Factory Farming: Moral Theology

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FaithRuir

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Oops, sorry, kinda new to this forum interface and I ended up linking my topic to another, deleted that aso I’m re-uploading it.

Sorry if I posted in the wrong category, don’t really know where this belongs.

So I’ve been thinking about factory farming lately, and I found reads like this one, a 3 part series in a Moral Theology site about the subject. The writer is a Canadian Moral Theology professor calling for Catholics to discuss this issue more and to oppose the consumption of factory-farmed meat, calling the industry “institutionalized cruelty” and saying we are cooperating with evil by doing so.
https://catholicmoraltheology.com/a...ction-to-animal-cruelty-a-call-to-conversion/
One thing I found odd about it though is the citation of PETA as a source, as many of you know they tend to overblow things and give attributes to animals that they really don’t have.

I myself am for the better treatment of farm animals, reforms like one proposition that passed overwhelmingly in California (at least they’re doing one thing right) and setting standards for farms, such as giving each chicken at least one square foot of space.
But the whole topic has always been a bit… difficult for me.

EDIT: This is more about discussing the article, sorry if it just sounded like another “is this mortal?” post. I found it pretty interesting to read.
 
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So… it’s easy to tell farmers and ranchers “you gotta treat your animals better.” But if you want to go a step beyond that, it’s better to get involved with your food yourself, to the capacity that you’re able.

Backyard chickens. Bees. Rabbits. Milk goats. Gardening.

It gives us a connection to our food that most people experienced, in one way or another, up until, say, 75-100 years ago. (And those who had a more urban existence had a much rougher time of WWI and WWII shortages than those who were able to supplement their rations and food stamps.)

Not everyone can run out and stick a Jersey in their backyard. (I’ve got a friend with a Jersey. So jealous.) Not everyone’s municipalities have ordinances that allow backyard chickens. (I like to support my local homesteaders who live outside the city limits and buy their eggs.)

A local homesteader raised a lamb for us. I was there when they wethered it, and I was there when they killed it, and I watched them process it. (For the most part. It was very cold. And it was a multi-day process. But I hung around for several hours.) It was delicious.

So many chicken breeds are in danger of being extinct, because you don’t have millions of people keeping three or four or five or ten in their back yards. (Was chatting with a friend about her legbars earlier today.)

If people really want to do the moral thing, they need to make sure their food is well-taken-care-of prior to its becoming food, because they’re the ones taking care of it… not because something got legislated that said “this is what free-range is” or “this is what cage-free is”. Because chances are, unless you’re personally familiar with the farm in question, the free-range chicken or cage-free eggs that you buy in the store are just as crowded as their regular factory farming counterparts…

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I’m all for animal welfare and pay more for products produced without cruelty. There is no long-standing Catholic teaching against cruelty to animals of which I am aware. There is also a failure to explain the existence of animal pain and suffering in the world before people evolved and now. Darwin famously said he found to difficult to believe in a god who would create a caterpillar only to have it live out its life as a host for a parasitic wasp. The Church in my opinion has never responded effectively. It is good that practices such as the one in the link below have gradually been eliminated, although I think much of the pressure has been from outside the Church. Goat Throwing in Spain - Marbella Guide
 
Catechism 2415-2418 make it very clear that we as Catholics cannot be cruel to animals. Iirc Pope Benedict XVI spoke of problems with factory farming.

How sad, I thought buying mayonnaise or other egg products from my current suppliers were ethical. Turns out that the egg industry has chickens specifically bred to make good eggs, so the males are thrown out (quite literally) and upon hatching are put to death, by being ground up alive, gassed, or suffocated.

Maybe the article does have a point, maybe we as Catholics can’t buy factory farm products in good conscience.
 
As someone with farmers in my family, I am strongly in favour of protecting traditional farming, even with government subsidies and legislation, for the sake of our farmers even more than for the sake of the animals - although the latter is a very valid concern.

My family has a 2000 acre farm with 200 head of cattle, which are managed by one man (my brother). This give him a job, and also regular casual employment to many others - temporary labourers, vets, specialists such as fencers and agronomists, etc.

The day will come when it’s more economical to raise those 200 cattle in a factory, as we already do for chicken and pigs, and my brother will be out of a job. So too will eventually all small farms become unviable.

When that happens our farms will turn to whatever can be extracted from them through mass production - if anything.

Similar processes are happening with all industry. It’s simply shifting to mass production, and then being shifted overseas.

My son started his working life as a butcher in 2009, where he cut meat in a supermarket, to be sold on the shelves there. Within two years most of the meat was being cut in a factory and his job was mostly to stack it on shelves. When he quit for another job, one of the older butchers told him that was a good decision, as “there’s no future in butchering”.

I just detest this movement of every labouring and skilled job to mass production. :cry: and am in favor of any political intervention to reverse it, and am quite happy to pay higher prices for a more balanced society and countryside.

@Greenfields - as a someone from the country, and closer to it than me, do you have any opinion or information on this?

It’s good for animals also.
 
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This being said, would that mean we are under a moral obligation from all factory meat? Enter my egg example.

But not all factory farms are that bad… are they?
 
I enjoy my grass fed steaks :roll_eyes:The cattle enjoy the freedom and have a lot less health risks (apart from the occasional drought 🙂)
I’m going to walk the dog and catch some free range mushrooms…🙃
 
FaithRuir said:
This being said, would that mean we are under a moral obligation from all factory meat? Enter my egg example.

But not all factory farms are that bad… are they?
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Re: eggs - I feel a moral obligation to, where I can, buy from any retailer which advertises chickens and eggs as ethically farmed. It isn’t happening with egg products yet but McDonald’s have said they plan to move their eggs to free range by, if I recall correctly, 2022, so when that happens I would choose their stores over others. We can only take the options available to us. So, simply, I don’t think it’s unethical to buy mayo made with factory hen eggs - yet.

Thanks for the info about the fate of male chickens. :cry:😯

I don’t know enough to answer your question about factory beef. I wish I knew more. This is mostly in my “Business as usual, but I’m worried” list. @Greenfields’ comments above are relevant.

Just one aspect which highlights the difference is (I am only guessing, and may be wrong) that factory cows are impregnated with artificial insemination. Gross and unnatural. My brother keeps several bulls to do it the natural way.
 
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(I found some rose hips to try making jelly out of,I wasn’t too cruel picking out the hips😸)
 
Keep in mind that the more restrictions put on the agricultural industry, the more the food will cost. This hurts the poor that already struggle to make ends meet. Efficiency helps feed the 7 billion people on this earth.
 
Convert3 said:
Keep in mind that the more restrictions put on the agricultural industry, the more the food will cost. This hurts the poor that already struggle to make ends meet. Efficiency helps feed the 7 billion people on this earth.
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This is very true.
We already have too many people living on too much carbohydrates and not enough proteins and vegetables.

Intellectually, I oppose factory farming, and support being involved in your own food production, but the way my life has led up to this point, I’m not able to do much about it.
I work outside the home to pay for Catholic school tuitions. It’s the decision DH and I made. But like all decisions for people who aren’t sitting on a large pile of money, in order to achieve one good, another good has to get sacrificed.

If I’m in the supermarket, and I have the choice between the free range eggs and the normal eggs, we can afford for the free range eggs, usually. We are financially secure enough to do that. Or to choose the grass fed meat.
From time to time, however, we get a bunch of expenses all at once, and it’s back to the cheaper options.

But we’ll never be able to afford to shop exclusively at Whole Foods.
Organic food is pretty much a hobby for rich people.
 
Remember that agriculture is a business. People engage in it to make money. It is in their best interest to treat their animals well. Poorly treated animals are stressed and do not contribute to profitability. Are there poor stewards out there? Of course there are, just like those that exist in any business.
Also remember that those creating the majority of the discussion of “factory farms” and other scary topics are also in a business. Their business is raising money by generating outrage from people who are multiple generations removed from where their food comes from and have no personal frame of reference. They rely too heavily on things they read from sources that have their own agenda.
The reality is that there is no way to produce enough food to feed the current population with the methods that were used in our grandparents generation. Even systems that worked 30 years ago are no longer viable.
We made a deal with the devil to allow most of the population to leave agriculture for better paying or easier job opportunities in towns and cities.
We can’t have it both ways. Even if we could, most people are unable or unwilling to pay the costs involved to actually have a food system that many say they want.
 
My wife owns several fur coats.

From what I understand, the foxes are farmed out (SAGA pelts), and that they’re put to sleep using some sort of gas. From there, their pelts are harvested and the remains are actually ground up into food for other animals.
 
re: free range, don’t forget that it’s ultimately just legal semantics, unless you’re personally aware of the methods of the institution in question.

Most of the meat chickens, for example, are Cornish crosses of some sort. Have you ever seen a Cornish cross? They’re not the most mobile chickens-- some of them even develop skeletal issues if they’re allowed to get too old past the usual butchering age. It’s a common problem. But because they’re bred for feed conversion— it’s not a big deal.


But even if they’re raised in a giant commercial farm, and they’re given access to the outside for a few hours, they’re not the kind of chickens who are going to run off and frolic.
The USDA’s (and industry standard) definition for “Free Range” is that birds must have “outdoor access” or “access to the outdoors.” In some cases, this can mean access only through a “pop hole,” with no full-body access to the outdoors and no minimum space requirement.
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and
Without any legal definitions for the terms, HFAC’s previous “Free Range” standards were written for what is now defined as “Pasture Raised” standards and had a requirement of 2.5 acres per 1000 birds (108 sq. ft per bird), which is the standard space requirement based on the British Free Range Standard and was a recommendation of the “Soil Association,” an organization founded in 1946, which focuses on sustainable farming and preventing soil degradation. As consumer demand has increased for Certified Humane® products, HFAC realized a need to separate the terms to define farms that had “outdoor access” and create a standard for “Free Range” versus those that were actually “Pasture Raised.”
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I disagree with the animal rights activists on a lot of their priorities— I’d rather us focus on saving the baby humans before we save the baby whales-- but they’re accurate that modern husbandry leaves a lot to be desired. We also think there are different solutions-- I’m more likely to want people to have more personal involvement with their food supply, and they’re more likely to want people to stop eating cows and pigs and chickens and ducks and turkeys and fish. But they’re accurate with some of their facts, and just throwing a label on something doesn’t mean that our fantasy idea of what that label means has any link to the reality of the life that animal experienced.
 
Several of you have made good points about the economics, namely that both our huge global population as a whole, and most individuals, depend on the cheap food of factory farming, and that being fussy about free-range is somewhat of a luxury.

I think though that we are all sympathetic to the issue that animals are not just commodities to be exploited without concern for their welfare, and that we must balance the economics with animal welfare.

There was some sympathy for my point that farming methods which protect rural jobs and communities are also worth consideration, at least.

Not coincidentally, free range food both tastes better and is healthier. At a price…

These issues are not as urgent as others which affect humans more directly but it’s an important conversation and one which needs steady consideration and action.
 
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Yes, these are pretty valid points. If meat isn’t affordable then how are these people getting a good amount of it’s proteins at a price they could manage? Iirc meat is more nutritious than other protein sources like beans or nuts when it comes to how much is used. I unfortunately am not good at understanding their perspective but maybe going vegan isn’t quite the best thing for them.

But maybe for those that can afford more ethical alternatives, or have the time to look for those “humane” certifications in their next grocery run. There may be a certain obligation in that regard.

I personally would still not get eggs, the slaughter of millions of chicks leaves me uncomfortable, but luckily, American egg producers announced that they were gonna end this barbaric practice by next year. Instead of senseless murder they can now use new technology to find male and female destined eggs, so they could prevent suffering by just terminating the eggs. It’s nothing perfect but it’s better than what they’re doing currently… shame so many eggs will go to waste still.

Companies are also starting to find out that their customers want more ethical products. One company I found called Coleman Organic/Natural/whatever takes pride in giving more suitable conditions to its animals, such as by giving sows the ability to move around and practice natural nursing behavior. They also claim to only give their livestock antibiotics when necessary, providing veterinary care. They also say they function to give their chickens more than the standard “fatten up until you’re 6 weeks old” care, there’s more on their website.

It’s good to know progress is being made, the vote in the California midterms gave me hope too.
 
FaithRuir said:
upon hatching are put to death, by being ground up alive, gassed, or suffocated.
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The local humane society collects stray cats and dogs. They hold them for a few weeks and if no one wants them, they will “put them down”, i.e., kill them. Should Catholics protest that or just accept it as being OK ?
 
Well, we are under a moral obligation to be good stewards of the earth, and Laudato Si spells out our responsibilities in the face of climate change. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan claims that 1/3 of carbon emissions in the U.S. come from transporting food.

I don’t think you need to go to Confession for, say, eating a factory-farmed Big Mac. But there is definitely a bigger picture to our food choices. The age of unfettered and indiscriminate mass consumption may be coming to an end as we become more aware of the impact we’re making.
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Organic food is pretty much a hobby for rich people.
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I’m again going back to Pollan’s book here. 🙂 His best advice is to prioritize buying local food over organic food. USDA certification is prohibitively expensive for local farmers, (a cost inevitably and necessarily passed down to consumers), and rife with red tape and conflicts of interest.

Local food is more affordable, (especially if you grow it!), and often marked as “local” at our supermarkets. We have a favorite local farmer and just take his word for it when he calls his farm “no-spray.” I still buy organics but prioritize those choices by the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists.

I hereby descend from my soapbox . . .
 
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