CIWF, 2022
FACTORY FARMING: WHO BENEFITS? HOW A RUINOUS SYSTEM IS KEPT AFLOAT
Factory farming – industrial livestock production – is a key driver of multiple harms. Its
crowded, stressful conditions can lead to the emergence, spread and amplification of
pathogens, including zoonoses. It heightens the risk of further pandemics. It is dependent
on the routine use of antimicrobials. Its huge demand for cereals and soy as animal feed
leads to soil degradation, overuse and pollution of water, air pollution, biodiversity loss and
deforestation. It places several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals out of reach and
contributes to making it difficult to meeting the Paris Climate Agreement targets.
How did we get to the point where factory farming so dominates global animal agriculture?
This report examines a number of self-serving myths that help perpetuate factory farming. It
then looks at the big input providers whose profitability is dependent on animal agriculture
continuing to be industrial. They cling like leeches to factory farming.
The twin myths that factory farming is necessary and efficient
A key myth is that factory farming is necessary to feed the growing world population.
However, we already produce much more food than is needed to feed the world population
of 9.7 billion people that is predicted for 2050. We produce sufficient food; the problem is
that over half is lost or wasted in various ways.
Food is lost post-harvest and discarded by consumers and food businesses. Food is wasted by
being used as biofuels and through overconsumption beyond people’s nutritional
requirements. Massive amounts of grain are lost through being fed to farmed animals who
convert these crops very inefficiently into meat and milk. This totally undermines the myth
that factory farming of animals is efficient; in fact, it is profoundly inefficient and is a
massive drain on the world’s food supply. If all the above forms of food loss and waste were
halved, an extra 3.55 billion people could be fed; this is more than the anticipated 1.8 billion
increase in world population by 2050. Globally we do not need to produce more food. We
simply need to use the food we produce more wisely.
The myth of cheap food
The industry claims that factory farming gives us cheap food. Industrially produced meat
and milk are indeed cheap at the supermarket checkout. But the low price of these products
ignores the massive costs arising from the detrimental impact of industrial agriculture on
the environment and human health. These various harmful impacts are referred to as
‘negative externalities’. The costs arising from them are borne by third parties or society as a
whole and are not included in the costs paid by farmers for inputs or the prices paid by
consumers. In some cases, the costs are borne by no-one and key resources such as soil and
biodiversity are allowed to deteriorate, thereby undermining the ability of future
generations to feed themselves. Factory farmed food, with its immense environmental and
health costs, does not remotely qualify as being cheap.
Own notes
- Four firms dominate the global trade in grain. Known as the ABCD companies:
- Archer Daniels Midland
- Bunge
- Cargill
- Louis Dreyfus
- Recently the Chinese firm COFCO International
- The ABCD companies came into the spotlight in 2022, when it was revealed that they were making massive profits at a time when an increasing number of people are facing hunger due to soaring food prices.