Factory farming is a term used to describe the process of raising livestock in high densities over a short amount of time. Farms act as factories, whose goals are to raise the most amount of animals possible in the shortest amount of time for the least amount of money. It is a cost-effective way of producing large amounts of meat.The downside of factory farming is the conditions it creates for the animals to live in. They are kept in crowded, confined areas often times without enough space to walk or even lay down. The climate in the buildings that house the animals is often controlled specifically to induce fast growth. Cattle are the only animals usually kept in outdoor lots, and the conditions in these lots are still abysmal.
There is usually very limited media coverage of conditions in feedlots, because access to them is extremely limited and farmers aren’t required to divulge much information about what goes on on their feedlots. The severe heat waves in the Midwest this summer, however, seriously impacted feedlot animals and garnered some media attention.
On September 25 the Kansas City Star published a story titled “Experts Split whether factory farming led to livestock heat deaths”. The author, Karen Dillon, describes how an extreme heat wave caused the power to go out at a hog farm near Kirksville, Mo. this summer. The power outage caused the fans circulating air in barn holding around 5,000 hogs to stop. Half of the hogs died as a result. It also discusses how 4,000 turkeys died on another Kansas farm during another heat wave, and thousands of cattle in crowded outdoor pens died in several states.
Dillon also interviews John Anderson of the American Farm Bureau. He doesn’t feel that mass feedlot deaths are out of the ordinary. He explains that the actual percentage of animals that died compared to how many were being raised is fairly low, and that incidences like these tend to be isolated. Dillon notes that it’s difficult to discern how common mass livestock deaths are, because farmers aren’t required to report livestock deaths and the statistics that do exist are not available to the public.
The article goes on to quote farmers who were clearly upset about this summer’s mass deaths. They describe the measures that some farmers went to to try to save the animals, like calling in firetrucks to hose down cattle. These accounts help portray farmers as more than just heartless businessmen, and prove that this is not a black and white issue. These farmers don’t necessarily have a choice in how they raise their livestock. In order to stay in business they must operate in the most economically efficient way possible, and that usually results in factory farm conditions.
Towards the end of the article Dillon interviews two traditional farmers, Tim Gibbons and Kevin Fulton. They argue that factory farming has always led to mass deaths, they just haven’t been reported until recently. Fulton explains that animals are meant to experience natural conditions, as opposed to the temperature-controlled environments found in feedlots. These conditions make the animals extremely sensitive to any accidental changes that might occur. Mass deaths don’t occur on traditional farms because the animals have been raised to withstand fluctuations in temperature and climate.
Dillon’s article does a good job of remaining unbiased and reporting the story as accurately as possible. Factory farming is a difficult issue to report on because there is such limited information available. Farmers aren’t very willing to disclose information about their farms. It’s also difficult to remain unbiased when discussing the deaths of thousands of animals.
The conditions on feedlots are horrific and animal suffering is inevitable. It is clearly not the most humane way of raising livestock. It’s also important to keep in mind, however, that it’s often the only way for farmers to stay in business. Until it becomes economically viable to raise animals in a more natural way, factory farming and it's negative consequences may be unavoidable.
image credits:
http://livestockandenvironment.org
http://www.veganoutreach.org
