History of Factory Farming

Overview: Industrial animal agriculture — "factory farming" — is a 20th century invention. It emerged from the convergence of post-WWII economic pressures, scientific advances in animal husbandry, antibiotic availability, and political choices about how to produce cheap protein. Understanding this history is essential for understanding both how we arrived here and what it will take to change.

Before Intensification: Farming and Animals Before 1940

Pre-industrial livestock farming was characterized by:

Small, diversified family farms where animals spent most of their lives outdoors
Seasonal production cycles aligned with natural animal behavior
Personal relationships between farmers and individual animals (named cows, known pigs)
Significant constraints: small flocks and herds due to disease, limited feed availability, manual labor requirements
Animals served multiple functions: eggs and draft power from chickens, milk and draft from cattle, manure for fertilizer

The Intensification Revolution: 1940-1970

Key Drivers of Intensification:

Antibiotics (1940s-50s): Discovery that low-dose antibiotics accelerated animal growth and enabled high-density confinement by controlling disease — the technological key that made factory farming possible
Vitamins A and D (1920s-30s): Enabled raising animals entirely indoors without sunlight
Cheap grain: Post-WWII agricultural productivity increases made grain-based intensive feeding economical
Refrigeration infrastructure: Enabled centralized slaughter and long-distance meat distribution
Post-war food policy: Government policies in US and Europe prioritized cheap food production; factory farming received substantial subsidies
Selective breeding: Dramatic genetic selection for production traits (growth rate, egg laying) at the expense of health and welfare

Battery Cages — A Case Study in Intensification:

The battery cage was invented in the 1920s but adopted widely in the 1950s-60s:

Allowed dramatically increased hen density per square foot of building
Enabled continuous egg production monitoring and egg collection
Reduced labor costs; made eggs a cheap commodity
Completely eliminated natural hen behaviors — justified as "more efficient"
By 1960, battery cages were standard across the US and rapidly spreading to Europe

The Welfare Response Begins: 1960s-1980s

Animal Welfare as a Response to Factory Farming:

1964: Ruth Harrison's Animal Machines published — first major exposé of factory farming for a general audience; triggered public outrage in the UK
1965: UK Brambell Report — government-commissioned response to Harrison's book; first scientific welfare assessment of intensive systems; articulated "Five Freedoms" concept
1974: Peter Singer's Animal Liberation — provided philosophical framework for treating farm animal welfare as a moral issue of first importance
1979: Farm Animal Welfare Council established in UK — first government body dedicated to monitoring farm animal welfare
First animal welfare organizations specifically targeting farm animals emerged in this period (Compassion in World Farming founded 1967)

Intensification Continues: 1980s-2000s

Despite growing public concern, intensification accelerated globally:

Factory farming spread from US and Western Europe to Brazil, China, Southeast Asia, and globally
Vertical integration: Tyson Foods, Cargill, and other companies consolidated the entire supply chain from feed to retail
Selective breeding continued: broilers reaching slaughter weight in 35 days (from 84 days in 1950s)
Gestation crates became standard for sow housing in US in the 1980s
Number of animals raised annually continued to grow: ~70 billion land animals slaughtered annually by 2020

Reform Wins: 2000-Present

Key Welfare Milestones:

2012: EU ban on conventional battery cages for laying hens (introduced 2000)
2013: Blackfish documentary triggers SeaWorld orca reforms
2015-2020: Wave of corporate cage-free commitments from McDonald's, Nestlé, and hundreds of others
2016: SeaWorld ends orca breeding program
2018: EU bans outdoor neonicotinoid use (protecting bees)
2020-2024: Better Chicken Commitment adopted by 200+ companies globally
2022: UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act recognizes fish as sentient
2023: Multiple countries ban or phase out mink farming

Looking Forward

The history of factory farming is also the history of a social movement resisting it. What took 60+ years to build through policy choices, economic pressures, and cultural normalization now faces an increasingly organized global movement. The trajectory suggests accelerating reform, though the scale of the problem — tens of billions of animals in intensive systems — means even significant percentage improvements leave massive numbers of animals suffering.