Constructing Consumables and Consent: A Critical Analysis of Factory Farm Industry Discourse

Abstract

With the relatively recent advent of the factory farming industry (or corporations that confine, breed, fatten, and slaughter nonhuman animals using modern industrial methods), an assortment of corporate strategies have ensued that construct an image of a benevolently beneficial industry. Far from benign, however, factory farms are responsible for a tremendous amount of environmental damage, and although the concerns are significant, the controversy surrounding factory farms and activists’ strategies have rendered little, if any, change. Part of the reason for this ineffectiveness is the immense power of the discursive strategies constructed to support the industry. This article focuses on two codependent corporate strategies: (1) the widespread use of “doublespeak” to describe particular processes internal to the industry, and (2) the creation of “speaking” animals in advertisements to sell the products of those industrial processes. The author argues that these discourses help construct how US Americans think about animals in ways that—tacitly and oftentimes unintentionally—endorse industry practices even in the face of serious concerns raised by environmental and animal advocates.