Factory Farming
Animal Ethics
JULY 31, 2008
I agree with Nicholas Kristof that factory farms will eventually be banned by law. I also agree that it will be a good thing. Addendum: Here are comments on Kristof's column.
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Animal Ethics
JULY 31, 2008
I agree with Nicholas Kristof that factory farms will eventually be banned by law. I also agree that it will be a good thing. Addendum: Here are comments on Kristof's column.
Animal Ethics
MARCH 16, 2009
Ever wonder how the animals you eat are treated before they become your dinner? You can find out tonight by watching HBO's new documentary, "Death on a Factory Farm." Death on a Factory Farm" chronicles an investigation into alleged abuses that took place at a hog farm in Creston, Ohio.
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Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 3, 2009
From the perspective of the land ethic, the immoral aspect of the factory farm has to do far less with the suffering and killing of nonhuman animals than with the monstrous transformation of living things from an organic to a mechanical mode of being.
Animal Ethics
JULY 31, 2007
Here is a New York Times editorial opinion about factory farming. I have added the Factory Farm Map to the blogroll.
Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 1, 2012
The problem of the unjust use of farm animals is large, growing, historical, institutionalized, governmentally encouraged, and fundamentally unregulated at either the state or federal level. Farm animals are treated essentially as raw materials. Instead it aids industry boards that exist solely to sell animal products.
Animal Ethics
MARCH 14, 2007
Notice that the author is not opposed to the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human consumption. Perhaps she would argue that there is no double standard, i.e., that there is a morally relevant difference between human animals and nonhuman animals that justifies the difference in treatment. I can't imagine what it is.
Animal Ethics
JUNE 12, 2012
That individuals can be harmed without knowing it has important implications for the proper assessment of the treatment of animals. Modern farms (so-called factory farms), for example, raise animals in unnatural conditions. That he doesn't know what he's missing is part of the harm I have done to him.
Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 6, 2007
A column entitled "Ag Industry Threatened by Animal Rights" appeared in today's High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal [ HPMAJ ]. The column, which you can read here , is a call to arms to factory farmers to fight back against those individuals and organizations working to protect farm animals from the abuses inherent in factory farms.
Animal Ethics
JULY 15, 2009
We can thank factory farming for yet another antibiotic-resistant supergerm: Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). Smith studied two large Midwestern hog farms and found ST398, the virulent strain of MRSA, in 45 percent of farmers and 49 percent of hogs. All evidence points to factory farms.
Animal Ethics
DECEMBER 7, 2008
Interests arise, Singer contends, from the capacity to feel pain, which he labels a 'prerequisite' for having interests at all; and animals can and do suffer, can and do feel pain. This, however, is precisely what factory farming does.
Animal Ethics
JULY 24, 2012
The initial attractiveness of utilitarianism as a moral theory on which to rest the call for the better treatment of animals was noted in an earlier context. Because animals are sentient (i.e., Because animals are sentient (i.e., To secure the philosophical foundation for animal rights requires abandoning utilitarianism. (
Animal Ethics
APRIL 29, 2009
While its exact origin is still unclear, this pathogen, and many others (like avian influenza), originated from animals being raised or eaten for food. As the world moves toward raising the majority of animals in the unnatural setting of factory farms, it is likely that more, and worse, such pathogens will arise.
Animal Ethics
JULY 21, 2010
July 13, 2010 To the Editor: Today tens of thousands of American farmers don’t even own the livestock they raise, and the conditions they raise animals in are dictated to them by a handful of extremely powerful companies that are concerned only with the bottom line. Gene Gregory President, United Egg Producers Alpharetta, Ga.,
Animal Ethics
SEPTEMBER 24, 2009
To the Editor: It’s mind-boggling that in spite of overwhelming evidence that the consumption of animal products is directly responsible for a host of human diseases , greenhouse gas production and indescribable animal suffering, the general public continues to satiate its taste buds and support factory farming.
Animal Ethics
MARCH 26, 2007
See here for an editorial opinion by The New York Times.
Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 4, 2011
His call for the end of factory farms (concentrated animal feeding operations) is courageous. When we understand that these prices require “torturing animals,” we will begin to change this system and also improve our diets. His new column offers hope for animals and help for people. Ken Swensen Pound Ridge, N.Y.,
Animal Ethics
AUGUST 5, 2007
To the Editor: “ A Factory Farm Near You ” (editorial, July 31) does not mention any issue of the morality of factory farming—treating living beings as factory products. Cruelty to animals on such a scale should be the centerpiece of any discussion on raising animals for food.
Animal Ethics
AUGUST 25, 2010
15): We are glad to see an article describing the intensive confinement of egg-laying chickens, but we disagree when it says that animal advocates and consumers are “driving big changes” in the treatment of chickens. At our farm sanctuary, we see how much chickens rescued from factory farms delight in these experiences.
Animal Ethics
AUGUST 31, 2008
My view, then, is not that which it has often been taken to be in discussion and which Singer, Regan, Clark, and others blast in their work; I am not suggesting that, because they lack language, animals can be factory farmed without suffering. Animals are moral patients, but not moral agents. You and I have both.
Animal Ethics
SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
The wrongness of factory farming is overdetermined. Why does it not call for the abolition of factory farming? Animal rights is neither progressive nor conservative. Many conservatives care about animals as well as human beings. Why animal rights is considered a progressive cause is mind-boggling.
Animal Ethics
JANUARY 23, 2007
This is one of the best essays I have read on the subject of animal ethics. Thanks in advance for the essay.
Animal Ethics
NOVEMBER 7, 2008
An enormous volume of material has already appeared on the conditions under which animals live and die on factory farms, and more is almost certainly on the way. In other words, we become vegetarians, not through any decision of principle, but through being unable to bring ourselves to continue to dine upon the flesh of animals.
Animal Ethics
APRIL 4, 2008
Here is a New York Times story about traditional farming, which is a darn sight better for animals than factory farming.
Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 22, 2010
The film Partitions (running time: 14 min) by Audrey Kali gives an intimate glimpse of the ethical struggles that five small-scale meat farmers face when their animals are slaughtered. In this film, we see farmers interacting with the animals they will eventually transform into food (chickens, pigs and cattle).
Animal Ethics
JANUARY 24, 2008
Not all meat eaters are cold, cruel, selfish individuals insensitive to animal suffering. Many, if not most, of the meat eaters I know are deeply concerned about the fact that the animals they eat are raised in factory farm conditions. They realize that factory farming is inhumane.
Animal Ethics
JULY 19, 2011
A factory-farmed egg-producing hen’s lifespan is less than two years. The use of wire cages isn’t being addressed, but should be in the future. We are headed in the right direction, but need to fight to push the changes through. It could take up to 18 years for them to be phased in, if the law should pass.
Animal Ethics
JANUARY 24, 2007
Most people are shocked and appalled when they first read descriptions of factory farming and learn about the horribly inhumane conditions in which the billions of animals destined for dinner tables are raised, and they are even more appalled when they first see documentary footage of the institutional cruelties inherent in factory farming.
Animal Ethics
JANUARY 15, 2007
I must advocate on behalf of the animals in other ways. Animal Ethics helps me formalize my position so I can be a more effective advocate. However, I am saying that the transition to veganism was completely natural and took little or no pondering on my part once I knew the truth about animal exploitation.
Animal Ethics
NOVEMBER 9, 2009
It is the other way around, with grass-fed animals producing up to three times more methane. To replace factory-farmed meat without further tropical forest destruction is impossible. To the Editor: Nicolette Hahn Niman (“ The Carnivore’s Dilemma ,” Op-Ed, Oct.
Animal Ethics
SEPTEMBER 22, 2007
18 editorial about the abuse of antibiotics in industrial hog farms. It not only brings light to a serious issue, but also begins to make the connection between factory farm practices and consumer choices. To the Editor: I applaud “ Antibiotic Runoff ,” your Sept. Hamilton Mill Valley, Calif., 18, 2007
Animal Ethics
AUGUST 10, 2007
To the Editor: “ A Factory Farm Near You ” (editorial, July 31) is in a time warp. Yes, concentrated animal feeding operations, or “factory farms” as you call them, are a key feature of modern agriculture. But today these livestock operations don’t have to be unwelcome neighbors in their communities.
Animal Ethics
AUGUST 2, 2008
To the Editor: Re “ A Farm Boy Reflects ” (column, July 31): Hats off to Nicholas D. Kristof, who takes note of the trend represented by the animal welfare proposition on the ballot in California this fall. And thanks to federal corn and soybean subsidies, factory farms saved an estimated $3.9
Animal Ethics
APRIL 23, 2008
To the Editor: In his past comments about protecting animals and nature, Pope Benedict XVI is building upon the Roman Catholic Church’s tradition of promoting faithful stewardship of all creatures (“ A Cat Lover in the Vatican Strikes a Chord With Cat Lovers Around the World ,” news article, April 20).
Animal Ethics
JANUARY 26, 2007
It might be argued that any decrease in suffering for farmed animals is good, morally speaking. Someone might argue that there is no incompatibility between (1) working to decrease animal suffering and (2) working toward the abolition of factory farming. What do you think of this ?
Animal Ethics
DECEMBER 18, 2006
My personal perspective regarding Animal Ethics is not fully formed, which is one of the reasons why Keith and I felt it would be a good idea for me to post on here. I have always felt a sense of connection to animals since as far back as I can remember, and the current manner in which they are treated in factory farms disturbs me.
Animal Ethics
NOVEMBER 6, 2009
Beyond the environmental impacts of meat production there is a basic ethical issue involved. So here is an even more modest proposal than roasting Fido: Try eating only what animals you are willing to kill with your own hands. Dogs were bred to be companion animals; pigs and cows are raised as food.
Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 6, 2008
Modern livestock farming on a grand scale also wastes a colossal amount of feed grains on animals which, in times past, would simply have fed off the land. Michael Fox , "'Animal Liberation': A Critique," Ethics 88 [January 1978]: 106-18, at 116-7) One can only agree.
Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 8, 2007
But is it any more revolting than factory farming? Bob Smith sent a link to this. My first reaction was revulsion.
Animal Ethics
OCTOBER 13, 2008
One of the more distressing aspects of the animal liberation movement is the failure of almost all its exponents to draw a sharp distinction between the very different plights (and rights) of wild and domestic animals. But this distinction lies at the very center of the land ethic. Domestic animals are creations of man.
Animal Ethics
APRIL 16, 2009
Animals raised for food suffer miserably. The overwhelming passage in November of Proposition 2 in California, which banned tight confinement of many of the animals raised for food, is a fine example of the power of publicity to educate people about the atrocities we commit to those animals who have no voice of their own.
Animal Ethics
JANUARY 30, 2008
But much more attention and discussion needs to be directed to the meat industry, particularly its barbaric treatment of the helpless animals that are in our servitude. Animals turn grass, a k a sunlight, into high-quality proteins, minerals and fats that are an ideal food for humans. What is wrong is factory farms.
Animal Ethics
MAY 23, 2007
It is not enough to simply cut animal products (or carbohydrates, or calories) out of one’s diet. Although vegans do not eat foods derived from animals, we do eat everything else—and enjoy a delicious array of high-nutrient foods, including grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits and herbs prepared in tantalizing combinations and textures.
Animal Ethics
JANUARY 20, 2008
Ethical vegetarianism is the thesis that killing and eating animals is morally wrong whenever equally nutritious plant-based alternatives are available. The case for ethical vegetarianism starts with several uncontroversial premises. It is not just a few outspoken animal rights fanatics who hold this view.
Animal Ethics
NOVEMBER 16, 2008
But there is a net loss in all meat production, not just of farmed fish or feeding fish to land animals being raised for food. Feeding grain to chickens, pigs and cows is even more inefficient, with 70 percent of grain grown in the United States going to animals raised for food. Danielle Kichler Washington, Nov. 11, 2008
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