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It is very hard for most people to know what to do to organize against the threats presented by factoryfarming in their community. Align yourself with a supporting organization Food and Water Watch addresses factoryfarming on a big-picture scale. Jennifer Breon of Food and Water Watch Iowa echoes this point. “I
While contract farming, or “factoryfarming,” has been exposed in the media for being exploitative of animals, the farmers who sign contracts with companies like Tyson, Perdue or other big players in animal agriculture also find themselves backed into a financial corner. The Boles’ situation with Tyson was far from unique.
After learning about how other communities had been affected by large-scale chicken farms, Starla, Kendra, and a handful of their neighbors started Farmers Against Foster Farms and lobbied state and local government to create new regulations that would preserve local farms while keeping CAFOs out.
(Photography credit to Transfarmation / Mercy For Animals) Risk tolerance While many contract farmers find themselves in parallel positions—burdened with debt and lacking independence in making decisions on their farm—the path out of factoryfarming looks a little different for everyone.
Factoryfarming involves mass production of animals for food in large, confined spaces. This method of farming aims to maximize efficiency and yield, but it rai
In part one and part two of our series on transitioning out of factoryfarming, we heard from both farmers who have made or are making the transition, as well as the organizations that support producers through this process.
There’s a lot going on in farming these days. Others are looking to transition away from factoryfarming, and still others are looking at bringing on new technology or systems to help them be more efficient. Some farmers are looking at succession plans, trying to figure out who will take over the family business.
There are small, medium and large CAFOs, with the largest of these—housing thousands to tens of thousands of animals—embodying the truest definition of a “factoryfarm.” Foster Farms is coming to town Linn County is tucked into the western part of Oregon and home to many family-run farms.
This series of stories looks at the impacts, but also some of the ways that people are advocating against this system and looking for a way of farming that is sustainable—for communities, the environment, animals, and farmers themselves. The post Fighting FactoryFarms appeared first on Modern Farmer.
There are small, medium and large CAFOs, with the largest of these—housing thousands to tens of thousands of animals—embodying the truest definition of a “factoryfarm.” Foster Farms is coming to town Linn County is tucked into the western part of Oregon and home to many family-run farms. Something had to be done.
The pet food industry traditionally relies on factoryfarm byproducts for its ingredients, a practice the industry touts as more sustainable as it produces less waste and cheaper food. The post On The Ground: Your Dog’s Food Probably Comes From a FactoryFarm. But dog owners distrust this mysterious supply chain.
Factoryfarming involves mass production of animals for food in large, confined spaces. This method of farming aims to maximize efficiency and yield, but it rai
Fortunately, The Guardian to the rescue: ‘America is a factoryfarming nation’: key takeaways from US agriculture census. Only that our agricultural system needs a major refocusing on smaller, diverse, regenerative farms producing food, as well as those producing animal feed. It provides illuminting charts based on the data.
In less than two years, it’s hit hundreds of poultry factoryfarms across nearly every state in the country, costing the federal government $757 million and counting to manage, and the poultry industry more than $1 billion in lost revenue and other costs (experts also fear that the disease could spark an outbreak in humans).
It may sound dramatic, but if we become a snake farming country, we should be prepared for the possibility of rogue pythons on the loose, eating whatever other animals (farm or pet) they come into contact with. To meet wide demand, python farming in the U.S.
But no additional differentiation exists, like the difference between grass finished and grain finished beef, or pastured poultry versus factoryfarmed. The report does differentiate between processed meats and unprocessed.
As the owner of a multi-generational farm, Mardesen has seen industrial agriculture and factoryfarming take increasing control over meat production in the last few decades. With that has come the extreme overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming. Ron Mardesen stopped the use of routine antibiotics nearly 40 years ago.
But that wouldn't reduce factoryfarmed animals. That would be an interesting starting point and dramatic: it would immediately eliminate about 9,600 additives/toxins from America's food supply. It wouldn't eliminate poisons in vegetables. It surely wouldn't stop chemical fertilizers and bring in compost. Therein lies the rub.
“A Farm Bill that supports factoryfarming is not a sustainable, fair Farm Bill,” wrote Rebecca Wolf, senior food policy analyst for Food & Water Watch in an email to Modern Farmer. A mother pig in a gestation crate.
Reuters: Countries urged to curb factoryfarming to meet climate goals IV. You can read Food Tank’s coverage of the roadmap, which was announced last year, here. FoodDive : Food system transformation on the menu at COP28 III.
For those who have the access, and the means, we can make changes ourselves: increase our consumption of whole foods from local, small-scale organic farmers, reduce our consumption of ultra-processed foods, avoid plastic when possible, eat less meat from factoryfarms, and reduce food wasteto name just a few examples.
Some argue that intensive factoryfarms produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, in general, than extensive, pasture-fed systems. At first, it seems simple: “Better” meat is factory-farmed meat. Others disagree strongly with this, but say, for the sake of argument, we accept this as true.
Josh Tetrick swears he’d have another job if only all poultry producers farmed thoughtfully and could keep up with the appetite of a growing global population. The big idea: Create chicken meat in a controlled setting, with no harm to animals and a drastic reduction of the issues associated with problematic factoryfarming practices. “We
And of course, it’s not like for every PLNT Burger sold, a factoryfarm gives up five acres of land, or releases a cow from the slaughter line—actually meaningful solutions to the factory meat problem. Nor has eating plant-based meat made a significant impact on beef production, according to a 2023 report.
.” — Vincent Martin, Director of FAO’s Office of Innovation (via @FAOInnovation on X) Ways To Take Action: Add your name: via Compassion in World Farming — “Livestock produce more direct greenhouse gas emissions than planes, trains and cars, combined. Tell world leaders to end factoryfarming – for the sake of our planet.
Eating less factory-farmed red meat, which is 2-5x more resource-intensive than other animal proteins, and reducing food waste, which globally would be the third largest emitter behind the US and China, are the lowest-hanging fruits to reducing our food-related climate impact.
” They explore issues such as farmworker rights, factoryfarming, and pesticide exposure. This year’s featured films are “DOLORES,” “The Smell of Money,” “Into the Weeds,” and “Invisible Valley.”
Iowa is the number-one pork producer in the United States, but it has relatively few hog farms. Large factoryfarm facilities have replaced smaller family farms. The state lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census data.
Just when you thought factoryfarming couldn't become more egregious, imagine the animals wearing Virtual Reality (VR) goggles to make them think their life is good when it's not. In Moscow, Russia, veterinarians have been testing VR goggles on factoryfarmed confined dairy cows and seeing significant increases in milk yield.
But the grain surpluses incentivized by the Wall Street Farm Bill led to subsidized cheap feed, giving rise to the sorts of industrial factoryfarms that make up the Hog Baron’s empire. Previously, it was cost-effective for farmers to graze their cattle or grow their own feed.
Nutrients diminish; pathogens increase; manure that should bless becomes a curse--all of this from factoryfarming that at its most fundamental level refuses to ask how to honor the essence of pig. Church becomes mechanical, just like the factoryfarmed pig.
These factoryfarms not only force animals to live in overcrowded, dirty conditions, they also produce copious amounts of manure, which can cause water pollution and other health hazards. According to the Sierra Club , “large, high density CAFOS have reduced the number of livestock farmers in the U.S.
Or factoryfarms? I suggest that instead of abundance requiring eliminating cows, can't we pick something better to eliminate? Like glyphosate? Or anhydrous ammonia nitrogen fertilizer? Or superphsophate chemical fertilizer? Or cattle feedlots?
Nutrition is one of the keys to better immune systems; homegrown eggs are far superior nutritionally than industrial factoryfarmed supermarket eggs. For example, chickens eat ticks, which reduces Lyme’s. Ultimately, this is a health issue and society should want people healthier.
That’s how a farmer who used to work for Perdue described his chicken house—a sight so upsetting that it led him to transition out of this kind of work, often referred to as “factoryfarming.” There are small, medium and large CAFOs, with the largest of these embodying the truest definition of a “factoryfarm.”
Driven by supermarket price wars, retailers have been relentlessly pushing down the price that they offer to the farmers that supply them, who, when faced with this price pressure, have perceived the only option left to them is further intensification and enlargement of their farming operations and, in the case of livestock, animal numbers.
Mercy for Animals president and CEO Leah Garc é s has been an animal rights advocate fighting the factoryfarming system for more than two decades. What she didn’t realize was that he was also against the factoryfarm system, having experienced first-hand the way it abuses farmers. So, now we know. Not Anymore.
The federal government provides farmers subsidies to protect them from fluctuating revenue year-by-year, but data from the nonpartisan Environmental Working Group shows that 78% of subsidies were given to the largest 10% of farm operations between 1995 and 2021. full_link READ MORE Learn more about factoryfarms with our guides.
California is treating factoryfarm gas systems at dairy farms like they are devices that suck carbon from the air. Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse gas methane, which gets released when livestock operations pool manure in open-air lagoons.
As a society, we could eliminate factoryfarming in a day. We have not had freedom for so long we can scarcely imagine another way to govern or remedy situations we don’t like. We’ve been emasculated from our own power. Look how the market responded to a misplaced ad by Bud Light.
In addition to research, Food & Water Watch mobilizes people on issues related to food systems and factoryfarming. On its website , you can read about its various objectives and wins against industrialized farming as well as calls to action on these issues. Biogas doesn’t solve the factoryfarm issue,” says Hunt.
Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us From FactoryFarming , is available for purchase now. His name was Craig Watts and he was a chicken factory farmer, raising chickens for slaughter. My career is devoted to protecting farmed animals and ending factoryfarming. Now I was sitting in his living room.
Grass-fed beef is also leaner than conventional beef; this means there will be less fat marbling in your steak or burger when cooking with grass-fed meat compared to regular supermarket products from factoryfarms that raise cattle on corn feedlots.
Photography courtesy of Pete Larson and Just a Few Acres Farms. The tips are especially helpful for folks hoping to make a go of farming on smaller plots of land. full_link READ MORE Have questions about how to transition away from factoryfarming? We have answers!
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