At what point do we consider a farm a "factory farm"?

In my eyes a factory farm is a mass production "animal factory" where animals are "manufactured" for the sole purpose of being eaten, their needs do not come into the equasion and the living conditions are that of a factory and not a farm, when I think of a farm I think of a peaceful country setting, where the only noises are a tractor humming and a rooster crowing, where the animals graze in rolling fields on fresh grass and hens strut around proudly, when I think of a factory farm I think of a dark, noisy, "metallic" enviroment where the priority is to roll out meat, not make sure your food comes from a clean, safe place where at leased the animal has had a decent existance.

When the animals are kept in inhumane conditions- think 10 hens in a cage the size of a microwave.

Factory farms are for mass production and employ automation and sometime practices that may be considered inhumane treatment to animals.

Farms are not really factories. Factories use non-biological inputs to manufacture non-biological products. (steel and rubber to make cars, etc.) Farmers use biological inputs to grow biological products. (corn to produce pork, etc.) Farmers have however, advanced with the times, as has the rest of the world. Ford no longer produces Model T's and pork producers no longer produce the fat pork that was produced by their forefathers. To keep the price of your food low, farmers have been forced to accept lower profit per unit of output, and therefore must produce more outputs than just 10 or 20 years ago. Where a farmer once produced 1000 hogs per year to support his family, he now must produce 10,000 per year for the same level of net income. (The same is true of grain farmers. They once could get by on 4-500 acres, now it takes 1500-2000 acres.) Economies of scale do not make them a factory, it just reflects the lowered profit per unit produced. Most people are now 2 or 3 generations (or more) removed from living on the farm. They don't realize that farming has changed, as has the rest of the world. Advancements in breeding, nutrition, management, and computers has allowed agriculture to keep pace with the world's increasing population and supply food and fiber to the world at ever decreasing percentages of their income.

factory farms are typically those who produce mass quantities and process the goods on location.I grew up on a farm and we were a working farm,factory implies industrialization like automated milkers and such.

First and foremost I love farmers, they are the people that feed us, produce our sustenance. Mass production is considered "factory farms" it is not segregated to farming the land. Consider chickens who are bred for the sole purpose of human consumption. they never peck the ground, unless of course you buy what they call "free range chickens" chickens that were raised on a real farm free to peck the ground and so on. I hope this helps, also when a farmer only concentrates on one crop as their source or main source of income for the farm this could be considered "factory farms"

a scientific point of view the most basic "currency" (money) is energy however you measure it my concept of a factory farm is any 'agricultural system' that requires more energy input than is obtained from it the 'system' should include processes up to the point where food enters your mouth (so it should include 'costs' such as the energy input required to transport the product to the 'consumer' incidently, considered from this aspect---the highly mechanized, high fertilizer/pesticide/transport dependent US farmer is the least efficient farmer in the world in fact the US farmer inputs more energy than he outputs not even considering ecological costs however in money terms 'he' is the most efficient because of the large land "ownership" he has a disproportionate say it in "democracy" "farm subsidies" huh?

factory is when they over produce animals eggs milk vegitables but no i have not heard that one.