FACTORY FARMING
The American Holocaust Against The Animals - Article Series From The Caring Heart with Dr. Joyce from Spokane Washington

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” (I John 3:18)

What is the truth about factory farming? What is it really? How did it get started? Is it good or bad? Do you and I, and most of us, support it? If it is bad, in other words EVIL, like from Satan’s Kingdom, then we had better watch out! As Anna Sewell wrote, author of Black Beauty, “If we witness cruelty in any form, and do nothing, we are sharers in the guilt.” If we, with our dollars, support it, that’s even worse!

Factory farming is more formally known as intensive animal farming, or industrial livestock production. This type of farming has become ubiquitous in our world today. Livestock, including cattle, pigs, poultry, and fish are bred and grown in high concentration, many thousands at a time in individual locations. Its products are meat, dairy, fish, and eggs for human consumption. Its purpose is to produce the highest output at the lowest cost. Its ethicality and sustainability have been highly in question and criticized. Issues include animal welfare, human health risks, environmental pollution, and whether it is essential for feeding the growing human population. One argument is that far more humans can be feed on grain, vegetables, and fruits than can be fed on factory farmed foods, with incredibly less negative environmental impact.

How did it get started? In the late nineteenth century, innovations in agriculture paralleled innovations in industry in general. Machinery was developed which could handle huge farming jobs, including much more automated slaughter house work. Vitamins became popular, which enabled chickens and turkeys to be raised fully indoors in huge sheds, many thousands at a time. Massive corn harvests enabled cattle to be fattened in huge lots, again, thousands at a time. The discovery of vaccinations and antibiotics helped to control disease, really needed because raising animals in high concentration is very unsanitary. For example, cattle feed knee deep in their own waste in extensive, packed feed lots. More antibiotics are fed to factory farmed animals than are fed to sick humans. At times, hormones are used, to increase milk production and body size, such as huge breasts in chickens and turkeys. Long distance shipping became much easier due to developments in refrigeration, large trucks and trailers, and an extensive, well maintained highway system, to almost anywhere in the USA. The agricultural revolution paralleled the industrial revolution.

Why did it get started? According to Wikipedia and BBC, factory farming began in Britain in 1947, when the British government granted subsidies to farmers who would use new technology to produce higher output. The United Nations viewed higher output as important to food security. Also, as the human population was growing exponentially, the number of farms was decreasing. Small family farms were losing out to huge agribusiness farming operations, which typically grow one type of crop. Old fashioned farms grew a variety of crops, including the family garden. They bred, kept, and slaughtered a variety of animals, but provided much more animal-friendly living environments. For example, even if Porky, the pig, was slaughtered in the end, at least Porky had a quite comfortable, cozy life up until that time. Instead of being cramped into long, long battery cages, laying chickens could run all over the yard, eating bugs and enjoying the sunshine. Those in battery cages never see the sun.

Factory farming is globalized, and still growing most everywhere, including in the ocean, where fish are increasingly being farmed in huge marine enclosures. As with other business endeavors, increasing production to feed billions of humans is not the only over-arching motive. The huge agribusiness CEOs want to MAKE LOTS OF MONEY. Power and greed are the ruling motivators. As far as I know, animal welfare is not even thought of at all by those big CEOs. Animal suffering is incredibly, unthinkably massive in such operations. Physical barriers and restraints are used which do not allow animals even minimal comfort or exercise. Physical mutilation of animal parts is done without anesthesia. On and on the torture to the animals goes!

I’m convinced factory farming is EVIL TO THE MAX! Yes, the genocide the Jewish people suffered at the hands of Hitler’s henchmen was heinous, and we Americans have been thinking about those Nazis as being cruel, horrible barbarian, depraved monsters ever since. On Comcast TV, one can watch yet another presentation about Hitler every night of the week. Yes, what they did was terrible! But, do we smug Americans realize we are allowing, and supporting much, much worse cruelty in this country, our “wonderful and great USA?” I’m talking about the unthinkable cruelty in the factory farming operations. Lifetime cruelty done not just to millions, but to multi-billons of innocent, sensitive, suffering animals. Can we realize what has been happening? When we go to a store, buy that steak or chicken, do we really realize we are contributing to massive animal torture and suffering? When we go to that restaurant and order those pork chops, have we any consciousness about the suffering that pig went through to put those chops on our plate? How can all that be anything but EVIL, straight out of Satan’s Kingdom, an animal holocaust for real! Real atrocities going on all the time, as we sleep, eat, work, have fun, and go about our supposedly normal USA lives. God sure doesn’t allow anything like that in His Holy Kingdom. This is definitely not OK!!

Discussion of factory farming practices of different animal species will follow in this series. If you haven’t already done so, please think about what you are supporting with what you put on your plate, on your family’s plates, and what you are modeling to others. As the above Bible verse instructs, we are to love in deed and in truth. Loving in truth means animal suffering should not be kept hidden – continually “swept under the carpet.” If you already have been aware, and go accordingly, well, thank you so much!! You are saving animals suffering and lives.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright Dr. Joyce 2017 The Caring Heart

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