Factory Farms

Here is a New York Times op-ed column about pork production. Notice that the author is not opposed to the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human consumption. She simply wants to minimize their suffering before they are killed (painlessly?) and their bodies dismembered and processed. Notice that we (including, I assume, the author) would never allow such treatment of a human being. I wonder how the author justifies the double standard. Perhaps she would argue that there is no double standard, i.e., that there is a morally relevant difference between human animals and nonhuman animals that justifies the difference in treatment. I can't imagine what it is. Are the lives of nonhuman animals less important, to them, than your life is to you?