On a Failed Defense of Factory Farming

Timothy Hsiao attempts to defend industrial animal farming by arguing that it is not inherently cruel. We raise three main objections to his defense. First, his argument rests on a misunderstanding of the nature of cruelty. Second, his conclusion, though technically true, is so weak as to be of virtually no moral significance or interest. Third, his contention that animals lack moral standing, and thus that mistreating them is wrong only insofar as it makes one more disposed to mistreat other humans, is untenable on both philosophical and biological grounds

Visiting a Farm: An Exploratory Study of the Social Construction of Animal Farming in Norway and the Netherlands based on Sensory Perception

Most citizens in modern societies have little personal knowledge or experience of animal farming. This study explores the social construction of animal farming by studying how citizens perceive and evaluate modern farming after visiting a farm in real life. We wanted to understand how (non-farming) citizens develop an opinion of modern dairy farming when experiencing dairy farming in real life and practice, and how they translate what they see, smell and feel into an evaluative perception and mental image. We therefore conducted dairy farm visits with citizen panels in Norway and the Netherlands and asked the panel members to register what they saw, heard, smelled and felt and what they appreciated (or not) on the farm. The aspects that respondents registered could be grouped into four themes: the animals and their products, the rural landscape, farm practices and the farmer. When respondents described their experiences of these aspects on a specific farm, they appeared to look at them from three angles: modernity, tradition and naturality. Most respondents wanted farms to be modern, traditional as well as natural, but they were ready to negotiate and to accept compromises. Many respondents considered the farmer to be responsible for reconciling modernity, tradition and naturality. By taking different topics and issues into account and looking at animal farms from multiple angles, the respondents’ developed a balanced and nuanced opinion of animal farming. The image that they constructed was not dualistic (arcadia versus factory) but pluralistic, thus at the same time more complex but also more flexible than expected. We expect that the development of a pluralistic image and balanced opinion was facilitated through the direct experience of dairy farming and farm life. The article starts with a theoretical analysis and aims to contribute to recent debates in rural sociology in two ways: 1) it studies how material experience and mental perception interact in the construction of an evaluative image of animal farming; and 2) it explores the social construction of animal farming as embedded into to the construction of nature, rurality and human-animal relationships. It concludes by discussing the contribution of the findings to the ongoing theoretical debate in this fiel

Feasibility Analyses of Integrated Broiler Production

The major obstacles in the development of broiler raising is the expensive price of feed and the fluctuative price of DOCs. The cheap price of imported leg quarters reduces the competitiveness of the local broilers. Therefore, an effort to increase production efficiency is needed through integration between broiler raising and corn farmers and feed producers (integrated farming). The purpose of this study is to analyze the feasibility of integrating broiler raising with corn cultivation and feed production. Besides that, a simulation was conducted to analyze the effects of DOC price changes, broiler price and production capacity. The analyses showed that integrated farming and a mere combination between broiler raising and feed factory of a 10,000 bird capacity is not financially feasible. Increasing the production to 25,000 broiler chickens will make the integrated farming financially feasible. Unintegrated broiler raising is relatively sensitive to broiler price decreases and DOC price increases compared to integrated farming

Farm-Animal Welfare, Legislation, and Trade

The US has among the weakest farm-animal-welfare standards in the developed world. Although improvements in farm-animal welfare are economically feasible, nations and states enacting protective regulation are threatened by competition with cheaper, non-compliant imports. Although recognition in trade agreements and restrictions on sale could help to protect animal welfare, they may rarely be politically feasible. Campaigns directed at consumers and retailers are likely to be more cost-effective than production-related regulations in improving animal welfare and are also compatible with abolitionist objectives

Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk

The meteoric growth of organic dairying is one of the rare success stories found in agriculture today. The business has been built over the past two decades and nurtured by family farmers collaborating with consumers hungry for organic food.For those farmers involved in dairying, organics has been a true lifeline. Those able to make the difficult three-year transition to organics have been rewarded by top commodity prices at the farmgate and a living wage -- something that stands in stark contrast to the intense price squeeze that has driven many of their conventional neighbors from the business. In addition, organic dairy farmers are enjoying explosive growth in demand for their products.Consumers have been willing to pay premium prices in the market for certified organic dairy products with the understanding that the food has been raised in a sustainable, environmentally sound manner and that they are helping support and keep family farmers on the land. Many consumers assume that humane animal husbandry practices are employed by organic farmers and they may believe that their food is more nutritious.Organic dairy products are also a "gateway" food to other organic products. Consumers recognize such familiar products as milk and cheeses, frequently sampling organic varieties first before moving on and experimenting with other organic commodities.But this success story is now at risk; it is threatened by powerful economic interests that covet their share of the organic pie and who are willing to twist, manipulate and even ignore federal organic regulations in their rush to cash in. Some agribusiness giants are depending on consumers not knowing the difference between their product and those produced with ethics and integrity.This report aims to pull back the veil and allow consumers to easily identify those organic dairy products that have been produced with the best organic practices. By using the Web-based rating tool found on our Web page (www.cornucopia.org), you will be able to identify the brands and products found in your region and examine their ranking, score, and how well they meet key criteria covering organic management practices. The survey rates 68 different organic dairy brands and private label products found across the country.The good news that we can report is that the vast majority of all name-brand organic dairy products are produced from milk from farms that follow accepted legal and ethical standards.However, consumers should also recognize that an increasing amount of milk used in certain organic dairy products is coming from factory farms that are employing suspect practices that skirt organic regulations and impact nutrition and livestock. A growing number of new factory farms -- housing thousands of cows in confinement conditions -- are in development because of strong organic commodity prices, growing consumer demand, a shortage of certified organic milk, and a reluctance by federal regulators to enforce the current organic rules.This report will help consumers make purchasing decisions separate from industry chaff and PR

Updating the Building Code to Include Indoor Farming Operations

Urban agricultural production has grown to be a critical tool in the battles for food security and sustainability. A common regulatory barrier to urban agricultural operations big and small has been ambiguity in land-use laws. Local governments are increasingly friendly toward community gardens, small greenhouse farming operations, farmers markets, and the like. Many have sought to lift regulatory restrictions and provide clarity in the law. However, while these efforts benefit a multitude of local food production efforts, they do little to address the regulatory ambiguities faced by commercial-scale, indoor farming operations, especially vertical farms. Particularly concerning to indoor vertical farms are the ambiguities implicit in the International Building Code (“IBC”), which serves as the model building code for virtually every American municipality. Currently, the IBC lacks any provisions contemplating buildings purposed for large-scale indoor crop production. While some state governments have traditionally exempted agricultural buildings from this type of regulation, this is neither a safe nor feasible solution for indoor farming operations. This article seeks to provide alternative solutions. First, in the short term, local governments should provide clear statutory guidance concerning where indoor farming operations fit into the IBC scheme. Second, as a more sustainable solution, the International Code Council, should update the IBC to account for commercial-scale indoor farming operations by including such operations under a particular occupancy group

Re-inventing New Zealand: Institutions Output and Patents 1870-1939

New estimates of commodity output and patenting are used to explore New Zealand’s transition from extensive to intensive growth. By investigating the cointegrating and causal relationships among the output of 25 industries we show that a small number of common trends shaped the contours of her economic development. In turn the leading industries were driven by knowledge growth as reflected in patents statistics. New Zealand's distinctive institutions and human capital fostered the knowledge which transformed the farming landscape, promoted wider land ownership, and created a production system which integrated farm and factory to promote intensive growth.Growth; Institutions; Patents; Common trends; Commodity output, New Zealand Research and Development