This House Believes In Banning Factory Farming

“This doesnt relate to my point as even if the act of factory farming is not morally right, we cant do anything about that. even if factory farming gives animals a poor quality life we would still to slaughter meat anyway. even free ranges farming is the same, ‘feed,fatten and kill!’” I have previously conceded that animals will probably have to be killed in some manner to produce food for our society. That is also not the issue here. The issue is whether or not the benefits of factory farming outweigh the costs. The benefits are cheap, plentiful animal products that come from very efficient factories. The costs are serious environmental damage, health risks for humans, economic problems, and providing the animals with an incredibly poor quality of life. On the point of quality of life, my opponent says that “even if [they have] a poor quality life we would still to slaughter meat anyway”. What my opponent is trying to say is that the quality of life of animals has no value. I would like to respond to this with two analyses. 1. Religious Perspective: By analyzing moral codes of major religions, they see all life as having value. Humans are stewards of the earth, and should treat all life with respect and dignity. Humans can kill animals for food, but should do so respectfully. 2. Secular Perspective: No objective basis is given to distinguish humans from animals. There is no evidence given to acknowledge intellectual capacity as a brightline. Animals still have the capacity to feel pain. Unless my opponent can give a moral framework that recognizes human moral dignity and completely disregards animal moral dignity, then my opponent has no point here. “Come on – a pig fart joke is one thing, but you can't seriously argue this! Are we really supposed to believe that pig-produced methane is even in the same league as pollution from big business and industry” As previously cited in evidence, the massive scale of factory farming manure disposal releases immense amounts of bacteria and gases into the environment. This was cited in previous evidence. Here is some more evidence: “Livestock are responsible for 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide according to the U.N. – more than all the planes, trains, and automobiles on the planet.” -The Los Angeles Times 2006 “On the Unethical part, as agian i will repeat, no matter how cruel and inhumane YOU think factory farming is, we will still have to KILL anmials one way or another. killing is unethical but its a beast eat beast world out there and its the survival of the fittest.” XA- No moral framework XA- Non-responsive “Many of these animals exist because we eat them, anyway – pigs, cows, sheep, chickens – all animals that are bred in their millions because we want to eat them.” XA- No moral framework “Man should treat man with respect and dignity – but animals are not our equals, don't have any capacity for higher thought, and can be used for our benefit without any moral problem.” XA- No moral framework No warrant “Furthermore, the large firms responsible for ‘factory' farming are more easily monitored by law so the animals often fare better than they would have done in normal farming – so it's not true that factory farming is particularly cruel.” No warrant, see previous evidence “Factory farming is less cruel than you think. What is true is that activists have ensured the few isolated incidents of cruelty or bad practice have received publicity well out of proportion with their significance.” No warrant My previous evidence shows standard procedure of factory farm hatcheries “Another point i think you said something about factory farmers feeding growth pills that speeds up growth. well farming has always been the imposition of artificial, man-made patterns on nature so we're doing what farming is meant to do.” There is a difference between manipulating nature to benefit humans (farming) and synthesizing chemicals to inject into animals. XA- Health issues “Impratical. to ban factory farming, you would have to get rid of all factory farms, demolish them, fire and re-hire staff, train staff, provide massive amout of land needs for free ranged farming and rasie the prices on all meat industries. thats Ridiculous!! not only will that be impossibe to provide as much meat provided by factory farms, people in low-income communties would go insane! due to the recent raise in GST it is getting harder to put food on the table. by getting rid of factory farms, meat prices would sky-rocket!!” My opponent proposes a false dichotomy between current factory farming policy and immediate ban of factory farming. XA- Economic harms. The artificially low prices are created by shifting costs to damage to the environment, human health, and ethical treatment of animals. Since my opponent mentioned practicality, any type of alternative would require weighing between maintaining economic balance and promoting non-factory farms. All claims by my opponent are unwarranted. All of my opponent’s points elucidate the fact that we are going to eat animals. I have conceded that we will eat animals. My opponent fails to recognize any of my previous points. Extend all drops. My opponent has not challenged any of my evidence or arguments and has only made unwarranted claims.