4 Reasons Why Factory Farming Still Exists

Factory farming — the intensive confinement of chickens, pigs, and cows on a massive scale — developed in the second half of the 20th century to feed a growing, and increasingly prosperous, post-World War II America. It was made possible by a “set of economic, genetic, chemical, and pharmaceutical innovations” as my colleague Marina Bolotnikova has written.

Those innovations include technologies that enabled meat companies and farmers to breed bigger, faster-growing animals; antibiotics to keep those animals alive in overcrowded farms; chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce abundant, cheap livestock feed; higher-tech tractors to harvest that feed; and a host of federal subsidies and loan programs to help farmers finance it all. Advancements in refrigeration and shipping helped too.

It’s put an astonishing amount of meat on our plates — some 265 pounds annually per American in 2021, a 55 percent increase compared to the early 1900s.