Introduction:

The production of animals in factory farms make up a huge portion of the economy alone. The Food & Water Watch, an organization which focuses on the corporate and government accountability relating to food, water and corporate overreach, shows that there are 1.6 billion animals in the United State’s 25 thousand factory farms as of 2020 (Factory Farm Nation: 2020 Edition). When addressing industrial animal production, the economic portion of the production is benefiting the United States greatly. The Iowa Extension Council Association, a networking extension for Iowa’s government leaders to promote programs, shows that Iowa alone, in 2012, produced a total of $20,031,600,284 of economic output (Iowa Extension Council Association). The United States Department of Agriculture, which helps improve economic opportunities and promotes agriculture production to help the United States economy furthermore states that, since 2015, cash receipts of animal products have exceeded 160 billion dollars per year (USDA). These numbers represent the amount of economic growth that industrial animal production contributes. The demand for industrial animal production is on the rise in many well developed countries and through trade, many countries with well produced economic animals are able to profit greatly from their animals. Although industrial animal production contributes to the economy greatly, it has been a controversial topic on how we can improve the welfare and unethical practices of industrial production of animals while still increasing profit and boosting the economy. By improving the technology regarding industrial animal production and implementing policy support for animal farming it will help benefit the economy while shutting down complaints even more. 

Oversea Countries: 

With different countries all wanting more economic animals, the more developed countries with high quality animals gain more profit faster. Juanjuan Li, who graduated from Northwestern University and is affiliated with the Universidad del Zulia and Revista Científica, states that trends show that trade is happening throughout China because of their ability to mass produce and export economic animals (Li). Many other countries are in demand of animals and with animal breeding on the rise, the economy for the countries that have access to producing these industrial animals will increase because many well developed countries are willing to import these animals in exchange for other goods in return. Countries that are able to afford to trade their mass bred animals are continuing their profit and boosting their economy. Martin Upton with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing and business in the U.S. and the U.K  has a HND in business management and goes to say that agricultural markets have expanded by international trade and every country benefits from the trade of livestock (Upton). According to Grid-Adrenal, a non profit environmental communications center, legal animal trade made around €240 billion in 2005 for Norway (The Economy of Legal Wildlife Trade). This shows the massive impact one industry can have on just one country. Countries part of trade agreements and routes are in favor of the economical impacts of industrialized animal production. With animal production, they are able to trade more frequently and have access to producing more animals and repeating that cycle again.

Farmers:

Arguably one of the most important factors of the production process are the farmers who raise these animals and sell them off later. Farmers are required to raise animals such as pigs, cows and chickens for the food industry to help the industry prosper. Animals are mass produced and are needed to become fatter to be able to sell in direct farm sales or markets. Agri-Pulse is the most trusted farm and covers news about agricultural and food safety topics. According to Agri-Pulse, poultry and livestock industries are accountable for producing 1.8 million jobs and contributing $41 billion to the United States household incomes and increased income by $3 billion in the previous 10 years (Animal Agriculture Created over 1.8 Million Jobs in Rural America). With 1.8 million jobs being opened through one industry, the economy thrives especially since it increased household incomes. With all the labor workers and farmers that contribute to the industry, the economy increases off of their work and benefits. These farmers constantly make sure that animals are fed and record the weight of these animals. Farmers keep track of how many animals are available and which ones are ready to sell. According to Juanjuan Li, farmers are increasingly profiting off of animal breeding and with the experience and techniques they have learned, so they keep this industry rising (Li). Since farmers are the ones who also directly profit off of the industrial animal production industry, they have no problem with animal breeding. Farmers would not be affected if nothing were to happen to change the regulations and policies of industrial animal production. 

Activists: 

On the other hand, activists and environmentalists disagree with oversea countries and farmers. According to Dr. Nick Palmer, an old member of Parliament who was the vice-chair of the All PartyAnimal Welfare Group, many of the British public don’t believe that animal farming is entirely necessary to “feed the world” (Factory farms put profit before climate). Activists have a strong opinion on how the production of industrial animals weakens the economy more than it benefits from it. Despite the economy boosting because of outside trading and many jobs, Farrukh Jobivrov, affiliated with the Public Library of Science, found that in Tajikistan, the total cost of fees for feeding were 58.6% of the total production cost plus extra medication and labor costs, which isn’t far off from the profit (Jobivrov et al). In order to boost the economy even more, the cost of feeding animals needs to be reduced because of mass production of livestock. Until then, the cost reduction is eating into profits that could potentially increase our economy. In addition, because of the terrible conditions the mass produced animals are in, it decreases the amount of profit the economy can make. For instance, many diseases are spread in the confined area that animals are living in. The Farm Sanctuary, an organization for industrial reforms says e coli and salmonella are very typical to spread in these farms and get transmitted to consumers where each year 48 million Americans become ill from these diseases (Public Health). According to Timm Kroeger, the senior environmentalist economist at The Nature Conservancy’s Global Science Department, imported animals can host infections and diseases which result in high costs in medical expenses and reduces productivity, quality and can restrict agricultural exports (Kroeger). Kroeger shows that even with the economic increase in trade, many people fail to recognize the additional costs of providing health, technology and food expenses proving the economy might not be rising as much as many people may think. Activists and environmentalists heavily disagree on the cruel practices the industry puts the animals in. They want to put a halt or a solution to industrial farming which will benefit the lives of the animals. 

Solution:

Overseas countries, farmers and activists are all big parts of the animal production industry. With different viewpoints, implementing more scientific and technological research and studies on industrial animal production would best improve the economy without much cost reduction. In addition, implementing policies to organize these farms, increasing awareness and a good image of industrial animal production afterwards would help the economy maintain their profit. According to Jinfeng Zhao, who is connected with the Universidad del Zulia and Revista Científica, science and technology allow for economic animals to be produced more efficiently, upgrading the value of the animals (Zhao et al.). By producing animals at high efficiency and utilizing advanced technology in breeding, the quality of the animals will increase and countries with these economic animals will profit more than countries without them. According to Sicheng Wang, an urban researcher in agriculture and urban problems and their economy, improving agricultural support can also help boost the economy by providing more funds into the industry (Wang et al.). By farmers having more funds to go into producing animals, farmers will then be able to produce more animals efficiently and support the financial investments for economic animals such as the medical expenses. This allows farmers to be able to create a bigger facility and upgrade sanitary processes for the animal’s wellbeing and the consumers, satisfying the economy and activists who promote the environments of the animals.  Zhao also backs this up in his article by writing that implementing government policy support and funding will help improve the production technology to be able to obtain higher quality animals and help farmers track these animals (Zhao et al.). Policies and funding will help benefit and improve the trade of economic animals as well because of the quality of the animals. So, to address the issues of the industrial animal production practices, scientific and technological research should be implemented as well as government policies to support the production of economic animals and reduce their costs. 

Work Cited

“Animal Agriculture Created over 1.8 Million Jobs in Rural America.” AgriPulse 

Communications Inc RSS, Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc., 19 Jan. 2017, agri-pulse.com/articles/1010-animal-agriculture-created-over-1-8-million-jobs-in-rural-america. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022

“Animal Products.” USDA ERS - Animal Products, 

ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022

“Economic Impact: Animal Agriculture” Iowa Extension Council Association, 

iaextensioncouncils.org/files/page/files/Animal%20Ag%20impact%202.pdf Accessed 16 Nov. 2022

“Factory Farming's Toll on Human Health.” Farm Sanctuary, 

farmsanctuary.org/issue/public-health/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2022

Factory Farm Nation: 2020 Edition Food & Water Watch. 

foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ib_2004_updfacfarmmaps-web2.pdf. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022

"Factory farms put profit before climate, say Brits in CIWF poll." Grocer, 19 Nov. 2022, p. 49. Gale 

General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A727059859/GPS?u=nysl_li_mhhs&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=cf925793. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022. 

Jobirov, Farrukh, et al. "Evaluating profitability of beef cattle farming and its determinants 

among smallholder beef cattle farmers in the Baljovan District of Khatlon region, Tajikistan." PLoS ONE, vol. 17, no. 9, 13 Sept. 2022, p. e0274391. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A717391461/GPS?u=nysl_li_mhhs&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=7b74d1bb. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022. 

Kroeger, Timm. “Economic Impacts of Live Wild Animal Imports in the United States - 

Cbd.int.” Economic Impacts of Live Wild Animal Imports in the United States, cbd.int/financial/values/usa-economicanimalimport.pdf. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022

Li, Juanjuan, and Sheng Zhou. "Problems and Countermeasures in Economic Animal Breeding

and Export." Revista Científica de la Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, vol. 29, no. 4, July-Aug. 2019, pp. 983+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A624612453/GPS?u=nysl_li_mhhs&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=1fb92e83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2022.

“The Economy of Legal Wildlife Trade: Grid-Arendal.” GRID, 

grida.no/resources/7309. Accessed 10 Dec. 2022

Upton, Mark. The Role of Livestock in Economic Development and Poverty ... - Gov.uk. 

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08cac40f0b6497400136c/PPLPIwp10.pdf. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022

Wang, Sicheng, et al. "The Current Situation of Special Economic Animal Breeding and the 

Planning and Construction of Investment Service System under the Revitalization of Rural Industry." Revista Científica de la Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, vol. 29, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2019, pp. 1364+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A624690462/GPS?u=nysl_li_mhhs&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=67fe4720. Accessed 13 Nov. 2022

Zhao, Jingfeng, et al. "Measurement and Evaluation of Export Quality Competitiveness of 

Economic Animals." Revista Científica de la Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, vol. 30, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2020, pp. 229+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A624611238/GPS?u=nysl_li_mhhs&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=667ab265. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.