[gizmo686]

I'm not arguing about GDP. If I was, I would be pointing out how it is a poor metric to measure anything by.

The onlything stoping individuals from farming if they want to is the resources to afford to do so while maintaing the farmers desired lifestyle.

In the past, farmers could get those resources by selling their produce. That became less viable as other models (read, factory farming) started to offer produce cheaper. If you want to maintain the old model, someone needs to pay the difference.

If you want to argue that animal welfare is something that we should value and requires collective (eg government) action to achieve, that would be a valid arguement. You could even argue that such a change would be to the benifit of small farmers.