Reference to "Factory Farms"?!
Answers: I have spent my life on the farm and read many comments by individuals that reference farms as "factory farms". I am interested in hearing from individuals as to what determines this title.
I've never lived on a farm, but my grandparents raised hogs and soy until I was half-grown. I have very positive images of farms, and still love fresh eggs when I can get them.
When I think of "factory farm" I can picture this one particular facility near my in-laws, in the MidSouth US. It was a chicken farm? - I really don't know the proper word, but they raised chickens as subcontractors for a name-brand chicken company, sent them elsewhere for slaughter - with cages so small that I couldn't believe a bird could live in them. There was a very bad odor that could be smelled halfway across town on the right days. They were raided at least twice by Immigration. They were shut down, or chose to close, after an overnight fire killed 2 employees. Seems they had been locked into their dormitory, and the papers said the 2 fatalities were also undocumented workers.
Anyway, that's my image for a factory farm. Unhealthy for animals and employees, the word despair comes to mind. Completely different from my idea of "farm," whether for crops or livestock.
I don't think ALL farms are 'factory farms' but I think that they call the cruel farms 'factory' farms.
Like, when the female chickens are smashed into small cages for eggs, and the males are killed because they are 'useless' since they don't lay eggs.
When the baby cows are immediately taken when they are born to be made into veal, and the dairy cows are alive just for their milk, even though the milk is SUPPOSED to be for the babies.
Oh, just look up factory farms on google. The horror.
More:
Factory farming is bad for us, too. And it's not the animals fault at all.
Just the factory farms.
"Mad Cow Disease" started when, in Britain, dead cows were fed to living cows in factory farms. YUCK! Can you believe that?
People who ate these infected cows got "Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease"
Not the animals fault.
Over one million chickens got destroyed from this so called "Bird-flu" that large amounts of people in Hong Kong died of.
"Millions of Americans are infected, and thousands die every year from contaminated animal ‘food’ products. Despite repeated warnings from consumer advocates, the USDA's meat inspection system remains grossly inadequate, and consumers are now being told to "expect" animal products to be tainted."
Factory farming refers to the ways in which the vast majority of animals are currently raised for food in modern animal agriculture. Animals are treated as commodities (and not living beings) and are subjected to an array of cruel farming practices. They are packed in warehouses, often do not have enough space to turn around, and experience practices such as debeaking and castration without anesthetic. I could go on and on about further daily practices in factory farms, but here are a few websites if you want more details:
http://www.factoryfarming.com/
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/an...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_far...
If you buy meat, dairy, or eggs from virtually any supermarket or restaurant in the United States, you can be fairly certain that this is where your food is coming from. Hope this helps.
Factory farm is a term peta made up to make livestock farming look cruel. If they would have used the title, Happy, lucky, joy full farm, it wouldn't have the same effect.
I think of factory farms as being the huge agri-business like Perdue, Con-Agra, etc.
A factory farm to me is anywhere where the animal doesn't get to go about their normal daily activities. Cows aren't pasture raised, fed appropriately, and allowed to graze. Chickens are in cages instead of outside and able to peck the ground and come in when they want. They are given medications to increase production, or forced into molting with artificial light/darkness, starvation, etc.