Meaning & use
factory farmed
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a noun
raised in a large, industrial system where many animals are kept indoors in crowded, tightly controlled conditions to produce meat, eggs or milk cheaply.
Grammar: Usually before a noun: factory-farmed chicken; after a verb it is less common: the eggs were factory farmed.
Patterns
- factory-farmed meat
- be factory farmed
She stopped buying factory-farmed chicken after watching the documentary.
Most cheap eggs in the shop are factory farmed.
The restaurant promises that none of its pork is factory farmed.
Common combinations
- factory-farmed meat
- Factory-farmed meat is usually cheaper than free-range.
- factory-farmed eggs
- They avoid factory-farmed eggs for ethical reasons.
- factory-farmed chicken
- Factory-farmed chicken is common in fast food.
- factory-farmed animals
- Factory-farmed animals often have little room to move.
- not factory farmed
- The label says the salmon is not factory farmed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- intensively farmed
- Intensively farmed is a neutral technical phrase, whereas factory farmed sounds more critical.
- industrially farmed
- Industrially farmed stresses the industrial scale and is less emotive.
- battery-farmed
- Battery-farmed refers to animals kept in cages, especially hens, so it is narrower.
Opposites
Word family
- factory farm noun
- an industrial farm with intensive methods
- factory farming noun
- the practice of raising animals this way
- farm verb
- to grow crops or raise animals
- farmer noun
- a person who farms
Commonly confused: factory farmed or free-range?
factory farmed vs free-range
Free-range animals can go outdoors, while factory farmed animals are usually kept indoors.
Practice
Which label is the opposite of factory farmed?
Choose one answer.
Free-range animals have outdoor access, the opposite of crowded indoor factory farming. Frozen and imported say nothing about how animals were raised.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “factory farmed”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.