Poll: Is factory farming immoral?

[Niemand]

Another poll from a YouTube channel I follow.

My cards on the table. I am a confirmed carnivore, and raised in the countryside. However, I have never been a fan of large scale factory farming in crates and small cages. I believe it is wrong for an animal to live a miserable life, and moreover it produces bad and unhealthy meat.

So is factory farming immoral? Is it a sin even? I would argue that Adam was given stewardship over the Earth in Genesis, and while that involved being able to collect and farm plants and animals for food, it didn't involve wholesale abuse of them.

[BuriedTartaria]

I don’t know enough about it and I’m sure some places sincerely try to approach this sort of thing ethically. I’m going to say unrighteous dominion over animals occurs in parts of different industries

[Luke]

Usually immoral. There may be some circumstances where it might be necessary to do so temporarily, or what have you, but it's clearly wrong to mistreat animals.

[Lexew1899]

Factory farming of animals is usually immoral. Though so is letting people starve to death because of poor planning to feed the people, like what happened after the communist revolution in China. So it’s an imperfect solution to prevent starvation.

But should be avoided.

[technomagus]

People need to work with local farmers or raise their own. The more money that can go to this endevor is more benficial to everyone, including the animals involved.

[Fred]

What possible reason could a person have to not provide at least some of their own food? Perhaps to be a total parasite? I'm so wonderful that you should feed me?

If everyone only produced 10% of their own food, overall food availability would increase by 10%.

[tribrac]

No more immoral than letting people starve. Or less immoral than taking more than what you need.

[JuneBug12000]

God gave Adam and Eve three commandments that were never rescinded. Multiply and replenish, tend the earth and animals.

We should all still be doing something with all three.

[Niemand]

God gave Adam and Eve three commandments that were never rescinded. Multiply and replenish, tend the earth and animals.

We should all still be doing something with all three.

The last part is the stewardship aspect. Nature is there to be managed. Some tribes have lived in small islands and NOT managed their resources - Easter island being a major example - and paid the price.

As Buried Tartaria says, there is also an aspect of unrighteous dominion about some of these things. It's not even just about the happiness of the animals.

Adam was given stewardship of the Earth, handed it over to Satan, with consequences and his descendants have both squandered and managed what was given to them.

[bbrown]

I don’t like factory farming at all. I raise my own chickens and many of my vegetables. The garden is getting better every year. That doesn’t mean we’re 100% self sufficient but we do what we can. I usually buy beef from a local farmer whose cows live in big fields in a proper herd where they belong. I know the farmer at least and hopefully have met the cow at some point. All that said sometimes We do have to get comercial meat because that’s what’s available.

[silverado]

No more immoral than letting people starve. Or less immoral than taking more than what you need.

It takes more resources (water and food) to raise a pound of meat than to raise a pound of grain/plant food. Less people would starve if those resources were used to feed them instead of to feed the factory farmed animals.

[Niemand]

No more immoral than letting people starve. Or less immoral than taking more than what you need.

It takes more resources (water and food) to raise a pound of meat than to raise a pound of grain/plant food. Less people would starve if those resources were used to feed them instead of to feed the factory farmed animals.

Sometimes. This is a common trope I hear from veggies, but it's not always true.

I grew up in hilly country. There were some crops raised in the low lying bits round there (barley, oats, oilseed rape, swedes), but basically you could raise sheep and goats (and occasionally cattle) in the upland bits (which made up most of the area), but not crops. There was a lot of land there you couldn't cultivate, but you could raise animals on it.

TLDR - there is a lot of land around the world which you can use for livestock, but not crops.

Factory farming is a bit different this way. I don't condone it, but you can factory farm in urban/built up areas more easily than you can take the plough to concrete and asphalt.

[tribrac]

Silverado did you attend the Uof U?

And do you really believe what you typed, or just saying it make conversation?

[farmerchick]

Did any of you who said factory farming is immoral eat an egg or any food product with an egg in it recently? If you did you need to immediately stop eating those things or grow your own or admit you are a hypocrite of the worst kind......because laying hens have the worst quality of life of any other factory farmed animal that I know of. hens are debeaked and left in cages....most factory farmed poultry in developed countries are in barns where they roam free with unlimited water and feed and optimum lighting and temperatures......except of course laying hens.....so no more cakes, cookies, or any other food that includes eggs....no more Sunnyside up, over easy or omelets.....no more eggs benedict, egg salad, potato salad or artificial crab meat or any type of Betty Crocker mix that contains dried eggs....so basically you will need to eat lettuce and bagels so you aren't a hypocrite..............lol

[silverado]

I didn't go to U of U.

It does take more water and food to grow meat than vegetables.

Yes some areas are not good for growing crops and are good only for pasture. So they should be used that way. If land is only fit for pasture, then that is not using resources that could be used to grow crops to feed people.

A factory farm in an urban area? They stink.

[bbrown]

There is no total escape from the system though it is abusive to the land and plants and animals involved. Minimizing the amount you buy in to it is about all anyone can do. I do hate the layer barns. They are disgusting. While We avoid buying commercial eggs when possible though they are in premade food and there’s no getting away from that My chickens freerange during the day in spring and fall when the garden isn’t up. They destroy the garden, so they spend the summer in a big pen. When they are out they hardly eat any feed. They forage mostly bugs, weeds, snakes, whatever they feel like. It does take a lot of land to do this but in my case it is the best use of the space I have( hilly and very rocky). The overall quality of eggs is dramtically better than commercial. The meat is way better too.

[tribrac]

Thanks Silverado, I asked because the professors there like to attack farming and ranching under the guise of environmental concerns when inwardly they rage with envy that a deplorable shitboot farmer would dare have an opinion or somehow have more money or influence than they have.
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Is 10,000 chickens in one shed any more or less immoral than 1,000 chickens in 10 sheds? Or 100 chickens in 100 sheds if they all end up at the same Tyson processing plant?

Humans are omnivores, by taste preference and nutritional need. So where will the meat come from?

[farmerchick]

There is no total escape from the system though it is abusive to the land and plants and animals involved. Minimizing the amount you buy in to it is about all anyone can do. I do hate the layer barns. They are disgusting. While We avoid buying commercial eggs when possible though they are in premade food and there’s no getting away from that My chickens freerange during the day in spring and fall when the garden isn’t up. They destroy the garden, so they spend the summer in a big pen. When they are out they hardly eat any feed. They forage mostly bugs, weeds, snakes, whatever they feel like. It does take a lot of land to do this but in my case it is the best use of the space I have( hilly and very rocky). The overall quality of eggs is dramtically better than commercial. The meat is way better too.

There is a way to get away from premade food...don't eat it......what would life be like if all the hypocrites quit eating all the immoral factory farmed food? Consumers seem to have a disconnect between the supermarket where all the food is put into containers and ready for consumption and the farm where it was produced. Why is it ok for you to pen up your chickens? Do you keep the air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter like the factory farms? What about allowing chickens to forage on bugs.....wouldn't it be better to feed them grain or let them eat your garden? What is abuse and what is not.....seems subjective doesn't it......? what makes your farming stewardship better than a large scale farmer? You say the system is abusive to the land plants and animals involved...yet you are doing it too on a small scale...are you abusing the land plants animals and insects doing what you do?

[Jashon]

It does take more water and food to grow meat than vegetables.

Yes some areas are not good for growing crops and are good only for pasture. So they should be used that way. If land is only fit for pasture, then that is not using resources that could be used to grow crops to feed people.

95% of it is rainwater or blue water. Properly raised, livestock regenerate topsoil and produce vibrant, fertile soil that holds water well.

Plant ag kills huge numbers of animals and ultimately degrades the soil.

Plants are inferior nutrition. One pound of ruminant meat is nutritionally worth ten or more pounds of plant matter. Man can survive on ground beef alone, not on plant matter, which has lots of internal defense chemicals that human bodies have to cope with, leading to heavy metal toxicities and many autoimmune disorders. Good luck with plants.

[Niemand]

Did any of you who said factory farming is immoral eat an egg or any food product with an egg in it recently? If you did you need to immediately stop eating those things or grow your own or admit you are a hypocrite of the worst kind......because laying hens have the worst quality of life of any other factory farmed animal that I know of.

Depends where you are, since the regulations on keeping hens here are more stringent than the USA. Here's the thing: I don't eat eggs from factory farmed hens knowingly. I told a friend of mine off for buying a box of eggs marked "from caged hens". I refuse to buy them. Like the meat issue, it isn't just a welfare thing, the quality of the eggs is worse than free range ones. But you can't condemn people for doing things in ignorance.

I also know where to get eggs directly from small farms. There are a few round my way who sell them near their gates. When I was growing up, we got eggs directly from our own coop - I knew exactly how they lived and what they ate.

[ransomme]

It's immoral because it's bad stewardship.

The nature of its practice is to get gain, not to till the earth, not thoughtful animal husbandry, not for the benefit of mankind, etc

[Vision]

I can't believe what I'm reading on this thread.

The attack on factory farming has it's roots in the eugenists depopulation agenda. It's part of the dehumanizing movement that is masquerading as an animal rights movement. All you folks arguing against the elites and their depopulation agenda on one thread, and then supporting the same agenda on this thread, just f-ing crazy. Ya'll will scream at the elites and their plan to make us eat bugs all the while assisting them in the ending of factory farming to save the Earth from cow burps. SMH

[Original_Intent]

It's not a moral question. Wise or unwise would be a better question, and I would say almost always unwise.

[Niemand]

The attack on factory farming has it's roots in the eugenists depopulation agenda. It's part of the dehumanizing movement that is masquerading as an animal rights movement. All you folks arguing against the elites and their depopulation agenda on one thread, and then supporting the same agenda on this thread, just f-ing crazy. Ya'll will scream at the elites and their plan to make us eat bugs all the while assisting them in the ending of factory farming to save the Earth from cow burps. SMH

The bugs will be factory farmed, mate.

I'd rather support small farmers and healthy meat, than keep producing GMO monstrosity that suffers for its entire life in a small box.

[farmerchick]

Did any of you who said factory farming is immoral eat an egg or any food product with an egg in it recently? If you did you need to immediately stop eating those things or grow your own or admit you are a hypocrite of the worst kind......because laying hens have the worst quality of life of any other factory farmed animal that I know of.

Depends where you are, since the regulations on keeping hens here are more stringent than the USA. Here's the thing: I don't eat eggs from factory farmed hens knowingly. I told a friend of mine off for buying a box of eggs marked "from caged hens". I refuse to buy them. Like the meat issue, it isn't just a welfare thing, the quality of the eggs is worse than free range ones. But you can't condemn people for doing things in ignorance.

I also know where to get eggs directly from small farms. There are a few round my way who sell them near their gates. When I was growing up, we got eggs directly from our own coop - I knew exactly how they lived and what they ate.

I think people who say all factory farmed animals are immoral are doing it in ignorance because they dont know what they are even talking about....like I said above poultry for meat is raised free roam...they can even go outside.....without the villified farmers many wouldn't be able to afford food or have food to eat even if they can afford it...so what is immoral???? Starving or ignorance???