The crisis sparked by the Trump administration’s tariff policy has forced the world to consider which industries will be hardest hit by future levies on imports and exports.

Soy and corn are two of the US’ main exports to Europe, and are among the products that the European Union (EU) plans to tax in response to US tariffs. This is a reminder of the extraordinary impact that factory farming has on the balance of trade, as these two staple crops are imported in huge quantities to manufacture compound animal feed.

Though not without its advantages, Europe’s adoption of this intensive model of animal agriculture has had serious social, environmental and public health consequences.

The diversification of diets since the early 1950s led to an increase in demand for meat, eggs, milk and dairy products. Agriculture was industrialised to meet this demand, and this in turn led to an increase in imports of compound feed, resulting in an agricultural trade deficit.

This is one of the most characteristic features of the industrial livestock farming that took hold in Western Europe during the second half of the 20th century. Driven by the US model of “agricultural modernisation”, it was part and parcel of reconstructing post-war Europe, and was one of the various offshoots of the Marshall Plan.

For several years now, researchers from various disciplines – including history, veterinary science, sociology and economics – and EU universities have met regularly under the European Rural History........

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