This document summarizes issues with modern factory farming techniques for raising pigs. It discusses how factory farming has led to poor living conditions and treatment of animals for the sake of high production levels and low costs. Specifically, it notes that pigs are typically confined in small pens and experience mistreatment. It also examines the environmental and public health impacts of factory farming practices like antibiotic overuse, pollution from animal waste, and greenhouse gas emissions. The document advocates for modernizing pig farming through more ethical treatment of animals and more sustainable practices that reduce environmental impacts.

1. Factory Farming:
Modernizing Pig Farming Techniques
By Kristian Bush, Sipan Teroganesyan, and Dustin Zavada
Presentation prepared for ENG 312

2. The History of Factory
Farming
• Production needed to increase to meet the
world’s growing population and the demand for
meat
• Technological advancement allowed farms to
take livestock off pasture, feed genetically
modified and fortified grain, and do it very
cheaply
• Commercialization of meat production
• The demand for fast-food saw rapid growth
Chart 1: Meat Production by Livestock Type (Ritchie & Roser, 2018)

3. “Thousands of people who say they love
animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy
the flesh of creatures who have been utterly
deprived of everything that could make their
lives worth living and who endured the awful
suffering and the terror of the abattoirs.”
-Jane Goodall

4. Impacts of Factory Farming
• In 2015, 90 percent of U.S. farms were
small family operations (MacDonald &
Hoppe, 2017)
• These farms only accounted for 24
percent of production (MacDonald &
Hoppe, 2017)
• Environmental concerns have arisen
• Anti-biotic resistant bacteria have
developed
Picture 1: Supermarket Meat Department (Premier Foods Group, 2018)

5. Impacts Continued
• 78% of cattle, nearly all chickens and turkeys, and 95% of pigs are raised
in factory farms (Zachariues, 2011)
• Fassler states that “Less than 1 percent of all U.S. farmland is certified
organic” (2017, Feb 28)
• Animal living conditions have become poor
• Human health is being impacted

6. The Governments Role
• Subsidies accounted for a cost
savings of about $35 billion over
nine years (Tufts University, n.d.).
• There are no federal laws that set
humane care standards for animals
in factory farms (Government
Regulation of Factory Farms, n.d.)
Picture 2: United States Capital (Lapowsky, 2018)

7. Reasons for Modernizing the
Pig Farm
• Factory farming has had a huge impact on pig
farming
• The rapid maturing rate of pigs and the
demand for pork makes them a great
candidate for mass production
• This has lead to mistreatment and deplorable
conditions for the animals
Picture 3: Pig Living Conditions at Factory Farm (Panther, L., 2017)

8. Living
Conditions
• The pig pens are miniscule
• Pigs are forced in small pens with hard slanted floors
• They spend their entire lives in these conditions
• They are then slaughtered
• Animals need to be treated in and ethical and moral
manner
• The quality of life of the animals needs to improve
Picture 4: Caged Living Conditions (Whittleton, 2018)

9. Environmental Concerns
• Fecal bacteria in livestock waste can
cause dysentery, typhoid and hepatitis
(University of Missouri, n.d.)
• Agriculture accounts for 6% of all
greenhouse gas emissions (EPA, n.d.)
• 45% of this is from feed production
alone (Tran, 2013)
(Picture 5 Crop Dusting (Corn Corps, 2013)

10. Environmental Concerns Continued
• “Pollution from animal waste causes
respiratory problems, skin infections,
nausea, depression, and even death for
people who live near factory farms.”
(Lymberry, 2012)
• Manure lagoons leaking into creeks
and chemicals sprayed in air
contaminate large areas
• Waste must be better managed to
reduce the affects of waste lagoons
Picture 6: Pig Waste Lagoon (University of California Davis, 2018)

11. Development of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
• In 2014 pharmaceutical companies sold nearly 21 million pounds of medically
important antibiotics for use in food animals, more than three times the amount
sold for use in people (Moyer, 2016)
• “Pigs are fed constant, low-level antibiotics just to prevent them from getting sick.”
(Kasper, 2018)
• The animals become sources of deadly microorganisms, such as the methicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium, which is resistant to several major
classes of antibiotics and has become a real problem in hospitals (Moyer, 2016)
• Antibiotic usage needs to be reduced substantially

12. Conclusion
• Organic meats are healthier, having higher levels of omega-3 fats (Haspel,
2014)
• Animals on pasture take up more space, but mature naturally and humanely
• Manure is manageable and beneficial to the ecosystem
• Animal products are of higher quality and free of the health hazards from
factory farming
• Greenhouse gases are reduced from reduction of farmed feed

13. Picture 7 Organic Pig Farm (Guide to Pork, n.d.)

14. References
• Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2018) - "Meat and Seafood Production & Consumption". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/meat-and-seafood-production-consumption' [Online Resource]
• Whittleton, J. (2018, January 22). The heartbreaking life of a factory-farmed mother pig. Retrieved from https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/blogs/heartbreaking-life-factory-farmed-mother-pig
• Guide to Pork Labels (n.d.). Retrieved from http://farmsnotfactories.org/resources/labelling/
• Accept001. (n.d.). Sows Living In Stable At An Industrial Animal Farm Stock Photo - Image of livestock, animals: 107401110. Retrieved from https://www.dreamstime.com/sows- living-stable-industrial-animal-farm-pig-piglets-image107401110
• Agnor, M. (n.d.). Pigs at a factory stock image. Image of family, dinner - 76763439. Retrieved June 16, 2018, from https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-pigs-factory-little-piglets- suckling-their-mother-pig-image76763439
• Goodall, J. (n.d.). Jane Goodall Quotes (Author of In the Shadow of Man). Retrieved June 16, 2018, from https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/18163.Jane_Goodall
• Government Regulation of Factory Farms. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2018, from https://nhes.org/3372-2/
• Guide to Pork Labels (n.d.). Retrieved from http://farmsnotfactories.org/resources/labelling/
• Kasper, L. (2018, May 06). Inside the factory farm, where 97% of U.S. pigs are raised. Retrieved June 01, 2018, from https://www.splendidtable.org/story/inside-the-factory-farm-where-97-of-us- pigs-are-raised
• Lymberry, P. (2012). Retrieved June 3, 2018, from https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about- animals-and-factory-farms
• EPA (n.d.). Sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions.
• Haspel, T. (2014, Apr 7). Is organic better for your health? A look at milk, meat, eggs, produce and fish. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/is-organic-better-for-your-health-a-look-at-milk-meat-eggs-produce-and-
fish/2014/04/07/036c654e-a313-11e3-8466-d34c451760b9_story.html?utm_term=.2c0d18ec5f2b.
• James M. MacDonald and Robert A. Hoppe (2017, Mar 6). Large Family Farms Continue To Dominate U.S. Agricultural Production. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/march/large-family-farms-continue-to-dominate-us-
agricultural-production/.
• Joe Fassler (2017, Feb 28). While demand soars, less than 1 percent of U.S. farmland is certified organic. So why don’t farmers switch? Retrieved from https://newfoodeconomy.org/kashi-certified-transitional-organic/.
• University of Missouri (n.d.). Assessing the risk of groundwater contamination from animal manure management facilities. Retrieved from https://extension2.missouri.edu/wq657.
• Tran, M. (2013, Sep 26). Greenhouse gas emissions from livestock can be cut by 30%, says FAO. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/sep/26/greenhouse-gas-emissions-livestock.
• Tufts University (n.d.). Feeding the factory farm. Retrieved from http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/BroilerGains.htm.
• Zacharius, N. (2011, Oct 19). It’s time to end factory farming. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/nil-zacharias/its-time-to-end-factory-f_b_1018840.html.

15. References Continued
Premier Foods Group (2018). Meat. Retrieved https://www.premierfoodsgroup.com/the-difference/
University of California Davis (2018). Dairy Lagoons. Retrieved from
http://manure.ucdavis.edu/Illustrations/Dairy_Lagoons/
Panther, L. (2017). Hogwood farm at Oxhill in Warwickshire. Retrieved from
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pig-farm-horror-rotting-piglets-10682183
Moyer, M. W. (2016). How Drug-Resistant Bacteria Travel from the Farm to Your Table. Retrieved from
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-drug-resistant-bacteria-travel-from-the-farm-to-your-
table/.
Lapowsky, I. (2018). WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE CONGRESS ACTUALLY LISTEN
. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/opengov-report-congress-constituent-communication/
Corn Corps (2013). Crop Dusting. Retrieved from http://corncorps.ilcorn.org/2013/08/12/crop-dusting/