Using Factory Farming for Raising and Managing huge livestock numbers

Introduction
The term, factory farming, is one which is used to represent intensively mechanized systems specifically aimed at raising and managing huge livestock numbers which are commonly in their several thousands. The system managers commonly breed these livestock in confinement in order to manage and care for them more easily. It is very common for them to breed poultry and castrated male pigs (hogs) in the same building and to prevent them from going out. The cooling, heating, watering, feeding and ventilation systems of the building are controlled automatically. Every animal is identified via a special identification number instead of a name. Those farmers who operate small farms often find it difficult to compete with the factory farms in the market. Another name for factory farming is corporate farming (Factory farming, 2016 p.1). 
A number of people have stated that factory farming causes coldness and cruelty towards livestock. They are of the opinion that the animals living within factory farms are diseased and roughly treated. However, some others believe that the factory farms are very healthy. They argue that unhealthy and substandard living conditions would generate unhealthy animals which are underdeveloped or infertile and this would lead to zero returns for the factory farm owners. Several people are worried about the animal wastes from these large farms which they believe are polluting their water and land. Several states which house huge factory farms have passed or are passing laws which would tackle the environmental effects of these farms (Factory farming, 2016 p.1). 
Thesis
Through this thesis, i will make a case for a better and more objective treatment and protection of non-human animals as well as an expansion of our moral compass to accommodate them. Presently, debates on the subject which has been christened “the animal liberation movement” are focused on the way the human treats the animal, however, the character possessed by this person is not evaluated or probed. This misplaced concentration is the major reason why this movement and of course, the animals themselves, suffer. The rifts left by deontology and utilitarianism are filled by classical virtue ethics and this is achieved by diverting attention to the origin rather than the results. Basically, for favorable changes to take place in the views, protection and treatment of livestock much more quickly and comprehensively, we need to start laying emphasis on treating the disease rather than just the symptoms. I will create a different approach for the movement by integrating virtue ethics and after that; I’ll start researching the people who are getting their basic traits from laws and role models. When improved focus and more attention on being a virtuous person to animals is fostered, a general change will be gradually realized which will cause a higher level of concern for animals within the parenting and legislative world and also the socially accepted actions and opinions. Within these systems lie the largest possible support for animals and an improved treatment by humans.
Moral Issues
It is becoming generally accepted that livestock factory farming which is also called CAFOs, which means; concentrated animal feeding operations, is ethically wrong. This is an opinion backed by the American animal rights movement, which, initially laid greater emphasis on animal use for research purposes but has now realized that factory farming is an even bigger abuse of the animals. The statistics backing this claim up are quite clear. Within the U.S., around 20 – 40 million mammals and birds are slaughtered for research purposes each year. This might feel like a huge number and it is much more than the amount of animals slaughtered because of their fur, not to mention the insignificant number of animals in circuses. However, this seemingly huge number is less than that seen in the country’s slaughterhouses, where around 10 billion animals are slaughtered annually (Singer, 2006 para 1).
A huge percentage of these unfortunate animals never stepped outside the confines of their sheds for once all through their lives. They literally do not just suffer for a handful of days or hours but instead for their entire lives. The veal calves and the sows are commonly bred in crates which are so narrow that they can’t turn or move, even slightly. The hens which supply eggs are not able to open their wings as the cages where they are kept are often overcrowded and small. Due to this boredom and inactivity, they start to attack one another due to frustration. In order to prevent any losses, the farm managers commonly remove their beaks using a hot knife and in the process, they cut some of the birds’ sensitive nerves. Chickens that are bred in sheds which contain about 20,000 birds are currently raised to grow at such speed that a large number of them end up with leg problems as their underdeveloped bones are not able to carry their weight. Professor John Webster who teaches at the University of Bristol’s School of Veterinary Science stated that: “Broilers are the only livestock that are in chronic pain for the last 20 percent of their lives. They don’t move around, not because they are overstocked, but because it hurts their joints so much” (Singer, 2006 para 2).
In some cases, their legs give way under their weight and they starve to death simply because they are unable to reach their food. Due to this, the operators make no profit from them, but generally, they still make huge profits from the superbly quick-growing breeds they manage. An article published in an industry journal summarized this by stating that “simple calculations” show that it is often “better to get the weight and ignore the mortality.” Another adverse effect the breed of these birds has is that their parents who produce the chicks that end up in the supermarkets are constantly hungry. This is because, unlike their chicks which are killed after 45 days, the parents need to reach sexual maturity hence they have to live longer. If they are fed the same way as their offspring, they would become excessively obese which would kill them or make them infertile. Due to this, their food is strictly rationed and thus they are always hungry and vainly searching for food (Singer, 2006 para 4).
The general disapproval of factory farming, which was previously believed to be mostly associated with animal rights activists, is now a stance held by several conservatives such as Matthew Scully, the author of “Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy” and a previous speech writer in President George W. Bush’s White House. According to Scully, despite the fact that we have been allowed “dominion” over all animals by God, this dominion should be administered mercifully and this is not the path followed by factory farming. A lot of conservatives have supported Scully’s publications. One of them is Pat Buchanan, The American Conservative’s editor, which gave cover-story prominence to Scully’s essay “Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism for Animals,” and George F. Will, who recommended Scully’s book via his column in the Newsweek publication (Singer, 2006 para 5).
Even Pope Benedict XVI made his opinion public by stating that the “dominion” of humans over animals is not a justification for factory farming. When Pope Benedict was the head of the Roman Catholic Church’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he spoke against the “industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds.” To him, this “degrading of living creatures to a commodity” seemed “to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.” A number of people believe factory farming is important if we are to feed the increasing global population. However, the reality is on the contrary. Irrespective of how efficient beef, egg, pork, chicken and egg production gets and due to our narrow motive of generating more eggs, milk or meat, we still waste a large amount of grains on feeding the animals. Thus, instead of increasing the overall food amount available to humans, it actually reduces it (Singer, 2006 para 6).
CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) is, from the name, a system where animals and concentrated and fed. Unlike what we see among sheep or cattle led out to pasture, these animals do not provide for themselves and that is the basic environmental flaw. All CAFOs depend on cropland where the food that is given to the animals is grown. As the animals, even while in confinement, apply a large quantity of this food for mobility, warmth, growth of bones as well as the other inedible body parts, this operation generally is a completely wasteful way of feeding people. It requires much more energy, water and land from the environment when compared with the other farming forms. It is much more beneficial to instead use these croplands to cultivate food for human consumption. Factory farming, which is majorly dominated by large firms like ConAgra, Tyson, Seaboard and Smithfield has significantly brought about rural depopulation as well as the reduction in the number of family barns. The only good point of factory farming is that it provides food which has a low selling price; however, to sustain this low price, the environment, rural settlements and the animals themselves need to pay dearly (Singer, 2006 para 8&9).
Thankfully, there are several alternatives such as becoming a vegan or purchasing animal products from only those operators whose animals are allowed to roam outside and to live normally. The time is ripe for a redefinition of our values. The current society is more focused on matters such as gay marriages and embryo use in research while a similarly huge moral issue is overlooked. We need to see the patronization and also the consumption of products from factory farms, irrespective of whether it is run by a person or an institution such as a university, as an infringement on the most essential ethical values regarding how we treat animals as well as the environment at large (Singer, 2006 para 10).
Objection and Response
Giving pigs, chickens and cows the freedom to roam means water, labor, land, food and several others are needed in higher quantities than that needed for factory farming. Animals allowed to roam eat more food and drink more water because they exercise their muscles and thus, when meat for human consumption is to be produced, they must be properly nourished so as to avoid excess fat or toughness. In the same vein, gathering and moving roaming animals needs fuel and manpower. Grass-fed livestock equally need higher quantities of food as they gain weight from their grass diet at a lower rate when compared to concentrated, manufactured feed. The globe currently has over seven billion people with a large percentage of these eating animal products manufactured from factory farms. Also, despite the fact that every form of animal breeding is inefficient as crops are provided to animals rather than directly to people, the greater inefficiency of giving animals freedom to roam is another reason why factory farms were created and popularized (Lin, 2017 para 6).
Taking a more negative view, factory farms exist simply because no one in agribusiness is concerned about the welfare and rights of the animals and they stiffly campaign against all attempts to improve the condition of the animals. Nevertheless, providing the animals with more space is not really a good solution as we are currently degrading the environment already with animal farming. The answer is not making animal farming less efficient, it is to end the culture of animal dependency all together. Environment-wise and from the perspective of animal rights, the sole solution to factory farming is veganism. A number of scientists have forecasted that with the current consumption manner of beef alone, worldwide demand will soon exceed supply, leading to shortages and possibly, the end of this animal protein source (Lin, 2017 para 8).
Furthermore, environment experts debate that factory farms, most especially those focused on cattle, generate alarming methane concentrations which is discharged into the air and results into global warming. Transporting and processing the meat equally causes environmental pollution as both activities generate harmful byproducts. Whatever perspective you take when analyzing factory farming, it is clear that it is necessary for a continued supply of animal products and meat but is it really the ethical method to follow to progress as a planet and also, is it sustainable? Scientific research says no, however, the current U.S. laws are not in line with this. Maybe it is finally time that the U.S. departs from commercial agriculture altogether as a country (Lin, 2017 para 9&10).
Conclusion
In order to reduce the economic effect of large farms and give smaller producers more market share, nine states currently have a ban or restriction in place against corporate owned farms. Nebraska and South Dakota even included these bans in their constitutions. Several of these laws do not affect existing farms. They also exempt family-owned cooperatives, nonprofit firms and corporations. In many states like Michigan, Iowa, Ohio and Indiana, CAFOs face increasing pressure as criticism from their neighbors have started to draw adverse press attentions and is also causing the state’s officials to mull over stricter limits for huge farms. In September, $4.5 million was awarded for damages to three families by a Jackson County, Mo., jury. These families had dragged PSF (Premium Standard Farms) to court over unfavorable smells from a CAFO housing 350,000 hogs belonging to them. Several other similar lawsuits are still ongoing against about 20 similar PSF hog farms located in Missouri (CQ Researcher, 2007 p.42). 


References
CQ Researcher (2007). Factory Farms: Are they the best way to feed the nation? Vol. 17(2), p. 25-48
Factory farming. (2016). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1p. 1.
Lin, D. (2017, July 16). Factory Farming: Why It Is Exists and How To End It. Retrieved September 04, 2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/why-do-we-have-factory-farming-127703
Singer, P. (2006). Factory farming: A moral issue. The Minnesota Daily. Retrieved September 04, 2017, from https://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/20060322.htm