Factory farming is a term that people often apply to highly mechanized systems for raising large numbers of livestock, usually many thousands. Livestock producers raise the animals in confinement so that they can more easily manage the large numbers of animals. It is especially common for livestock producers to raise hogs and poultry in a building and to keep them from roaming outside. The building’s ventilation, heating, cooling, feeding, and watering systems are mechanically controlled. Each animal is referred to by an individual identification number rather than by name. Operators of small farms have difficulty competing in the livestock market with factory farms. Factory farming is also called corporate farming.
Some people claim that factory farming results in indifference and even brutality toward livestock. They believe that animals in factory farms are abused and diseased. But other people believe that factory farms provide healthful conditions. They point out that poor conditions produce unhealthy animals that are stunted or unable to reproduce, resulting in no profit for the farm operators. Many people are concerned that animal wastes from large operations are polluting the land and water. Most states that have large factory farms have laws or are enacting laws dealing with the environmental aspects of these operations.
See also Livestock ; Singer, Peter .
