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Factory farming - essential to feed the world

By David Leyonhjelm - posted Wednesday, 11 January 2012


They claim chickens are unbearably crammed together in a soup of ammonia and faeces, unable to engage in natural behaviours, forced to grow at unnatural rates, crammed with antibiotics and slaughtered under inhumane conditions. Turkeys are said to endure painful beak trimming, overcrowding and the effects of excessive growth rates. Egg laying chickens are said to suffer unspeakably in cages.

On pig production they claim sows reproduce in inhumane conditions and, along with their piglets, are forced to live on concrete and suffer painful procedures.

By implication it is assumed that chickens, turkeys and pigs feel the same about these things as if they were humans.

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Like all effective propaganda, such criticisms of factory farming are close enough to the truth to appear believable. By using selective examples and representing exceptions as representative, with frequent and eloquent repetition, they are regularly accepted as facts. Politicians and policy makers, often with no better information of their own, are tempted to regulate in the belief that there is a problem requiring a solution. Such "solutions" have the potential to deny food security to millions of people.

In fact there is no problem. Livestock farmers do not make money unless they take proper care of their animals. In many ways factory farming is more humane than the small scale farming of old.

Chickens receive a perfectly balanced diet to which they have constant access. They also have plentiful water, are protected from wind, rain, heat and cold, and are safe from foxes, snakes and insects. To the extent that technology allows, everything is done to ensure they lead a stress and disease-free life. Indeed, the avoidance of stress and disease is the top priority.

The ammonia emitted by chicken faeces is no problem unless the chickens are sick, which is rarely the case. Antibiotics are expensive and thus used sparingly. Growth defects only occur if the diet is unbalanced. Beaks may be trimmed to prevent pecking of other birds but does not inhibit eating or growth. Stocking densities cannot be too high or they would inhibit growth rates and cause other problems.

Fairly obviously, if the animals were suffering from the unspeakable cruelties so often attributed to factory farming, they would be dying like flies rather than contentedly eating and growing or producing eggs.

As for pigs, reproductive efficiency and growth rates have soared in recent decades, obvious evidence that their housing and management are of more concern to the critics than the pigs. An important contributor has been housing that prevents the sows from crushing tiny piglets.

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Indeed, reproduction is one of the first things to decline when animals are suffering. The fact that pigs reproduce so prolifically and chickens lay eggs so plentifully gives the lie to the claims of the factory farming critics.

However romantic it may appear to middle class urban consumers in developed countries for chickens to be scratching around in the dust or pigs to be wallowing in the mud, this is not conducive to efficient production. Some will be willing to pay for the privilege of having their meat or eggs produced under such conditions, and no doubt some farmers will be happy to supply them.

But this is not an option for most of the world, and neither should it be imposed. Millions of people want to enjoy more meat, eggs and dairy products in their diet, including many now emerging from poverty. Whether they are permitted to enjoy them may depend on how much the policy makers and politicians are influenced by those who regard factory farming as a problem.

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About the Author

David Leyonhjelm is a former Senator for the Liberal Democrats.

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