Arguments Against Factory Farming

Introduction When most people hear farming they think of positive environment surrounding with animals with loving and caring owner. The reality is that a large number of farming today is controlled by corporate-owned industries. Traditional farming is almost a distant memory, especially in America. Most foods that we find in markets throughout the U.S. come from these farms. Most people and including myself don’t know the truth behind the foods we put into our diets and bodies. Shouldn’t we has a society know where most of our foods come from? These “foods” include, meats, fruits, and vegetables. Many people who do know of factory have changed their lifestyles drastically and have become vegetarians. The looming issue of factory has

In this paper I will take a look at factory farming more detailed from an ethical point of view. The two main parts of this paper will be the ethical point of defending what is factory farming and the ethical point of view of against it. In these two sections I will cover the economical side along with health of humans, animals, and the environment.

Defending Factory Farming In defending the side of factory farming the economical benefits has to be one of its strongest points along with the high efficiency and productivity. Today’s farming has almost helped the famines of the world, excluding some third world countries with extreme problems other than hunger. With the world population constantly growing at such a fast rate, modern farming is almost a necessity. With the success that America has shown with factory farming many countries have followed the same path. These countries realize that in order to be successful and grow with a happy population, the population cannot be suffering from hunger. America has paved the way for factory farming is terms of success. The U.S. is so vital to itself and the world in how much is exported to the world. In

To have a successful farm for an industry does not come cheap. Many of the advantages I covered in the previous section come with a cost. Industries will do everything to be able to spend the bare minimum to make an income for their companies. There are too many industry farms and not enough industries willing to pour the money into the farms to create a more ethical environment. With industries not willing to spend money this causes for unhealthy animals and environments. Many of these farms require a lot of land and water. Farms need both land and water to give their animals food and drink. Factory farms are so large and require so much of this that many times industries actually lose money. Along with the fact these factory farms are so large and with such a high number of animals for production, these animals are crowded within barns. Yes being indoors does have its benefits but not when there so many animals that they are so tightly packed. Tightly packed and crowded animals cause them to be stressed in such conditions, which makes them weak and unhealthy. The conditions serve as incubators for new diseases that will harm hundreds and even thousands of people if the problems can’t be fixed. David Kirby’s book, “Animal Factory” states on page 336, “24.6 million pounds of antimicrobials are used each year as growth promoters”. These antibiotics being pumped into these animals to make them