I have noticed that, on many of our visits to animal producers – whether they be farms or associations – people get very offended at the mention of a “factory farm.” However, they don’t quite deny the classification; they tend to attempt to distract from it with either a, “What is a factory farm?” or an “I work on this farm with my father and grandmother!” – something of that sort.

After being in Iowa for two weeks, I can see both sides of this issue. Of course, factory farms have been vilified in the media, made out to be heartless, reckless, unfeeling corporations that terrorize the market. I tend to have a bit of a different definition of a factory farm: I see a factory farm as, basically, an operation that produces a lot of meat – simply put, a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation), which is more based on size and practice than business status or employee relationships. The Friests’ hog operation is legally defined as a CAFO, even though only 3-4 family members do all of the work onsite. Anyway, I guess this perspective of mine causes me to be a bit taken aback by those who are offended at the mention of their operation as a factory farm.

My question is: why not explain the term rather than running from it? I’ve begun to understand that farmers, like any hardworking people, probably feel the need to defend time-honored and work-intensive practices that others tell them are wrong. However, I do not think that factory farms are inherently bad. They do not necessarily harm the animals or workers – though, of course, exceptions may always be found. Factory farms, or CAFOs, are simply one way of cheaply and efficiently producing a product that the American market demands. Maybe, if the media and the American people could all have an Iowa Farm May Experience, they would all understand. Since that is unlikely, it does seem that some sort of education is necessary, and the responsibility for such education falls, I believe, on the farmers. Americans seem to have a renewed interest in food these days – what it’s made of, where it comes from, who’s in charge of it – and I would predict (or at least hope) that they are willing to listen to a correction of misinformation.

Do I agree with the practices of factory farms? Nope. (See my previous post, “Factory farm?”, for a few brief reasons, or comment on this post for further dialogue.) I will always advocate for a more local and sustainable form of agriculture, but I don’t think that that gives me the right to tell someone else that their practice is flat-out wrong and should be abolished. As the conventional and organic farmers have both said: for now, there’s room for everything in our market, and people deserve a choice. I don’t think that it’s a prudent one, but, in the meantime, CAFOs are providing livelihoods for many, like our dear friends, the Friests, and that’s valuable.