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J Agric Environ Ethics (2014) 27:479522 DOI 10.1007/s10806-014-9497-8
REVIEW PAPER
John Rossi Samual A. Garner
Accepted: 15 February 2014 / Published online: 16 March 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Abstract Over the past century, animal agriculture in the United States has transformed from a system of small, family farms to a largely industrialized modeloften known as industrial farm animal production (IFAP). This model has successfully produced a large supply of cheap meat, eggs and dairy products, but at signicant costs to animal welfare, the environment, the risk of zoonotic disease, the economic and social health of rural communities, and overall food abundance. Over the past 40 years, numerous critiques of IFAP have been published, for both academic and non-academic audiences, mostly focusing on our obligations to animals. Here we offer a comprehensive critique of IFAP, focusing not only on our obligations to animals, but also important environmental, social, economic, and public health concerns. Our cumulative argument proceeds in ve steps: (1) we briey review the structure and key characteristics of IFAP; (2) we review the adverse effects of IFAP; (3) we review the historical development and positive rationale for IFAP; (4) we summarize previous moral critiques of IFAP, as well as defenses of it; and (5) we offer a moral critique of IFAP based on the common morality, and in particular on a principle of nonmalecence, which we take to be the least controversial argument.
Keywords Industrial farm animal production Animal agriculture
Industrial animal agriculture Factory farming Ethics Morality Animal
welfare Animal ethics Public health
J. Rossi (&)
Department of Community Health and Prevention, Drexel University School of Public Health, 3215 Market Street, 4th Floor, MS457, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USAe-mail: [email protected]
S. A. Garner3539 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20010, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Industrial Farm Animal Production: A Comprehensive Moral Critique
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480 J. Rossi, S. A. Garner
Introduction
Over the past century, animal agriculture in the United States (U.S.) has transformed from a system of small, family farms to a largely industrialized model. This industrial model goes by a number of names, including industrial animal agriculture, industrial farm animal production (IFAP), industrial animal production (IAP) and, more colloquially, factory farming; herein we use the term IFAP. IFAP is characterized by corporate ownership and/or...