 In the
last few decades, consolidation of food production has
concentrated power in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations.
Many of today's farms are actually large industrial facilities,
not the green pastures and red barns that most Americans
imagine. These consolidated operations are able to produce food
in high volume but have little to no regard for the environment, animal
welfare, or food safety. In order to maximize profits, factory farms
often put the health of consumers and rural communities at risk.
What is a Factory Farm?
The government calls these facilities Concentrated (or Confined)
Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) defines a CAFO as
"new and existing operations which stable or confine and
feed or maintain for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month
period more than the number of animals specified" in
categories that they list out. In addition, "there's no
grass or other vegetation in the confinement area during the
normal growing season."
Numbers for both large and medium CAFOs (factory farms)
are listed on the EPA's site. A large CAFO includes 1000 cattle (other
than dairy, which is 700), 2500 hogs over 55 pounds, or 125,000
chickens (as long as a liquid manure system isn't used). A
liquid manure system is when the animal's urine and feces are
mixed with water and held either under the facility or outside
in huge open air lagoons - these manure systems create a lot of
pollution (which many times taxpayers end up paying for). The
chickens they refer to are chickens other than laying hens
– laying hens must number between 30,000 - 82,000,
depending on how the manure is handled.
A medium factory farm (CAFO) has between
300-999 cattle other than dairy (200-699 if dairy), 750-2,499
hogs if 55 pounds or more, and 37,500 to 124,999 chickens (other
than hens that lay eggs) if the facility doesn't use a liquid
manure handling system.
These industrial facilities share many characteristics,
including:
Excessive Size
- Unnaturally large numbers of animals are confined
closely together. Cattle feedlots generally contain thousands
of animals in one place, while many egg-laying businesses house
one million or more chickens. The main animals for such
operations are cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys, but this
practice is also applied to sheep, goats, rabbits, and various
types of poultry.
Disregard for Animal
Welfare
- Metal buildings confine animals indoors, with minimal
room for normal behaviors and little or no access to sunlight
and fresh air.
- Animals are mutilated to adapt them to factory farm
conditions. This includes cutting off the beaks of chickens and
turkeys (de-beaking), and amputating the tails of cows and pigs
(docking).
- Pens and cages restrict the natural behavior and
movement of animals. In some cases, such as veal calves and
mothering pigs, the animals can’t even turn around.
 Misuse of Pharmaceuticals
- Low doses of antibiotics
are administered regularly to animals in a preemptive move to
ward off the diseases bred by unnatural, unsanitary conditions.
- In addition to preventive medicines, animals are fed hormones
and antibiotics to promote faster growth.
Mismanagement of Waste
- Excessive waste
created by large concentrations of animals is handled in ways
that can pollute air
and water.
- Man-made lagoons on industrial farms hold millions of
gallons of liquid waste, from which contaminants can leach into
groundwater. The manure is normally sprayed on crops, but often
excessively, leading it to run off into surface waters.
- Nutrients and bacteria from waste can contaminate
waterways, killing fish and shellfish and disturbing aquatic
ecosystems.
Socially
Irresponsible Corporate Ownership
- One corporation often owns or controls all aspects of
the production process, including animal rearing, feed
production, slaughter, packaging and distribution. Known as vertical
integration, this approach leads to tremendous
consolidation of power that is leveraged against small farmers
and diminishes corporations’ accountability for
irresponsible practices.
- Contract growing
indentures independent farmers to grow livestock for a
corporation. In the contract system, the corporation dictates
all aspects of raising the animals, while the farmer is left
with the risk, overhead, waste, and the disposal of any animals
that don’t survive until slaughter.
The True Costs
Industrially produced food appears to be inexpensive, but the
pricetag doesn’t reflect the actual costs that we
taxpayers bear. Factory farms pollute communities
and adversely affect public health,
thereby increasing medical costs for those living near such
farms—costs that are often shouldered by public budgets.iv
Taxpayers fund government
subsidies, which go primarily to large industrial farms. Jobs
are lost and wages driven down, as corporate consolidation
bankrupts small businesses and factory farms pay unethically low
wages for dangerous, undesirable work.
Because factory farms are considered
“agricultural” instead of “industrial,”
they are not subject to the regulation that their scale of
production (and level of pollution) warrants.v
Because they employ powerful lobbyists
that can sway the government agencies responsible for monitoring
agricultural practices, industrial farms are left free to
pollute, to hire undocumented workers (and pay them next to
nothing), and to locate their businesses without regard to the
impact that has on surrounding communities.
What You Can Do
We can all help put an end to the factory farming system by
buying our food from smaller, sustainable farms. These
businesses still aim to profit from their labor, but
that’s not their only objective. They have essentially a
triple bottom line - of social, environmental and financial gain
- which means they won’t sacrifice the health of the land
or the quality of food simply to make a few dollars more.
- When you buy
local fruits, vegetables, and meat products, you support your
local economy. More of the money you spend goes directly to the
farmers themselves because less goes to transportation and
middlemen. Buying locally also means burning less fossil fuel to get food from the farm to
the table, which benefits the environment.
 You can buy local
foods by joining a CSA group,
visiting a farmers market or
using the Eat Well Guide to find a farm near you.
Did You Know?
- Two percent of livestock farms now
raise 40 percent of all animals in the US. vi
- In the United States, 79% of pigs
are raised on farms with 2,000 pigs or more. vii
For More Information
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