In India, factory farming has become the predominant method for producing widely consumed animal products like milk, paneer, eggs, chicken, fish, mutton, and other meat and dairy products. However, the technique is far from perfect. Factory farming causes major harm to rural communities, the environment, and the farmed animals.
In an effort to establish a more equitable and fair food system, activists from a variety of backgrounds are pressing for a move away from intensive industrial farming methods. They support sustainable, compassionate methods that put the welfare of animals, the health of the environment, and the welfare of rural communities first. You will learn more about the brutal realities of factory farming and its wide-ranging effects on India’s ecosystem, as well as the animals raised there as you continue to read.
What is factory farming?
Animals raised for food purposes in modern industrial settings are referred to as livestock collectively and are raised in factory farms. They are also recognized as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). In order to ensure high productivity, a huge number of animals, including fish, pigs, chickens, and cows, are kept in regulated conditions and subject to careful supervision. Using the fewest resources and maximising production, factory farming aims to produce vast quantities of meat, dairy, and eggs at the lowest feasible cost.
Basically, factory farming is an intense agricultural practice that aims to maximize profits while utilizing the least amount of resources. Raising animals for food through a farming factory, which primarily focuses on species like fish, pigs, chickens, buffaloes and cows, is becoming more and more popular. Additionally, non-food animals can be raised in CAFOs, such as minks that are raised intensively for their fur.
What happens at a factory farm?
Animals kept in factory farms are not allowed to make decisions about their own lives. They are cultivated for rapid growth, growing to be as big as possible as soon as feasible so that they can be made into products. Animals raised in factories often endure severe physical abuse, cramped, stifling conditions, and a life spent inside.
Here is the Inhuman reality of factory farm cruelty:
- Inhumane Handling
Wherever animal abuse is ignored, inhumane treatment takes place on industrial farms, even if different stakeholders have very different ideas about what constitutes cruelty. The CEOs of large meat corporations, for instance, will define animal cruelty very differently from grassroots animal advocates. A lot of people think that factory farms are cruel towards animals, even though producers keep saying they’re trying to treat farmed animals better.
- Physical Modifications and Mutilations
Factory farms frequently resort to painful mutilations as a means of preventing aggressive tendencies that result from cramped surroundings. For instance, piglets have their tails clipped to prevent tail biting, cows may have their horns removed, and poultry may have their beaks trimmed to minimize pecking damage. The animals undergo severe pain and discomfort during these surgeries, which are typically carried out without anaesthetic.
- Painful separation
There is little about the experience of factory farm cruelty to farm animals that do not seem humane when routine practices like separating mother cows and buffaloes from infants, which frequently results in mothers crying for days, castrating male animals without the use of anaesthetics, or never once allowing animals to experience the outdoors—save for a terrifying journey in the back of a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse—are taken into consideration.
- Overcrowding and Confinement
One of the most serious problems with industrial farming is the excessive confinement and overpopulation of animals. Livestock such as cows, pigs, chickens, and others are housed in confined pens or cages with little to no room for movement. For example, hens kept in battery cages are unable to even stretch their wings due to the small size of their cages. Pigs are also frequently housed in cramped gestation crates that barely allow them to turn around. The animals experience extreme physical and mental stress as a result of their cramped living quarters.
- Ignore Veterinary Care
In factory farming, individual animal health is often disregarded to maintain overall productivity. Illnesses and injuries are common due to unhygienic and stressful conditions, but veterinary treatment is rare. Sick or injured animals are sometimes abandoned or euthanized if they are seen as unproductive.
- Ignorance of Natural Behaviours
Animals raised in factories are deprived of their natural freedom to behave. For example, pigs cannot root or build a nest, while hens cannot perch, dust-bathe, or forage. In dairy farms, cows are split up from their calves soon after delivery, which inhibits the natural nursing and bonding process. Severe psychological stress and deviant behaviours, like self-mutilation and repetitive movements, are the results of this deprivation.
Influences on the Environment and Health
- Ecological Degradation
Animal agriculture is one of the leading contributors to climate change. When we talk about emissions, we usually think of carbon dioxide (CO2). But emissions from animal agriculture also include methane, which has a global warming potential up to 34 times greater than that of CO2, according to the UN. Factory farms generate large volumes of waste, which contaminates the air, water, and land. Runoffs from factory farms may pollute water, disrupt aquatic ecosystems, and cause dead zones in bodies of water. The cultivation of feed crops through the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers exacerbates the harm to the environment.
Each year, the global fishing industry takes over a trillion fish from the wild, while countless other animals, such as dolphins, sea turtles, and seabirds, are killed as nontargeted “bycatch” in the industry’s deadly nets. According to a recent study, lost or discarded fishing gear accounts for over 45 million kilograms of plastic pollution entering our oceans each year. Farm animal cruelty is a crucial issue in the fight against global warming because of these emissions, which contribute to climate change.
- Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotics are extensively used on factory farms to maintain the health of animals kept in cramped, unhygienic circumstances. These medications are frequently regularly given to whole flocks or herds, not just to cure sickness but also to encourage growth. The excessive use of antibiotics leads to the emergence of germs that are resistant to them, which is extremely dangerous for both human and animal health. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria infections can result in higher death rates and are more challenging to cure.
- Concerns about Public Health
Public health can be seriously threatened by farm animal cruelty techniques. Diseases can spread quickly in an environment where animals are kept in close quarters, and medications are used. Intense agricultural methods have been connected to zoonotic disease outbreaks, including swine flu and avian influenza. These illnesses can spread from people to animals, possibly causing pandemics.
Implications for Ethics and Society
- Concern for Animal Welfare
The treatment of animals in factory farming raises significant ethical concerns. The harsh and brutal conditions in which they are kept lead to extreme suffering, prompting serious moral questions about our treatment of these sentient beings. Despite the evident distress experienced by animals in factory farms, their welfare is frequently disregarded in pursuit of financial gain. This issue highlights the need for greater consideration of animal welfare within the context of industrial farming practices.
- Justice in Society
Factory farming has a significant impact on social justice. Many farmworkers face poor working conditions and insufficient wages, encountering dangerous situations involving animal waste, hazardous chemicals, and zoonotic diseases. In addition, pollution and environmental degradation from industrial farms often lower the standard of living and impact the health of nearby communities.
Final Remark
A negative aspect of contemporary agriculture is factory farming, which poses serious threats to public health, the environment, and animals. We may work toward a more moral and ecological food system by realizing the scope of these problems and investigating viable alternatives. Changing policies, promoting plant-based diets, embracing humane agricultural methods, and increasing consumer knowledge are all essential measures in tackling the problems caused by industrial farming. By working together, we can build a future in which public health is given priority, the environment is preserved, and animals are treated with respect.
