What are the advantages of factory farming?

Question

In particular, farming battery chickens for eggs and meat

Answer 1

Who cares they're just dumb animals

Carve em up i say

Answer 2

did you not watch jamie oliver?

Answer 3

cheaper and more productive ...simple.

Less space needed. Faster growth times (due to artifical daylight, increase daytime hours).

Answer 4

Cheap food.

Answer 5

East to keep and cheap to buy.Eggs are collected

easily and chickens have minimal care.Thousands of hens

can be in the care of one man up to the point of egg collecting thus making battery hens a cheap source of food.

Answer 6

Not many advantages for the chickens

Answer 7

low cost and more profit.

Answer 8

Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density; and also sometimes used more generally to refer to treating farm animals as mere factory parts as is typical in industrial farming.[1][2][3][4][5]

"Fifty years ago in Europe, intensification of animal production was seen as the road to national food security and a better diet. The policy was supported by guaranteed prices, encouraging high inputs [and/or outputs] of feed, fertiliser, pesticides and veterinary medicines. [These] intensive systems - called ‘factory farms’ - were characterised by confinement of the animals at high stocking density, often in barren and unnatural conditions."[6]

Confinement at high stocking density is one part of a systematic effort to produce the highest output at the lowest cost by relying on economies of scale, modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. For example, while not strictly due to confinement or high stocking density, synthetic hormones may be used to speed growth as part of this overall industrial farming approach that treats animals as mere factory parts. Confinement at high stocking density requires antibiotics and pesticides to mitigate the spread of disease exacerbated by these crowded living conditions.[7] There are differences in the way factory farming techniques are practised around the world.

There is a continuing debate over the benefits and risks of factory farming. The issues include the efficiency of food production; animal welfare; whether it is essential to feed the growing global human population; the environmental impact and the health risks. Gerhard Schroeder, then German Chancellor, called for a re-think of factory farming methods in 2000 in response to Europe's BSE crisis (which while not caused by confinement at high stocking density, is caused by unnatural feed supplied to farm animals for the purpose of lower costs),[4][8][9] and the risks to human health continue to be a concern to scientists.[10]

The UN and OIE estimate that in coming decades there will be billions of additional meat consumers in developing countries eating meat that was factory farmed in developing countries but currently only about 40 out of the around 200 countries in the world have the capacity to adequately respond to a health crisis originating from animal disease (such as mad cow, avian flu, West Nile virus, bluetongue and foot and mouth disease). Globalization turns this into an international problem and widespread use of antibiotics increases the chance of a pandemic resistant to known measures. Decreased genetic diversity increases the chance of a food crisis. "The World Bank, the U.N. and the World Organization for Animal Health or OIE are all working together on several levels regarding food safety, veterinarian services, packing and transportation."[11]

Agricultural production across the world doubled four times between 1820 and 1975[25] to feed a global population of one billion human beings in 1800 and 6.5 billion in 2002.[26]

During the same period, the number of people involved in farming dropped as the process became more automated. In the 1930s, 24 percent of the American population worked in agriculture compared to 1.5 percent in 2002; in 1940, each farm worker supplied 11 consumers, whereas in 2002, each worker supplied 90 consumers.[26]

The number of farms has also decreased, and their ownership is more concentrated. In the U.S., four companies produce 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 57 percent of pigs and 50 percent of chickens.[27] In 1967, there were one million pig farms in America; as of 2002, there were 114,000,[28] with 80 million pigs (out of 95 million) killed each year on factory farms as of 2002, according to the U.S. National Pork Producers Council.[26] According to the Worldwatch Institute, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced this way.[18]

Although Europe has become increasingly sceptical of factory farming, after a series of diseases such as BSE (mad cow) and foot and mouth disease affected its agricultural industries, globally there are indications that the industrialized production of farm animals is set to increase. According to Denis Avery of the Hudson Institute, Asia increased its consumption of pork by 18 million tons in the 1990s.[29] As of 1997, the world had a stock of 900 million pigs, which Avery predicts will rise to 2.5 billion pigs by 2050.

--------------------------------------... of factory farming

Low cost — Intensive agriculture tends to produce food that can be sold at lower cost to consumers. This is achieved by reducing land costs and management costs.

Quality — Factory farming methods permit increased standardization and control over product output.

Efficiency — Animals in confinement can be supervised more closely than free-ranging animals, and diseased animals can be treated faster. Further, more efficient production of meat, milk, or eggs results in a need for fewer animals to be raised, thereby limiting the impact of agriculture on the environment.

Economic contribution — The high input costs of agricultural operations result in a large influx and distribution of capital to a rural area from distant buyers rather than simply recirculating existing capital. A single dairy cow contributes over $1300 US to a local rural economy each year, each beef cow over $800, meat turkey $14, and so on. As Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff states, “Research estimates that the annual economic impact per cow is $13,737. In addition, each $1 million increase in PA milk sales creates 23 new jobs. This tells us that dairy farms are good for Pennsylvania's economy.” [55]

Food safety — Reducing number and diversity of agricultural production facilities results in easier management. Smaller facility numbers permit easier government oversight and regulation of food quality. Processing foodstuffs through centralized mediums leads to standardization, which protects general food safety, removing unsafe rogue elements. There is dispute over food safety. It is noted that E. coli grows naturally in most mammals, including humans, and that only a few strains of E. coli are potentially hazardous to humans. They also note that diseases naturally occur among chickens and other animals. Properly cooking food can effectively remove risk factors by killing bacteria.

Animal health — Larger farms have greater resources and abilities to maintain a high level of animal health. Larger farms employ more expert employees who devote all their working hours to farm work, rather than employing underskilled part-time workers as is common on smaller operations. Larger farms are more able to make use of expert veterinarians and the resources of state and federal agricultural extension services. Industrial agriculture generally provides more mechanisms for the use of antibiotics to prevent and treat diseases than non-industrial agriculture.

Diseases The use of intensive farming are thought to make it more likely to evolve harmful diseases. Techniques used in factory farming, such as the need for cheap, artificial foodstuffs have been credited with leading to a higher incidence of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, which in turn is claimed to cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Overpopulation may facilitate the spread of disease. Many communicable diseases spread rapidly under such conditions. Animals raised on antibiotics may develop antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria ("superbugs").[56] Use of animal vaccines can create new viruses that kill people and cause flu pandemic threats. H5N1 is an example of where this might have already occurred.[57][58][59]

Pollution — Large quantities and concentrations of waste are produced.[60] Lakes, rivers, and groundwater are at risk when animal waste is improperly recycled. Pollutant gases are also emitted. Concentrations of animals can produce unacceptable levels of foul smells as opposed to the tolerable odours of the countryside. In less intensive conditions, natural processes can break down potential pollutants. Large farms can maintain and operate sophisticated systems to control waste products. Smaller farms are unable to maintain the same standards of pollution control. By consolidating waste products, farmers can efficiently manage waste.

Ethics — Cruelty to animals: Crowding, drugging, and performing surgery on animals. In some farms, chicks may be debeaked when very young. Confining hens and pigs in barren environments leads to physical problems such as osteoporosis and joint pain, and also boredom and frustration, as shown by repetitive or self-destructive actions known as stereotypes.[61]. Animal treatment is subject to welfare legislation, though there is not consensus on what is acceptable. Some harmful treatments, such as debeaking, are tolerated on the basis that the alternative is greater harm to the animals.

Destruction of biodiversity — A tendency towards using single adapted breeds (a mono-culture) in factory farming, both in arable and animal farming, gives uniform product designed for high yields, at the risk of increased susceptibility to disease. The loss of locally adapted breeds reduces the resilience of the agricultural system. The issue is not limited to factory farming and historically the problem is reflected in the rapid adoption of one or two strains of crops across a wide area as seen in the Irish potato famine of 1854 and the Bengal rice famine in 1942.[62] The loss of the gene pool of domesticated animals limits the ability to adapt to future problems. This issue exists in all types of farming practices.

Answer 9

Cheaper, plentiful food.  

Draw backs??  Less flavor to the product, less nutrition in the product, chemicals in the product like growth hormones and antibiotics, higher possibility of major infection that could kill off a majority of the supply, higher probability of food poisoning from the product due to poor handling or sick animals making it into the food supply.

Answer 10

Cheap and plentiful food that tastes the same as the 'free range' type.