers as they are already carrying medicines with them.
  4. Absence of veterinary care is a great issue. Animals are often kept aside untreated and even sold out before they are fully grown or healthy.
  5. Confined animals suffer from acute physical and mental agony.

Fact 3 Effects Of Factory Farming

Factory farming increased production of cattle and poultry more than four times between 1820 and 1975. The increase in global population also is another cause for adopting such methods of agricultural farming. Food was available in large quantities irrespective of the quality or the methods in which they are reared. On the other hand, factory farming posed a serious problem to agriculturists as scientific methods made this process more automated and many people became jobless mainly in the United States where most of the people worked in the farms during the 1930s.

Fact 4 Deterioration Of Environment And Human Health

The intense method of rearing poultry and fish is causing great damage to the environment as well as to human health. The effects are felt in every sphere of life.

  • The wastes from the farms are polluting the land, water and air in the nearby areas.
  • A large amount of valuable resources like fossil fuel is being consumed by these farms.
  • Factory farming is dangerous for human health and sources of infections like E-Coli, Salmonella and others.
  • To reduce chances of such infections, animals are injected with antibiotics which are thus transferred to humans also.
  • Inhuman environment in which these animals are kept is unethical. They never get the natural surroundings where they can grow up and feed naturally in the greens and under the sun.

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