factory farming

(′fak·trē ′fär·miŋ)

(agriculture) Raising livestock indoors under conditions of extremely restricted mobility.

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(FAK-tuh-ree FAHR-ming)

noun
An industrialized system of producing meat, eggs, and milk in large-scale facilities where the animal is treated as a machine.

Etymology
From the idea of operating a large-scale farm as an efficient factory

Some of the characteristics of a factory farm include intensive crowding of animals, trimming of birds' beaks, cutting pigs' tails, force-feeding of ducks, injecting artificial growth hormones, restricting mobility, etc.

Usage
"'When you look at environmental problems in the U.S.,' says [geophysicist Gidon] Eshel, 'nearly all of them have their source in food production and in particular meat production. And factory farming is 'optimal' only as long as degrading waterways is free." — Mark Bittman; The Meat of the Matter; The Dallas Morning News; Feb 10, 2008.

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For more information on factory farming, visit Britannica.com.

A system of livestock farming in which animals are kept indoors throughout the greater part of their lives in conditions of very restricted mobility. Pigs, laying hens, broiler chickens, and veal calves are the animals most often kept under these conditions. Factory farming leads to a standardized product raised en masse. See agribusiness.