Ideas to reform factory farming? (And responding to a counter-argument?)?!

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First off, "factory farming" is a slang term coined by animal rights activists to exaggerate the conditions of the farms. Sure they may be confined, either in a cage, stall, or barn, but that doesn't mean that the animals are treated cruelly. Look at an animal shelter--those dogs and cats are confined to cages, but that doesn't mean they're cruelly treated.

The type of farm they're referring to is called a Confined Animal Feeding Operation. There are about 67,500 of them in the United States. The legal definition of CAFOs (as made by the EPA) basically states that the animals are confined to an area (there must be a certain number of animals) and they don't find food for themselves, rather, the food is brought to them.

In no way does it state how the animals are supposed to be treated. It is all up to the ethics and morals farm owner/manager. However, the large majority of these farmers do not abuse their animals because production efficiency would go down (which means not as much money for the farmers). And because farmers don't make a lot of money to begin with, the more money they can get from their animals the better.

Any farm--be it a small scale local "family" farm to a corporation-owned (btw, corporations can be owned by families, too) CAFO--can treat their animals as cruel, or as spoiled, as they want.

My personal belief is that anybody who deliberately abuses animals--even if they are livestock--be sent to jail.

And when writing your paper, do not used biased sources, such as PETA, HSUS, COK, MFA, etc. Instead, use government websites (EPA, USDA, FSIS, APHIS, etc) and university/college websites (Purdue, Cornell, etc). Simply go to their Animal Sciences portion of their website and they will have lots of information on livestock, CAFOs, meat production, etc.

Owner of a small CAFO with 150 sheep on a drylot and 75 sows in farrowing crates.
http://www.epa.gov
http://www.livestockeducationsociety.web… <-- My website.

"Factory farms" are a very modern phenomenon. Look at any Amish farm, and even a great many small to mid-sized non-Amish farms, and you will see animals spending most of their day grazing in pastures, and coming into a barn at night. Yes, the animals are there for the benefit of the humans, so they get milked, or their eggs are eaten, or they themselves are eventually slaughtered for food, but it's no worse a life than most wild animals live, and often quite a bit more cushy than the life of many wild animals.

"There's also the counterargument about the economic situation and how we have no choice but to have factory farms."
But we don't need meat, so we don't need factory farms, right?
Or are you talking about not how to produce cheap food, but the jobs it provides?

"Can anyone think of a farm that exists that isn't a factory farm and is more ethical in the way they treat their animals?"
Tons of local farms are humane. My friend lives on a dairy farm, and her family basically treat the cows like pets, and don't even send them to slaughter when their milk production declines.

Hi Dariaia, There are laws in place in the UK to see that what you call factory farms conform to strict regulations on the care and welfare of animals. Some of course follow these better than others. For more info you can check out DEFRA a government website. The most famous of Organic farms is this one -
http://www.duchyofcornwall.org/aroundthe…

It is my personal belief that we really need to have a rethink about what people are calling genetic engineering of crops. many people do not realise that this has been happening for around a thousand years. With the population explosion that continues to plague us we have to consider where and how far we continue to go down this route. Many people do not realise that something they have been eating all their live was genetically modified around 400 years ago. - The humble carrot in fact should not be orange it is purple or off white and was produced in its everyday colour as we know it by the Dutch to honour the house of orange - their royalty. This is something (modifying food ) that the human race will have to come to terms with as the arable land is shrinking by the day while the population continues to rise. Somewhere somehow there has to be rational discussions and remedies for this continuing dilemma.
I hope this helps,all the best. Rab

I am a Chef and have run a community farm.