ABSTRACT
Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) raise and slaughter billions of land animals and fish. This chapter offers some background about the industrial production of animal products. It considers a few aspects of the complex industry to highlight some of the many dimensions of the controversies surrounding CAFOs. The chapter suggests that there are opportunities for some moral and policy progress, at least through changing institutions that foster practices people widely view as deeply problematic. In some cases, however, additional policies are needed to reduce the extent to which people risk uncompensated harms to others. Aim of the chapter is modest: It proposes neither the eradication of an industry nor the redirection of global diets. The chapter explores some of the challenges for regulating CAFOs and considers whether developed societies can do more about the impact of CAFOs through public policies that encourage people and industries to bear the costs their actions impose on others.
