How can factory farming remain legal?

Question

These places are as bad as, or worse than any puppy mill, yet more of them are springing up all the time. I have nothing against eating meat (I have lived on a small farm my whole life), but why are food animals allowed to be raised in such inhumane conditions, and why are these places allowed to continue polluting our environment?

Answer 1

Because no one has made it illegal.

Who are you to say the conditions are inhumane? If you believe they are inhumane, put them before the people and try to get the law changed.

But, remember, by changing the law, you will increase the price of food, which will increase hunger and starvation.

Answer 2

They are legal because it is not polluting our environment and we can have something to eat and not starve. How are all the farms in the United States going to feed everybody including theirselves? They can't. So we have factory farms to keep everybody happy :)

Answer 3

It's not so much that it needs to be made illegal, there need to be some regulations in place which need to be enforced.  Anyone who thinks that factory farms don't pollute is living in a fantasy world.  The reason the laws don't get stricter is simple.  Agriculture is what makes money for agricultural states.  Factory farmers have a lot of pull in their states' because they have a lot of money.

Answer 4

I don't think we need to make factory farms illegal, we just need to stop buying factory farmed food, and buy locally grown food.  And for those of you who think local farms can't support the population, I think you are wrong. It is the law of supply and demand.  If more and more people would buy locally grown food, there will be more people that will grow it.  And this also would help lower the cost as shipping our foods cross country and internationally and advertising foods and the other costs of distribution add a lot to the cost. Another reason healthy food expensive is the factory farms.  Partly because a lot of the big-ag farms are subsidized by the government, and the smaller local farms have to face heavy and unreasonable regulations that make farming unprofitable. Also, If we took the government out of the equation, buy locally grown food we would be a lot healthier and need doctors and medications less, and would have a lot less obesity. Factory farmed food is very deficient in the vitamins and minerals we need, and also contains hormones, antibiotics and other unnatural substances and causes a lot of disease.  And the more demand for healthy food that there is, the more local farms will grow.  

So instead of outlawing the horrible feedlots, lets not buy the food that comes from them, and they will eventually go away, that's what being a consumer is about....and lets leave the government out!

Answer 5

Money

"Factory farms" are the most efficient way of raising agricultural products.  It is the same as any other industry.  The larger that the facility is, the more efficiently (cheaper) that the product can be produced.  By consolidating resources the facilities can produce more product with less expenses keeping the end price lower.

These farms are not free to willingly pollute as much as they want.  The runoff, emissions, and chemicals used are regulated like any other industry.  What's more is that these facilities by their nature, are more concerned with the effects of pollution.  They are growing crops and raising animals on the land.  If they pollute the land, it will not be as productive and the profit will decrease.

Some environmental good is coming from these types of farms.  There are several facilities opening up that produce electricity from the combustion of methane.  They take the manure from the animals, let it ferment and create methane, burn the methane fro electricity, and return the solids to the farms for use as fertilizer.  The methane combustion is extremely low in emissions and the farmer can still use the fertilizing effects of the manure.

Answer 6

Well...

Farmers could feed chicken with caviar, make them sleep on king size beds and wash them in a jacuzzi, but then you'd have to pay 5$ per egg.

What do you prefer?

Answer 7

I'm sorry to say, but current consumption rates simply cannot be managed by small farms.  Supply and demand.  And if factory farms were illegal, the cost of food would go up.  Factory farms are able to produce more for less.. and as such will always undercut the small farm.

So, until people are willing to pay the higher prices which would be necessary to provide small farm food, factory farms will remain legal.

Answer 8

Take a drive across the countryside one day.  How many pigs do you see in the fields?  None.  Just over 15 years ago, half of our tillable acres were for hogs.  I grew up on a 1000 head hog operation.  Factory farms were unheard of those days.  Sows generally were kept in farrowing barns until spring came and they were put into the fields.  Some of the last pigs we sold when the market crashed were valued at less than $ .12/lb.  Factory farms began to spring up soon afterward.  I've been in quite a few of these "factory farms" and conditions for the livestock is actually very good.  The animals are automatically fed and watered by an automated system.  Conditions during the hot summer and cold winter are regulated by a climate control systems.  The manure is systematically flushed out of the barn into a holding tank.  In the spring and fall they use the manure for nitrogen fertilizer.  Very efficient I must say compared to the way we raised hogs.  So to call the conditions inhumane would be just wrong.  Americans want a cheap, quality product.  Factory farms is what we got.  Whats the alternative?  You couldn't talk me into raising field hogs.  The land is too valueable for other purposes today.  This questions should have been asked in 1992, when the last hogs we produced left the farm...and went to the factory.

Answer 9

HSUS is NOT a credible source of information - they're an animal rights group that wants to force everyone to be vegetarian.

However, when hog farmers were trying to get people to LISTEN 10-15 years ago - when hog prices dropped to 9 cents a pound and an entire pig was $18 - half the cost of the ham on the shelves - the majority never listened. They never intervened to help those smaller farmers - so those farmers are no longer there. In their place are the farms you're talking about. The reason they continue is public demand. There ARE alternatives - but when a few places control the food supply, and dictate what we will pay and what we will eat - there won't be for long. Now many small farmers are trying to get consumer attention again to help defeat NAIS - and consumers yawn and don't care. This will (like has been done before) eliminate competition that CAN be done with smaller farmers.

In more balanced farms there's more labor involved, there is a chance to get quality food but people don't care - cheaper is better. And the kickback to that - is prices go up because alternatives are eliminated. And it's NOT JUST LIVESTOCK! There are places with grains, vegetables and livestock with slogans like supermarket to the world - and are exempt from many regulations and will be exempt from NAIS - but the smaller farm competitors won't.

In short they continue because the consumer doesn't DEMAND alternatives and being able to buy food where they want.