Economics of farms

Perhaps humans have no sadistic need to harm animals for the sake of it. It’s just that economics dictate how we keep them whilst alive and how we bring them to their deaths. We do what we have to do, to get what we want from them without spending too much money. Since the world is a very competitive place, on board and keep must be at low cost. The most successful competitors set the standards. For example, cage-eggs are kept cheap and so every egg farmer in the world must cage their hens or go out of business. It’s the same with all commodities. If milk is cheaper to ship in from Singapore then we’ll buy it from there … Australian dairy farmers eat your heart out!
To get milk (her milk) and sell it for a profit (our profit) a cow must be cheap to keep and high in yield to supply customer demand. All farm-animal produce is big business. All farm animals die for it.
The idea of being compassionate enough not to buy it would not be understood by most people. For two million years humans have used animal products. In almost every culture on the planet they use animal products. Why change that?
Leaving that question hanging in the air, how must it seem to people who’re totally unaware of ‘vegan principle’ or the idea of ‘animal liberation’? It must be bewildering, the idea of voluntarily denying oneself of thousands of products in the shops. It might seem absurd. In our culture there’s huge emphasis on the enjoyment of food. More so, when animal cuisine is seen as an art form. To add weight to the meat-eater’s perception of vegans being self deniers is the question of masochism, which leads on to all sorts of denigration and much humour at our expense. In contrast is the promotion of the idea of enjoying animal foods, reinforced by the belief that it makes us strong and healthy.
If that belief is set firmly then it would be almost unimaginable to see the need to reverse it all. People mostly believe that factory farming is cruel but they don’t think animal products are anything but beneficial, not unhealthy. And likewise, omnivores can’t imagine animal products being satisfactorily replaced by plant-based products, anywhere in the near future. This means, pretty much, that denial would have to be the order of the day.
A vegan diet seems impractical (whereas of course vegans know it isn’t), so they continue to eat their familiar foods … and, in consequence, deprive animals of their lives.