i say this with all my heart, from one person who cares about animal welfare to hopefully many others:
please take the term āfactory farmā 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 theyāre going to end up on a plate or not
but the term āfactory farmā does not actually discuss animal welfare in the way so many people seem to assume it does
for starters, āfactory farmā is not an actual industry term. it doesnāt actually mean anything, because what constitutes a factory farm is completely subjective. you will never see the phrase āfactory farmā in any kind of published research or official article because, again, it doesnāt mean anything
sure, the phrase definitely has connotations. and the connotation is the issue here. people use the term āfactory farmā as a shorthand forā¦ well, typically, āfarming practice i donāt understand but think looks badā
the term isnāt something neutral. it is specifically designed to create a negative image when you hear it. someone says āfactory farmā 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 āconventional farmingā āindustrialized farmingā ācommercialized farmingā. these actually have meanings that you can then jump off of into talking about animal welfare practices on these farms
āfactory farmingā is just a term used to paint farming in an entirely negative light, when what actually makes a farm have good or bad welfare depends on so many other things
