What is a Factory Farm?

Some people think of the heart wrenching scene in a Chipotle commercial where the cattle were in boxes and crying. This is nothing but a marketing ploy to persuade people who are uninformed to chose their products. In reality these farms can be owned by a larger corporation or business. Think of any fast food restaurant, there are multiple locations, but they are under the same name.

Corporation farming

To many peoples surprise corporation farming is not a bunch of suit wearing men in a board room figuring out the budget for the year, it can also be a family. Many family's go corporate to create a save guard around themselves and their farm. While many people will look at this situation and only see large commercial farms, around 88% of farms are still family owned.

Consolidation of the farms in the U.S.

The basic answer to why we are seeing less farms and larger farms is that production on a large enough scale to make money is hard to do. It is hard to do for everyone, because the majority of the Ag products rely on a market price that changes. There is no guaranteed pay in these types of jobs. But when a larger business owns the ranch, the workers are going to get paid, and losses will not devastate the families tied to the ranch.