Factory farming, officially called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and industrialized agriculture, which includes both animals and crops, have both used highly controversial methods to mass produce our food and are loosely regulated. From horrible living conditions for animals to wild misuse of antibiotics to crushing independent farmers, here are some of the egregious ways huge farms produce food.
Confined spaces
Unfortunately, one of the best known issues is the complete lack of space most of the animals are kept in. So many are confined into small cages that they often cannot stand up. Most animals will stay in these cramped conditions their entire lives and never go outside. This has been shown to have not only psychological stress but also physical injuries. One example is how chickens, who use their beaks to explore their surroundings, will peck at each other, causing great damage to one another and has even resulted in cannibalism since they are frustrated and bored. To counter this, farmers have cut off up to 2/3s of their beaks, another unbelievably cruel thing to do.
Tail-docking without anesthetics
Tail docking, or the practice of cutting off the ends of an animal's tail, is regularly preformed at factory farms. Pigs and cows are the most common victims to it. Due to the close proximity the pigs are kept in, they have the tendency to attack each other's tails out of boredom or frustration. This can cause infections so the "tuffs" of a pig's tail is cut via tail-docking since that it typically the part that draws pigs' attention. However, this is typically done without anesthetics, making it highly painful. Cows' tails are cut so that when they are milked, their tail does not whack a worker in the face, making the job easier.
When there might be some reason (such as to prevent infections in pigs) to remove that tuff at the ends of their tails, doing it without anesthetics is unreasonably cruel. Though it is banned in much of Europe, it is not in North America.
Unnecessary use of antibiotics
Despite not being given anesthetics during tail-docking, livestock are pumped with unhealthy amounts of antibiotics. This is done for two main reason; 1) to prevent an outbreak of a bacterial infections amongst the closely packed animals, and 2) to boost growth. However, it is important to note that antibiotic resistance is a real issue that these farms threaten to worsen. In short, antibiotic resistance occurs due to a bacteria cell's random mutation making it resistant and the antibiotics wipe out all of the non-resistant ones, leaving behind only that mutant. The constant pump of antibiotics will not stop that from happening and the dirty, wet conditions are still the perfect breeding grounds for bacteria. There is an addition, albeit unlikely, chance that a zoonotic disease, which is already antibiotic resistant, could make the jump from these livestock into humans, creating huge issues for both species. Learn about Livestock-associated MRSA here if interested
Destroying land
Aside from the shocking videos of sickly looking animals, there is another culprit: large-scale farming and crops. One common practice is to plant only one type of crop at massive scale, every year and dumping pesticides to drive away bugs. This, along with GMOs make these foods considerably less healthy and horrible for the environment. Monoculture, or planting one crop in the same place every year, degrades the soil rapidly and makes it easy for picky bugs to camp out in the places where their favorite foods will predictably show up every year. Countering this with pesticides might solve part of the problem but the runoff of those chemicals ruin nearby water supplies and greatly harm nearby wildlife (and also local towns). Furthermore, a common practice when growing soy and wheat is to genetically modify them to be resistant to herbicides and then use herbicides to wipe out those that aren't. Unsurprisingly this leads to a lot of the same problems as pesticides when it comes to pollution and the similar issues to using antibiotics in farm animals (that it, you'll find yourself if a bunch of soy that is resistant but not actually in the way you want). Learn about how these practices caused monarch butterfly populations to drop 80% here.
Eliminating smaller farmers
These practices have often been overlooked because they are profitable and effective in producing massive quantities of food. Many of the companies are multinational and unfortunately, this means that smaller farmers, who are using much more sustainable practices, are squeezed out of business.
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