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Issues With Confinement Farming

Confinement farming, also known as factory farming, is a type of farming where a large quantity of livestock are raised in an area as small as possible. The farm essentially works as a factory, where animals are raised and fed to provide as much of a certain product as possible, as fast as possible. Factory farm opponents say confinement farming raises a number of health issues.

  1. Ethics

    • The first primary issue with factory farming is the ethical consideration. Animals are raised in confined spaces, and as such tend to be in a constant amount of pain due to rubbing against their stall and developing sores, standing in their own feces, and garnering disease from dying animals near them.

    Animal and Human Health Impact

    • The second primary issue with factory farming, even greater than ethics, is the health impact. There are worries that factory farming is bad for people, bad for animals and bad for the environment. Due to the same health problems mentioned in the ethics segment, the animals get diseased. This disease spreads into the meat and can cause problems in humans as well. Mad cow disease and MRSA in pigs are good examples of this. In addition, the antibiotics used on the animals en masse may be breeding antibiotic strains of diseases that could not only wipe out large portions of animal populations but spread to humans.

    Environmental Impact

    • There is a discernible impact of factory farming on the environment near factory farms, according to author David Kirby. Many animal wastes are toxic and can poison the environment in concentrated quantities. Industrial farming of pigs and poultry lead to large amounts of greenhouse gases, and spreading the manure later on to keep it from building up can lead to nitrogen poisoning in the land.

    Why Factory Farming Is Used

    • Despite all the downsides, factory farming is prevalent today. There are a number of reasons for this: It makes meat and animal products cheaper to produce, it provides consistency and control over output, and it's highly efficient. In addition, the energy needed to produce a certain amount of food is much higher with free-range farming than with factory farming, which would increase environmental impact from energy factors such as power and water but decrease the toxicity factors.

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