Lexical Strategies and Ideological Reframing: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Factory Farming Narratives

Abstract

Factory farming is a big topic of conversation about food around the world. It affects how people think about it, environmental policy, and moral issues. This study examines the linguistic and ideological strategies utilized in the Genetic Literacy Project essay, “Rethinking Pros and Cons of Livestock ‘Factory Farms’,” to reframe industrial livestock production as rational, indispensable, and socially beneficial. The study employs Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model of Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate how lexicalisation, interdiscursivity, and evaluative framing validate industrial-scale agriculture, concurrently shifting accountability from corporate and regulatory bodies to consumers. Studies show that terms used in industry, such as "efficiency," "scale," and "lower emissions," as well as inclusive pronouns and trade-off framing, support factory farming as an important part of modern food systems. This research contributes to agricultural discourse studies by demonstrating how language serves as a mechanism for ideological reinforcement, influencing public acceptance of controversial production systems.