ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we give a sketch of how the lives of animals on Norwegian farms have changed during the last century or so, and how our relation to those animals have changed as a result. We focus especially on the emergence of pork and poultry, the two categories of meat which account for most of the unprecedented spike in meat consumption since the late 1950s. The industrialization of agriculture dramatically changed farm life, and thus the lives of animals. We show how this process was predicated on a detachment from the natural cycle of the seasons and on a corresponding dependency on chemical fertilizers and feed concentrates. Industrialization meant moving toward ever larger scales, and this, in turn, entailed a separation of human and animal lives on the farm, thus reducing the level of human-animal cohabitation and interaction. Despite these dramatic changes, consumers often meet images of agriculture that resemble farm life as it used to be, 100 years ago or more. In this way, they are invited to deny the realities of animal lives in the industrial agricultural system.
