The lack of beauty and truth in modern agriculture is not a benign side effect of efficient production. In the short term, it represents a design flaw to be overcome. Marketers are tasked with painting over the truth, and laws are passed to limit public visibility into these operations. These techniques have propped up the system so far. But make no mistake, in the long run, the combination of ugliness and deception is the system’s Achilles’ heel.

... factory farming is not inevitable, despite its prominence in America today. Even a generation ago the food system for animals looked totally different than it does now. The products that we see in the markets and the farms dotting the landscape are the outcome of a very intentional process, mostly by a small handful of very large meat companies, to produce a system that predominantly benefits them.