not being normal

Humpback whales singing off the leeward coast of O’ahu

<— to answer these tags on main, since it’s a fun question, our guide lowered a hydrophone and so my phone is leaning on the railing right next to the hydrophone

so i was NOT prepared or interested in learning starfish are persistence hunters

"don't use the skin word for shapeshifters"

I know that the We---- word is a closed cultural word, and I'm careful to not say it because I don't want to be an asshole

friends. they messaged back a thank you and they changed the word to "cryptid". instant follow.

so shoutout to this dog and their humans.

please take the term “factory farm” out of your vocabulary when discussing animal welfare

talking about the welfare of livestock and livestock production is incredibly important! all animals deserve to have the best welfare possible, regardless of if they’re going to end up on a plate or not

but the term “factory farm” does not actually discuss animal welfare in the way so many people seem to assume it does

for starters, “factory farm” is not an actual industry term. it doesn’t actually mean anything, because what constitutes a factory farm is completely subjective. you will never see the phrase “factory farm” in any kind of published research or official article because, again, it doesn’t mean anything

sure, the phrase definitely has connotations. and the connotation is the issue here. people use the term “factory farm” as a shorthand for… well, typically, “farming practice i don’t understand but think looks bad”

the term isn’t something neutral. it is specifically designed to create a negative image when you hear it. someone says “factory farm” and most people imagine large amounts of animals kept in bad condition

the key here: large amounts of animals

the size of a farm does not dictate the welfare of the animals on it. there are plenty of large farms with hundreds, thousands of animals that take stellar care of their livestock. there are small farms with only a couple animals that live horrible lives

the size of a farm is not the issue when it comes to animal welfare, but rather the practices used on the farm. sometimes they do go hand in hand, yes. there are some practices that are only necessary because of the amount of animals present

but say that

there are other terms that are actually industry terms that work better for these scenarios. try “conventional farming” “industrialized farming” “commercialized farming”. these actually have meanings that you can then jump off of into talking about animal welfare practices on these farms

From the USA EPA website:

(https://www.epa.gov/npdes/animal-feeding-operations-afos )

CAFO and AFO are easy to understand even if you aren't interested or involved in ag, but they are also legally defined and there are regulations and policies written about them. While terms like conventional farming and industrialized farming are useful and widely used and you won't be misunderstood (and I agree with op that they're better than 'factory farming') using specific language when talking about something that is regulated is important. "Conventional farming is bad" is a much harder point to argue when compared to "Confined Animal Feeding Operations are bad" even though I would agree that both are true. One is a broad statement about a wide variety of practices and operations and the other is discussing a specific type of operation with well documented animal welfare concerns and environmental impact (there's a reason they're defined on the EPA website - these things absolutely fuck up a watershed).

Using AFO/CAFO is also useful when discussing animal welfare as a whole. There are organic AFOs and while their animal welfare standards are higher than conventional AFO operations, they do exist. I grew up in a county with thousands of turkey and chicken CAFOs and some of them work with organic brands and were Certified Organic. Definitionally these operations are not Conventional, they're Organic. In professional circles those therms are opposite. This is where Industrial Agriculture is a more effective term than conventional, but I think my point stands.