Factory Farming

Factory Farming: Animal Cruelty

Zachary Bacon

Informal Logic

1/30/12

“Factory farming is the process of raising livestock in confinement at a high stocking density” (Wiki). In our society, we call for a high demand of milk, meat, and eggs. The way that these necessities are retrieved from factory farms raises a highly ethical question. Of these questions we have to look at, animal welfare, health risks, benefits and risks, environmental impacts, and the morality of it all. It is important to look at if it is essential for feeding the population or if in fact the cruelty of it hurts us more. Animals also have rights and so mass production and breeding of these animals is one of the cruelest parts of our modern society.

First, it is important to understand why factory farming exists. Just about the only benefit of factory farming is that it produces a large amount of food at a lower cost, compared to small farms or other techniques. It is put in place to meet America’s need for meat. They exist because small farms can simply not compete with these more “efficient” methods of factory farming. The question at hand should be; are these few benefits of factory farming, worth the overbearing amount of negatives?

We have to look at the obvious problem of the excessive size and the ability to care for a whole factory worth of animals safely. : “Metal buildings confine animals indoors, with minimal room for normal behaviors and little or no access to sunlight and fresh air” (Sustainable). Animals are meant to roam naturally and graze fields to be able to stretch and maintain a healthy life. By limiting the fresh air and sunlight in a horribly crowded room, they are placed in an unnatural and unsanitary environment not fit for animal living.

“Metal buildings confine animals indoors, with minimal room for normal behaviors and little or no access to sunlight and fresh air” (Sustainable). This evidence speaks for itself. These animals are given such unnatural...