ABSTRACT
This contribution explores the emergence of factory farming, focusing on a pivotal precondition for the rise of industrial agriculture: the changing relationship between farmers and their animals. The period from 1850 to 1950, however, saw important shifts in the human–animal agrarian relationship. Americans not only gradually moved into urban settings and pursued urban occupations, but those who stayed on the farm (still a majority) also began to conceptualize their animals as highly functional but ultimately emotionless machines made with interchangeable parts.
