when did factory farming start in the us
Intensive animal farming According to the BBC, the era factory farming per se in Britain began in 1947 when a new Agriculture Act granted subsidies to farmers to encourage greater output by introducing new technology, in order to reduce Britain's reliance on imported meat. The United Nations writes that "intensification of animal production was seen as a way of providing food security."[14] In 1966, the United States, United Kingdom and other industrialized nations, commenced factory farming of beef and dairy cattle and domestic pigs.[15] From its American and West European heartland factory farming became globalised in the later years of the 20th century and is still expanding and replacing traditional practices of stock rearing in an increasing number of countries.[15] In 1990 factory farming accounted for 30% of world meat production and by 2005 this had risen to 40%.[15]
Industrial Revolution in the United States Famed Merchant Francis Cabot Lowell memorized the designs of British textile machines in 1810 and realized that, during the War of 1812, demand for domestic finished cloth increased as imports were drastically cut through embargoes. When he returned to the United States, he set up the Boston Manufacturing Company, which employed the famed Lowell system as a response to poor working conditions in England, initially employing many women. His company was massively successful and extremely productive, especially because his competitors continued to use labor-intensive methods while he employed the mechanized spinning jenny and the water frame. The systems developed by the Boston Manufacturing Company and Lowell himself, such as vertical integration and mass production, found replicas across the country as the United States began to recognize the need for economic independence and industrial development in the wake of the Embargo Act of 1807, which highlighted the country's long-term reliance on the British Empire for trade in important refined resources.[2] Since it became clear the U.S. had relied too heavily on foreign refinement of resources,[3] entrepreneurs such as Oliver Evans, Robert Fulton, and Matthias W. Baldwin capitalized on this mostly new industry and mechanized refinement and transportation, thereby drastically increasing the economic independence of the United States for resource refinement and fueling the war effort against Britain.