What is a factory farm?
About 98% of the meat, milk and eggs sold in America comes from animals raised on factory farms, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Factory farming has been developed over the course of the last half-century to maximize production and profit by crowding the greatest number of animals together into the smallest possible space. Animals on factory farms are treated not as living creatures, but as economic units in a mechanized production system. Illustrating this, one hog industry journal advises, “The breeding sow should be thought of, and treated as, a valuable piece of machinery whose function is to pump out baby pigs like a sausage machine.” Some factory farms are like warehouses with cages stacked several levels high, while others cram animals together by the thousands into a single large area. Without exception, factory farms are designed to limit animals’ movement, both to conserve space and so animals don’t expend calories and lose weight. Severe overcro
