Who invented the factory farm and how did it go from nice small farms to huge cruel farms?

Answer 1

"Factory farms" were not invented, they were merely created out of necessity to meet the growing demands of a growing population. Family farms often cannot stay in the business if the kids are not interested in keeping ties to the farm anymore, nor can they stay if costs are too high and profits too low to keep going. With cities expanding, better and easier jobs being offered in the cities and towns, and the interest in keeping the farm on the decline, more and more family farms were sold and given up, larger and more commercial farms needed to be created and took over these small farms to create more land and capital to grow on.

Confined Animal Feeding Operations became on the rise because of their higher efficiency and ability to turn out more products in a certain time period than a family farm was (and is) able to do. More eggs, more pork, chicken and beef could be sold in a shorter amount of time and on a grander scale than what several small family farms were able to do.

The consumer was also the driving force for such operations, since they were the ones responsible for wanting a certain product on the shelf, or more of that product on the shelf all the time. Family farms were so varied in the kind of pork, chicken, milk, eggs and beef produced that consumers had a hard time knowing what to pick or even where to go to find such products. CAFOs were the key to making such products more consistent and available in greater quantities all year round.

Now the terms "nice small farms" and "huge cruel farms" are, undoubtedly, argumentative. Not all small farms are nice. There are a lot of animal cruelty cases from small "nice" farms that the HSUS and the SPCA get about certain livestock that are treated cruelly or appear neglected. And these so-called "factory farms" are not all cruel either: there are a large number of farms that take as good care of their livestock as they can while at the same time meeting the production demands for selling a product. Undoubtedly this is a double-edged sword, but with careful management it all works out. The term "cruel" is really overgeneralizing things, since it assumes that, from only a few reports, all of these "factory farms" are cruel and inhumane. While this is partly true, it doesn't show what all farms do to care for their livestock.

Answer 2

Factory farming started with chickens and first appeared in 1926. It became a way to farm on a much higher level, other than farming from your own house.Ê

Answer 3

British writer Ruth Harrison first used the term in 1964 in her book Animal Machines to describe her perceptions of modern farming practices in Great Britain.

Answer 4

The term seems to first appear in literature from the 1940's. "Factory farming" is just a phrase coined by animal rights activists to refer to large-scale animal agriculture.

Answer 5

British writer Ruth Harrison first used the term in 1964 in her book Animal Machines to describe her perceptions of modern farming practices in Great Britain.

Answer 6

British writer Ruth Harrison first used the term in 1964 in her book Animal Machines to describe her perceptions of modern farming practices in Great Britain.

Answer 7

British writer Ruth Harrison first used the term in 1964 in her book Animal Machines to describe her perceptions of modern farming practices in Great Britain.