Ethical Issues Concerning Factory Farming

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From the Paleolithic to modern era, the food consumption pattern has developed in different stages, from hunting, domestication of animal to factory farming of animals due to increase population and food demand. Factory farming is also known as intensive livestock farming, which is defined as the agricultural operation where livestock is kept and raised in confined situation (Richards & Richards, 2012). This technique is adopted globally and it is seen as the solution to cater the increasing global food demand due to its ability to produce large amount of livestock at a faster rate than traditional farming. However, it has serious ethical issues along with huge environmental, human health and economy impacts. For instance, the nutrients in …show more content…

This is because intensive livestock farming requires more energy than traditional free-range farming. As the name suggests, factory farming raises livestock in the “factory-like” controlled indoor environment which uses more energy for heating, cooling and ventilating. In addition, the growing, processing and transportation of feed also need energy input. Factory farming also releases methane, the greenhouse gas with 23 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide (Ilea, 2008). It is produced as a by-product from enteric fermentation, a fermentation process by bacteria in the ruminants’ rumen to digest food. (USEPA, n.d.). It is estimated that methane contributes to 27% of GHG emission in agriculture (UNEP, 2012). Meanwhile, it might be argued that all ruminants release methane as a natural process of food digestion. However, factory farmed ruminants could release more methane due to diet control. For example, high protein feeds made from corn and soybeans are selected due to their low cost, easy production and higher productivity (weight gained) than traditional feed. This nutritional strategy results in high concentration of methane released through ruminal fermentation (Ilea,

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