A Vox reader asked: Why is factory farming still happening?
Factory farming – the mass confinement of chickens, pigs and cows – developed in the second half of the 20th century to feed a growing, and increasingly prosperous, post-World War II America. This was made possible by “a set of economic, genetic, chemical and pharmaceutical innovations,” as my colleague Marina Bolotnikova writes.
These innovations include technologies that have enabled meat companies and farmers to breed larger, faster-growing animals; antibiotics to keep those animals alive in overcrowded farms; Chemical fertilizers And pesticides produce abundant, cheap livestock feed; High tech tractors harvest that feed; and a host Federal subsidies And Loan program To help farmers finance all this. Advances in refrigeration and shipping also helped.
It put a surprising amount of meat on our plates – some 265 lbs Annually per American in 2021, a 55 percent An increase over the early 1900s.
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But as factory farming became America’s dominant form of livestock production, awareness of its problems grew. Beginning in the 1990s, Undercover investigation by animal rights activists Open-laying chickens are crammed into small cages and pigs are crammed into dark warehouses, shocking the animal-loving public. In 2006, the The United Nations has identified animal agriculture as As the top driver of climate change and deforestation. Public interest groups increasingly railed against the social ills of factory farms, such as concentrated pollution in rural communities, meat monopolies that killed independent farms, and the dangers of slaughterhouse work.
almost today three quarters Americans express discomfort with factory farming and regard it as one of the most important social problems. So, why do these facilities still exist, why are they getting bigger and bigger, and why is factory farming spreading around the world? Countless books have been written to answer this question, but I boil it down to four major reasons.
1) It’s efficient – by some measures
For all the problems of factory farming, it can Claim excellence In some key metrics when compared to more traditional farming practices, where slow-growing animals are given adequate space and access to the outdoors.
In factory farms, animals are packed indoors or in feedlots, so they require less land and their breeding on less feed has reduced the meat’s carbon footprint on a per-pound basis by growing larger and faster. These aspects – combined with other ways that the industry cuts corners on animal welfare, and sustainability and labor protection – have Meat made cheap. And price is often the number one priority for consumers: see recent discussions on inflation and egg prices, or 1910 And 1973 Nationwide meat boycott due to rising prices.
But all the efficiency the meat industry has gained in recent decades has been partly wasted by Americans eating too much meat and milk Compared to previous generations. What is it called? The Jevon Paradox: Increased efficiency may increase costs.
And it takes a narrow view of efficiency. Plant-based proteins, such as lentils, tofu, beans and Plant-based meatsusually required less land And has a much smaller carbon footprint than animal-based protein.
Factory farming has also created a new set of problems — what you might call inefficiencies — that Americans and animals ultimately pay for.
2) Agriculture runs on its own rules
Packing thousands or millions of animals into one place creates concentrated air and water pollution Harms the health of rural Americans And Foul of US waterways. Risk to slaughterhouse workers Losing a finger or limb They go to work every day. D Millions of pounds of antibiotics By making these life-saving drugs used to keep factory farmed animals alive, they put us all at risk. sure practiceSuch practices as keeping animals in cages for years or cutting off body parts without anesthesia or even painkillers are considered standard “animal husbandry” when done to farm animals, but torture when done to pet dogs or cats.
The livestock industry gets away with all this because of a concept called agricultural exceptionalism: the idea that because food is essential, the agricultural sector should be exempt from the laws other industries follow.
Farm pollution is largely exempt from the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, while farmed animals are exempt from the Animal Welfare Act and most state anti-cruelty laws. The few federal laws that provide some (few) protections for farmed animals exempt chickens and turkeys, which make up about 99 percent of the nation’s livestock.
Take away these concessions, and factory farming is suddenly not so efficient or affordable. Thus, the benefits of factory farming are somewhat illusory, as the system relies on the American public, the environment, and farmed animals to absorb its inefficiencies.
Efforts to remove these exemptions and pass major industry reforms have largely failed because the meat and dairy sectors have gathered enough political power to block them on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures.
3) Animals have no rights
Social progress starts with people with problems sharing their stories and calling for change. But in the case of factory farms, its most immediate victims—chickens, pigs, cows, and fish—obviously cannot. when something fight back In their last minute in the slaughterhouse, and even the lucky few Manage to escapeFarmed animals cannot lobby Congress, write op-eds, or even organize protests to protest their abuse to gain the most basic of rights.
In this sense, animals are perhaps the most politically disenfranchised group, which is at the root of why factory farming is still around: in our legal system, you can do whatever you want as long as you’re raising an animal. food
Animals rely on a smaller, less meaningful movement to push for change. Efforts to institute common-sense reforms such as cages, mutilations, low-welfare breeding practices and overcrowding – and require things like more space, outdoor access and enrichment – face strong pushback from industry.
4) The paradox of meat
Consumers also bear some responsibility.
Many Americans, and people in other high-income countries, are animal lovers and say they oppose factory farming yet continue to eat meat — Virtually all of it From a factory farm – anyway. This apparent contradiction can be explained by the “meat paradox”. A group of Australian psychologists coined the term in 2010, defining it as “the emotional conflict between people’s dietary preference for meat and their moral response to animal suffering”. As I wrote a few years ago in a story about the meat paradox:
When faced with that inconsistency we try solution It is in several ways. We sensitize or degrade animals lighten up Killing them… we wrong report Our eating habits (or dismissal of personal responsibility altogether), or we judge the behavior of others in order to claim the moral high ground…
On top of all this, consumers face a sea of misinformation and confusion, from meat companies lying about how they treat animals, to Elon Musk. false statement That agriculture does not contribute to climate change, industry-funded front groups slander Their rivals — plant-based meat companies — are in the court of public opinion.
Gathering nearly all of our meat, dairy, and eggs from factory farms was not inevitable, but the end result of thousands of choices made by thousands of policymakers, farmers, and corporate leaders—and millions of choices made by consumers. Better choices last century may undo this, and there are glimmers of hope that in the next century, factory farming may end.
