Industrial Farm Animal Production ( Ifap )

Every year, an average American will consume approximately one hundred-twenty six pounds of meat. This meat can be traced back to factory farms where the animals are kept to be tortured to turn into a product for the appetite of humans. The terrible treatment these animals are forced to endure is the outcome of the greed and want for a faster production of their product. The industry of factory farming works to maximize the output of the meat while maintaining low costs,but will sadly always comes at the animals’ expense.

Over the last 10 years or so Americans have been at odds with themselves and other Americans regarding the treatment of food source animals. The term “factory farm” is being coined for method in which animals are being processed in the food system. I will be discussing what a factory farm is, who or what benefits from them, and finally at what cost? Factory Farms have become an institution in support of the American way life, regardless of what we think; they have advantages and disadvantages.

The demand for meat in America is on the rise while the number of family owned farms is declining. The farming industry has had to change century old practices like free-range grazing to keep up with the mass amounts of meat that Americans and other cultures have become accustomed to. A process known as factory farming is controlling the farming industry worldwide. Factory farming is an unnatural and inhuman way to raise mass amounts of livestock. Unfortunately to keep up with demand, small farmers around the world are struggling to survive and are being pressured to work for large corporations raising animals using theses factory farming strategies rather than the natural alternative. As described by Wenonah

Farmers began to produce large amounts of crops to be sold to Europe in their time of need. In order to do this and keep up with the

Most of the animals under this condition will develop illnesses, abnormalities, go insane, or die before they make it to the slaughterhouse (Alfie, 2010). In the U.S., over 10 billion animals are raised and killed each year for food about 9 billion chickens, 250 million turkeys, 100 million pigs, 35 million cows. The vast majority of these are not raised on small family farms but, rather, in the major agricultural facilities called?factory farms, also known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The idea of factory farming originated in the 1920s with the discovery of vitamins A and D. When mixed with feed; farm animals were capable of growing without sunlight or exercise, which enabled them to be raised more efficiently in barns throughout the year (Fieser, 2015). Factory farming is a form of capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system that is privately controlled by owners for profit and self-interest (Fieser, 2015). Many philosophers have proposed the principle of equal consideration of interests, in some form or other, as a primary moral value; but, we shall see in more element shortly, not many of them have documented that this principle applies to members of other species as well as to our own. (Singer, 1989). In today society the consumer is much more interested in knowing how the chickens are raised, what they?ve been eating

1. Introduction paragraph a. Do your life choices revolve around factory farming for the foods you eat? b. If so the major problem with it is how animals themselves are treated and how the food quality is affected by this. Historically animals themselves are getting bigger and less healthy as we go in the years.

Many people who relied on their farm and on agriculture struggled in the 1980’s. WWII was the fire that lit the Farm Crisis of the 1980’s. WWII brought forth many new advances in all aspects of agriculture. New farm equipment, pesticides, seeds, and fertilizers made it easier for the everyday life of a farmer. Greater efficiency and productivity were the result of the new inventions. In the 1950’s and 1960’s there was a massive

“We take care of animals, and the animals take care of us.” (Rollin 212). The preceding phrase is a policy that American farmers in the old west lived their lives by. Modern farmers live do not live their lives anywhere near to this phrase because they own factory farms, and the whole reason for having a factory farm is to fit as many animals in a small space as possible in order to maximize profit. Factory Farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) first appeared in the 1920s, right after Vitamins A and D, because if animals are given these vitamins in their diets, exercise and sunlight are not necessities for the animals to grow anymore (In Defense of Animals 1). The growing

The movie “Food Inc.” is a documentary created to shed light on the topic of industrialized farming of crops and animals. The video shows many scenes that display the poor methods of industrialized farming as well as the harsh conditions the animals have to endure while they are being farmed. This video however also takes a political standpoint on the topic and expresses many opinions on the matter. The movie is also filled with recent facts and statistics on the industry and compares them to how the food business used to be. “Food Inc.” also provides first-hand accounts of how farmers are affected and the types of techniques that giant corporations are imposing.

Industrial agriculture is currently the predominant food production system in the United States. It is distinguished by large-scale monoculture, abundant use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and meat production in CAFOs. CAFOs are ‘Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations’, otherwise known as factory farms, which aim to cram as many animals in one space to boost efficiency and profit at the expense of animal suffering and environmental hazards.

Animals such as sheep, cattle and pigs supplied more meat to bulk up native diets,

In the U.S., the concept of factory farms primarily involving animals such as pigs, cattle and chicken began in the 1920’s as a way to increase efficiencies by capturing

The turn of the century was perhaps one of the most interesting times in the agricultural scene of America. The turn from the 1800s to the 1900s sparked a technological revolution that extended not just to urban environments, but to rural areas and farmers. Farmers found the majority of this revolution in the 1920s and 1930s, a time when machinery was revitalized in order to make the farming industry easier. Before this time, farmers will still using horses to do their farm work, so the introduction of machines was absolutely life-changing for the farming industry.

Factory farms are defined as operations where there are more than 500 beef cattle feedlots, 500 dairy cows, 1,000 hogs, 100,000 egg-laying chickens and 500,000 boiler chickens (in annual sales) (Factory Farm Nation, 2015 Edition). The Food and Water Watch analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census of Agriculture from 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012, about the growth of animals in factory farms in the past few years. As an indication of the growing numbers, Food and Water Watch reports that livestock rose by 20 percent, that is, from 23.7 million to 28.5 million, between 2002 and 2012. Beef cattle rose by 5 percent during the same period, from 11.6 million to 12.1 million. That is about 157 beef cattle

     Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.