#cafo

[rjzimmerman]

Factory Farming Ban Proposed by Senators Booker, Warren

"For years, regulators looked the other way while giant multinational corporations crushed competition in the agriculture sector and seized control over key markets," Warren said in a statement, as Newsweek reported. "The COVID-19 crisis will make it easier for Big Ag to get even bigger, gobble up s...

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

The dangers of working shoulder-to-shoulder in a meat processing plant have come to the forefront as the novel coronavirus has exposed the fragility of the meat industry's supply chain. Factory farming is also resource intensive, leading to deforestation and fueling the climate crisis. It also accounts for 99 percent of the meat that Americans consume.

Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) to co-sponsor a bill to put an end to factory farming, as The Hill reported.

The Farm System Reform Act was first proposed by Booker in December. It aims to put a stop to any new factory farms and the monopolistic practices in the industry. It would hold concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) responsible for their environmental impact. Warren agreed to co-sponsor the bill after several incidents of unsafe working conditions and outbreaks of COVID-19 in the meatpacking industry, according to Newsweek. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is also co-sponsoring the effort and has introduced companion legislation to the House.

"For years, regulators looked the other way while giant multinational corporations crushed competition in the agriculture sector and seized control over key markets," Warren said in a statement, as Newsweek reported. "The COVID-19 crisis will make it easier for Big Ag to get even bigger, gobble up smaller farms, and lead to fewer choices for consumers."

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the tight control that a handful of companies have on the entire meat supply chain. As Booker's office noted in a statement, "four companies control nearly 85 percent of the US beef market. Pork and chicken supply are similarly consolidated. Such concentration makes the food chain extremely fragile."

As The Hill reported, the legislation directly targets multinational meat producing giants, like Smithfield Foods, Tyson Foods and JBS, all of which had severe coronavirus outbreaks among workers in the last month. Those outbreaks have led to fears of a meat shortage in the U.S., as Costco and Kroger have limited how much beef customers can buy, and some Wendy's chains ran out of hamburger patties.

[ultraviolet-techno-ecology]

My primary stance on Animal Agriculture is that I’m a fierce Anti-CAFO activist. For those who don’t know a “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation” is essentially a meat factory where large numbers of animals are kept in closely confined spaces. Typically so many animals that their feces is pooled into large shit lagoons in concentrations large enough to severely pollute groundwater and generally be smelled for miles. No matter your stance on eating meat or dairy - there is a point at which the population density of the animals exceeds what is healthy... for the animals, for the workers, for the environment itself.  CAFOs exist to accommodate a diet that expects meat in nearly every meal. Switching meat production from CAFO style facilities to open-air ranges and the like severely reduces the efficiency of production. This is why the idea of retaining a meat heavy diet because “I only buy from free-range farms.” is a laughable display of privilege - and almost certainly false if you ever buy anything from fast food or frozen prepared meals.  Do I expect everyone to go Vegan? No. However short of a hyper efficient means of generating lab grown meats, CAFOs will continue to exist as long as the consumption habits of the population necessitate them.  It boils down to this. Those who are able should learn to live with reduced or no meat consumption. There may be no ethical consumption under capitalism, but the skills and knowledge of how to maintain a nutritious veggie-based diet will be important for the future regardless. Those who are not should be given priority for the distribution of meat and dairy in a post CAFO world.  Much of this requires us to build community based food networks capable of acquiring, producing, and distributing fresh ingredients locally to meet the dietary needs of the population. Community Gardens, Kitchens, services to deliver food directly to the elderly and disabled, and so on. Food deserts in particular need to be targeted through subversive agricultural infiltration and the capitalist systems that produce food deserts must be dismantled. A revolutionary force requires a diet capable of supporting revolutionary bodies in health and action.  Of course the above doesn’t begin or end with only meat and dairy. Revolutionary food justice means tackling the problems created by excessive sugar and substitutes such as corn syrup. It also means restoring the place of indigenous edible plants that are thrown to the wayside in favor of industrial monocrop staples. It means restoring local bakeries and similar trades to limit the need for mass-transportation of factory produced and hyper-preserved goods. It means restoring the prairies and developing complementary systems of agronomics that don’t decimate ecosystems and soil quality. It means so much more than just “Meat bad. :( “ and I want people to realize how much potential there is for liberatory food politics rather than the restrictive view that some people have where the only thing you can do is stop eating certain things you enjoy. 

[retoxx]

Food and Empire

America has a disease. Plant-based diets aren’t the cure.

"Foer’s myopic obsession with CAFO agriculture has him posing farmer welfare as a stent to keep the arteries of animal agriculture open under the weight of a massive oversupply. He fails to see the much bigger, uglier picture: farmer welfare is a device that keeps 915 million acres of Indian land justifiably occupied under the tired rubric of “feeding the world.” It existed well before CAFOs enabled Americans to eat their bodyweight in meat every year. 815 million people in the world are suffering from food insecurity for a host of reasons, but American farmers failing to produce enough — necessitating a market-agnostic ballooning of the supply via subsidies and crop insurance — isn’t one of them, and never has been."

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

The agriculture sector, including CAFOs, is the leading contributor of pollutants to lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. It has been found that states with high concentrations of CAFOs experience on average 20 to 30 serious water quality problems per year as a result of manure management problems (EPA, 2001). This pollution can be caused by surface discharges or other types of discharges. Surface discharges can be caused by heavy storms or floods that cause storage lagoons to overfill, running off into nearby bodies of water. Pollutants can also travel over land or through surface drainage systems to nearby bodies of water, be discharged through manmade ditches or flushing systems found in CAFOs, or come into contact with surface water that passes directly through the farming area. Soil erosion can contribute to water pollution, as some pollutants can bond to eroded soil and travel to watersheds (EPA, 2001). Other types of discharges occur when pollutants travel to surface water through other mediums, such as groundwater or air.

Contamination in surface water can cause nitrates and other nutrients to build up. Ammonia is often found in surface waters surrounding CAFOs. Ammonia causes oxygen depletion from water, which itself can kill aquatic life. Ammonia also converts into nitrates, which can cause nutrient overloads in surface waters (EPA, 1998). Excessive nutrient concentrations, such as nitrogen or phosphorus, can lead to eutrophication and make water inhabitable to fish or indigenous aquatic life (Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, n.d.). Nutrient over-enrichment causes algal blooms, or a rapid increase of algae growth in an aquatic environment (Science Daily, n.d.). Algal blooms can cause a spiral of environmental problems to an aquatic system. Large groups of algae can block sunlight from underwater plant life, which are habitats for much aquatic life. When algae growth increases in surface water, it can also dominate other resources and cause plants to die. The dead plants provide fuel for bacteria to grow and increased bacteria use more of the water’s oxygen supply. Oxygen depletion once again causes indigenous aquatic life to die. Some algal blooms can contain toxic algae and other microorganisms, including Pfiesteria, which has caused large fish kills in North Carolina, Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay area (Spellman & Whiting, 2007). Eutrophication can cause serious problems in surface waters and disrupt the ecological balance.

Water tests have also uncovered hormones in surface waters around CAFOs (Burkholder et al., 2007). Studies show that these hormones alter the reproductive habits of aquatic species living in these waters, including a significant decrease in the fertility of female fish. CAFO runoff can also lead to the presence of fecal bacteria or pathogens in surface water. One study showed that protozoa such as Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia were found in over 80% of surface water sites tested (Spellman & Whiting, 2007). Fecal bacteria pollution in water from manure land application is also responsible for many beach closures and shellfish restrictions.

- Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Their Impact on Communities

[lordsintacks]

[symmetricalscar]

Animals As Leaders - CAFO

These guys are insane!

[onceuponawildflower]

Friend: Vegetarians/vegans, what made you give up meat? How has it effected your life?

Me: I've been vegetarian and pescetarian on and off throughout college and three years from that into the present. But while in college, I really started to study sustainable agriculture (as a geography major) and saw how everything connects. I'm choosing to go plant-based for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the highest contributor to human-induced global warming is methane offsets from agricultural production. Think CAFOs/factory farms. Because literally every natural part of this world is affected by the abnormal increases in temperature and drastic climate changes around the world (and especially in our oceans and islands), I can't justify eating animals for a small, momentary satisfaction while the rest of the earth suffers.

I'm also going plant-based for my health. I want to emphasize my choice of veganism as plant-based over just eating non-animal products. You can find vegan food at Taco Bell. Oreos are also vegan. But Taco Bell and Oreos are also, for the most part, made of processed grains and chemicals. I'm looking to get away from that as much as possible, and to nourish my body with plants.

And finally, the last leading reason for why I'm going plant-based is because I can't let animals suffer for my gain. I've seen and read enough about factory farms to know that these animals are going through a personal hell before they're slaughtered in a way that is by no means humane. I also know from taking a class in animal welfare Dick University in Scotland what the standards are for animals depending on whether they're labeled "free range" or not, and how that differs internationally. (The U.S. has far smaller confined spaces for their animals than the U.K., and free range means literally nothing in the U.S.). I've also learned about the dairy industry and how it's directly connected to the beef and veal industry. Supporting dairy is supporting beef and veal factory farms. I can't allow my temporary cravings determine whether or not an animal is boiled alive/shot in the head multiple times/thrown through a grinder alive, etc.

Going plant-based is healthy, and if done right with minimal processed foods and meat replacements, it can be affordable, even for families. It's also better for the planet as a whole, and for the welfare of millions of animals.

[meadowslark]

Tyson and Other Meat Companies Linked to Biggest-Ever Dead Zone in the Gulf

Who is in the best position to save the Gulf of Mexico? 

First, some context. Despite having lived almost all of my professional life on Washington state's Puget Sound, there are two spots in the U.S. which actually feel like home. The prairie, where I received my education, and the Gulf Coast, where I was born and spent my earliest years. They're connected by more than my personal experience: they're connected by the Missouri - Mississippi River watershed. What washes from our families’ farms in Nebraska lands in the Gulf. // With the potential of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) developing around Fremont NE ("Class of '72 Can Do!") to supply Costco chickens, the proverbial "s^*t creek" continues to grow. As a retired burocrat I really like the idea of the most centralized player in the supply chain to be assigned the greatest responsibility for managing their cr*p.