Factory Farming

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Recommended: Essay about the ethics of factory farming

Poultry is by far the number one meat consumed in America; it is versatile, relatively inexpensive compared to other meats, and most importantly it can be found in every grocery store through out the United States. All of those factors are made possible because of factory farming. Factory farming is the reason why consumers are able to purchase low-priced poultry in their local supermarket and also the reason why chickens and other animals are being seen as profit rather than living, breathing beings. So what is exactly is factory farming? According to Ben Macintyre, a writer and columnist of The Times, a British newspaper and a former chicken farm worker, he summed up the goal of any factory farm “... to produce the maximum quantity of edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene” ( Macintyre, 2009). Factory farmers do not care about the safety of the consumers nor the safety of the chicken, all the industrial farmers have in mind are how fast they can turn a baby chick into a slaughter size chicken and how to make their chicken big and plumped. Factory farming is not only a health hazard to the well-being of the animals, but the environment, and human beings ;thus free range and sustainable farming need to be put into practice.

Industrial farmers see chicken and other animals such as: cow, pigs, and goat as egg and dairy production and not as an intellectual individuals. From the birth of a baby chick to their death on the production line, chicken endure pain and suffer through out their entire short lives. Baby chicks are de-beak then they are move to battery cages that are wired up high in warehouses that are filled with artificial lighten. The cages are so confined that the ...

... middle of paper ...

...Industrial Farming Is Harming Farmers, the Environment, and Public

Health." Is Factory Farming Harming America? Ed. Stuart A. Kallen. Detroit:

Greenhaven Press, 2006. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 30 Mar.

2011.

"Environment." Sustainabletable. Nonprofit Organization GRACE, 2003. Web. 07 Apr. 2011.

the Humane Society of the United States. The Dirty Six. Rep. no. GALE|EJ3010701216. HSUS,

2009. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.

Macintyre, Ben. Factory Farming Is Unleashing New Diseases Like Swine Flu. Rep. Times,

2009. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.

"Preface to 'Is Factory Farming an Ethical Way to Treat Animals?'." Factory Farming. Debra A.

Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Current Controversies. Gale Opposing

Viewpoints In Context. Web. 30 Mar. 2011.

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