To Describe Ho Factory Factory Impact On Livestock Farming (Essay Sample)

Factory Farming and Its Condition
Leyonhjelm, (2013) describes Factory Farming as a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods. Factory farming entails raising poultry, pigs, or cattle in a confined indoors under stringently controlled conditions. The factory farming aims at producing as much meat, dairy or eggs at the lowest possible cost, (Leyonhjelm, 2013). It thrives well on a condition whereby the animals are fed with high volume of cheap animal feed as well as antibiotics. In addition, factory farming embraces the usage of pesticides to moderate the spread of disease exacerbated by the crowded living conditions. Basically, the animals raised in factory farming are confined to small areas and they are restricted from movement since they are supplied inside with food rich in protein level.
The impact of factory farming on the animals
Factory farming highly impacts on the animals raised within the factory farming system. For instance, in factory farming, animals are not seen as individual and sentient beings with unique psychological and physical needs; instead, they are seen as milk, meat, leather, eggs among other products. According to (Leyonhjelm, 2013), since these animals are treated as mere commodities, they are bred, confined and even drugged to lay more eggs, to birth more offspring and to grow faster for more meat production. The horrible environments where the animals are raised deny them normal social interaction thus they experience stress and boredom, a situation that can cause them to be more aggressive.
The impact factory farming on the environment
In addition to impacts on animals’ health condition, factory farming in their relentless quest to maximize profits through mass production of cheap eggs, meat and milk; factory farms also wreak havoc on the environment. In fact, factory farming is a chief culprit in the dangerous degradation of the environment. For example, the fecal contamination from the raised animals can generate excessive wastes. In most cases such animal excretes contain toxins and other pollutants which finally find their way into the ground water or the sea. Consequently, the wastes cause marine ecosystems degradation.
The impact of factory farming on world hunger
Past studies on factory farming and world hunger show that in the current world’s population estimate of 7.3 billion people; almost 1 billion people suffer from undernourishment. Due to this fact, an attempt to feed half the world’s grain crop to animals raised for their products instead of directly feeding humans is a significant waste of natural resources, (Leyonhjelm, 2013). Moreover past studies indicate that raising animals for food is a major contributor to global warming, which is anticipated to further exacerbate food security in the world.
Moral justification for subjecting animals to factory farming practices
Factory farming practices are not friendly to animals, (Weston, 2016). As such, moral justification on subjecting animals to factory farming practices moves beyond the scope of one's own interests or other, it takes into account the interests of others. Secondly, the current system of producing food animals through factory farming in the United States is not sustainable and presents an undesirable level of risk to the environment and public health. Moreover, it offers unnecessary injury to the animals that are raised for food. Due to harm that are inflicting in the animals, it is ethically wrong to raise animals under factory farming practices.
Is it necessary to slaughter animals for food?
Even though the utilitarianism theory opposes the subjection of animals to factory farming, it sometimes becomes necessary since if all of a sudden animals are slaughtered for food, and then there will be too many animals wandering around, (Lever, & Evans, (2017). Failure to slaughter animals for food may translate to killing them later in order to control their popula...