Factory Farms

During the mid-nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution swept the United States; its key principles were mass-produced goods, standardized production, and lowered costs compared with goods traditionally produced by cottage industries. Efficiency became the yardstick in judging the success of industrial operations.

Observers at the time concluded that American agriculture was generally inefficient in comparison to industrial operations, and that the principles that characterized the Industrial Revolution in manufacturing should be applied to farming as well. In 1890, the British economist Alfred Marshall proposed the development of “factory farms,” which were to be large farms organized around the principles of factory management. Marshall projected that farm machinery would be “specialized and economized, waste of material would be avoided, by-products would be utilized, and above all the best skill and managing power would be employed.”