Factory Farming: Immoral Treatment of Animals

Oh, how farming has changed over the years. Many peoples’ first thoughts on farming correlates with a home owned farm, a family working together on that farm, animals raised in a pasture, and doing things the old school way. However, nowadays, this is not exactly the case anymore. It has been stated in an article by National Review, “during the 1930s, the U.S was home to about 6.3 million family farms; today, there are about 2.2 million, and fewer everyday” (Olmstead, 2016). Many family farms are being put out of business, and one main reason is because of the increase with industrial farming. Factory farms make everything easier, right? More animals are housed, more products are produced, and less time is consumed. Though, this may be true, there are some disadvantages that are not investigated and regulated by our government. The setbacks with this type of farming are looked over frequently, because it is more efficient and quicker for the industry.

According to the lecture gone over in class, Max Weber was “concerned with the process of rationalization and the development of bureaucracies throughout our social world” (Paulson 2019). This can relate to the changes in farming. Corporate farms care about the numbers and efficiency of production, and our government does not set strict regulations for the corporate farms. Others tend to think that this type of farming is more helpful for our society. The truth of the matter is, it’s not entirely beneficial for us. Factory farms can cause problems with our environment, our food production, and treatment of animals. This up rise of farming can relate to Weber’s theory on rationality. In our modern society, we have come to care about efficiency, dehumanization, calculability, and predictability. Times have evolved, and due to rationalization, so has farming.

Rationality has brought our modern society to do things differently. When it comes to farming, new ways of raising cattle has affected our environment. For factory farms to have more efficient numbers and production of products, there are huge amounts of animals housed in these farms. The large number of animals helps keep their farm systematic, but housing this many animals may also lead to some issues. It has been estimated that in the U.S, factory farms usually have around, “1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 pigs, 55,000 turkeys, 30,000 egg-laying hens, or 125,000 broiler chickens” (Skowron, 2019). While these large numbers are helpful for productivity, it has an affect on our environment. Industrial farming does not have pasture raised animals. They are usually crammed into tiny spaces and barely have any room to move. A large quantity of animals means there will be a large quantity of animal waste too. Studies have shown, “livestock in the U.S produce 500 million tons of excrement every year” (Good, 2014). The amount of manure produced on factory farms is too much to be used as a fertilizer. As a result, a lot of this manure can end up being ran off into our waterways. This is one of the factors that can affect us with industrial farms, along with many. Going back to the lecture gone over in class, “people desire efficiency, predictability, and calculability to accomplish many goals, and thus, they form a formal organization” (Paulson, 2019). Industrial farms ignore the affects from their farming, to obtain efficiency, predict how well their production will go, calculate numbers and products for their farm, and accomplish their goal to stay systematic. Factory farms are an organization to have substantial numbers with agriculture, but many of the consequences with factory farming are looked over to maintain this good production.

As stated earlier, rationality has brought farming towards efficiency by having a large quantity of animals for good production. Factory farms also use newer technology and machines to make their jobs easier. Factory farms are all about staying quick and producing substantial numbers. In result to this, they do not worry about any damage that is happening to our environment. Along with the changes in farming that cause water pollution, there are also some factors that contribute to polluting the air. According to an article by Kate Good, “around 400 different gases are emitted into the air” (Good, 2014). The gases emitted into the air can be due to machinery, pesticides, manure management, and fertilizers. Many of these harmful gases include, ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately, a few of the toxic gases are also contributing to the greenhouse gas effect. These greenhouse gasses are a problem for global warming. According to the FAO, livestock “represent 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions” (FAO, 2019). While these gases are affecting our environment, you can imagine that they can affect people in society as well. Health problems are linked to the exposure of gasses, such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Health issues contributed by these harmful gases have been reported by people working on factory farms, and can possibly affect people living near factory farms. Some health concerns that were reported consisted of, “headaches, nausea, diarrhea, respiratory irritation and congestion, heart palpitations and shortness of breath” (Connor, 2017). Industrial farming helps productivity in agriculture, but is it worth the affects it could possibly have on people working on or living near these farms? Unfortunately, bureaucracies in our modern society have allowed farming to come to this point. Nels Paulson mentioned in a lecture, “Weber argues that formal rationality can lead to unintended consequences, limiting our freedom and happiness” (Paulson 2019). This can be seen with factory farming; it had the best intentions for efficiency and productivity, but it is poorly affecting our environment and the health of people in our modern society.

“Weber believed life was filled w/ disenchantment, which was an inevitable result of dehumanizing features” (Paulson, 2019). Max Weber’s theory on rationality mentioned how he thought modern society may lead to dehumanizing effects, meaning people will get treated poorly and treated less than human. When it comes to factory farming, a form of dehumanization does happen, but it is not necessarily with humans. These farms’ top priority is their productivity. As a result, instead of humans being treated dreadfully, the animals are. Animal cruelty is present during industrial farming, and it is not regulated by our bureaucracy. Sadly, the animals housed in factory farms are treated like they are machines.

During their whole life, they are kept in small confined cages, they live in crowded housing with poor ventilation, concrete floors, no fresh air, no bedding, and they’re abused their whole life. According to an article, “around 9 billion land animals are killed each year to produce meat, dairy, and eggs” (“Factory Farms” 2014). The way the animals are treated is inhumane and brutal. To go into more detail for some insight; pigs are kept in cages so small that they cannot move or even turn themselves around. This leads them to go insane. They start to bite the metal bars, and they inflict harm to themselves and to other pigs. On top of the horrid living conditions, they get punished for their behavior too. They will be beaten, shocked, and even get their tails docked and teeth pulled if they inflict harm on other animals around them. The awful living conditions for these animals also leads into another issue- diseases. Due to the overcrowding and poor ventilation, many of the animals at these farms get sick.

On top of the diseases contracted, the confined spaces can cause animal waste to get on the animals’ hides, which then goes into the slaughterhouses too. These are big risks for human consumption and health. There was a study done by medical researchers at the University of Minnesota and they had, “more than 1,000 food samples from multiple retail markets, and they found evidence of fecal contamination in 69% in the pork and beef and 92% in the poultry samples” (Freston, 2011). Poor sanitation and living conditions for the animals causes risk for peoples’ health in society. “Bacteria like E. Coli and Salmonella sicken 76 million Americans each year and thousands die” (“Factory Farming and Human Health” 2015). Weber’s theory of rationality shows that modern bureaucracies have brought us to this point. Efficiency, calculability, predictability, and productivity is so important, that anything considered ethical and humane is completely forgotten.

Weber’s theory of rationality shows that the changes in society lead to bureaucracies demanding all elements of efficiency in productivity, which leads to disenchantment and dehumanization in society. Rationality has moved our modern society towards industrial farming in order to meet these needs of efficiency. Factory farms are causing a strain on our society, and it is all in order to gain good numbers for productivity. During a lecture, it was mentioned how, “Weber argues rationality pervades modern life and sucks the meaning out of it” (Paulson, 2019). Sadly, this relates to factory farms because nothing is humane or ethical for modern society. Efficiency, predictability, and calculability is our governments main concern.

Overall, problems with our society is the outcome. Our environment is in danger from the changes in farming, in order to keep up with a systematic workplace. Our food safety and health are at risk, because of the poor sanitation and unethical ways for farming to stay as efficient as possible. Lastly, the animals are treated inhumanely and barbarically, in order to keep the quick pace of productivity going. Max Weber’s words about rationality and bureaucracy are, “Not summer’s bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness, no matter which groups may triumph now.” If moral and humane options for farming keep being disregarded, we could possibly reach a “polar night of icy darkness.” More light needs to be shined on the issues and dark roads that factory farms are leading modern society to. Benefits for the environment, food safety and production, and humane treatment of animals needs to be returned to the farming industry. Rationality has brought many changes to modern society, so there is potential for better outcomes in our society as well.