Factory-farm system // schematic sheet

The machine that turns feed, money & animals into meat

Experimental view D of 5: the industrial animal-agriculture system drawn as an electronics schematic. Traces carry throughput, fuses blow on real shocks, resistors are welfare rules, and ground drains the costs nobody pays at the till. Hover, tap, or tab any component to open its datasheet. Every figure is sourced.

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Wide schematic. Best on a larger screen - on mobile the board scrolls sideways.
PROBE a part: hovertapTab + Enter → opens its datasheet. Trace width ∝ animal throughput.
+SUPPORT RAIL  (SUBSIDIES / PROMOTION) PSU1 SUBSIDY SUPPLY 82%20 to animal products U0 GENETICS 2-pin duopoly AVIAGEN COBB U1 HATCHERY flock origin 76.2B/yr1 U2 GROW-OUT feed converter ~5% die3 U3 SLAUGHTER Big Four packers 80-85%17 U4 PROCESSING grower tournament 6.79¢/lb38 RL1 CONSUMER demand / load ~$1.4T40 C1 CHECKOFF FAULT BUS - single-pathogen / shock trips REFORM / REGULATION BUS - resistances (welfare rules & bans) FACTORY-FARM SYSTEM - MAIN SHEET DRAWN BY Claude, for Em Ponders REV v0.01 DATE 2026-07-08 SHEET / SCALE 1 of 1   NTS Public advocacy schematic - figures verified, ranges shown honestly.

Oscilloscope - system time-series

CH1 FERTILIZER INDEX2020→22
N. America fertilizer index hit an all-time high of 1,270.4 on 25 Mar 2022, past the 2008 record.14
CH2 CHINA MEAT/CAP1961→23
China rose from 3.4→73.5 kg per person, a ~20-fold climb; pork two-thirds of it.21
CH3 H5N1 BIRDS CULLED2022→25
Cumulative U.S. losses reached ~187.7M birds since Feb 2022 - the worst outbreak on record.27
CH4 MEAT OUTPUT PROJ.2012→50
FAO projects ~455 Mt of meat by 2050, ~50% above 2012 (poultry the biggest share).22

Legend & reference designators

Signal current - live-animal throughput. Trace width is proportional to flow.
Power / money - subsidies and marketing feeding the board from the +support rail.
Reform bus - welfare rules and bans acting as resistance in the return path.
Drains - losses (mortality, condemnation, waste) headed to ground.
U
Stage IC (hatchery, grow-out, slaughter, processing).
F
Fuse - a fragile point that trips on a real shock.
R
Resistor - a regulatory friction limiting flow.
C
Capacitor - stored marketing charge sustaining demand.
TP
Test point - a probe reading from the attrition funnel.
⍶
Ground - externalized costs drained out of the system.

Sources - every figure on this sheet

    Method: figures are drawn from a verified research dossier. Where fact-checking corrected a claim, the corrected value is shown (e.g. cattle slaughtered ~291 million, not 309.9; FY2026 Beef Checkoff ~$38.1M, not $32.15M). Ranges are shown honestly, including farmed fish (~29–149 billion individuals) and the broiler-genetics duopoly (~70–90%). Externality totals are labelled by scope: the ≥$10 trillion hidden-cost figure covers the whole agrifood system, not animal agriculture alone. Refuted or unverifiable claims were left off the board.