Factory Farms are a Load of Crap

Factory Farms Make Us Sick

Factory farms produce more than just the majority of the meat, milk and eggs we consume: they also breed disease, misery and pollution. In fact, every day, America’s factory farms produce enough waste to fill the Empire State Building.

In 2012, alone, livestock on factory farms produced 369 million tons of manure—about 13 times as much as the sewage produced by the entire U.S. population. Unlike sewage produced in cities, the waste on factory farms does not undergo any treatment.

With nowhere to put this waste, it’s stored in giant pits or lagoons, and then eventually spread on fields as fertilizer, often in amounts that far exceed what the land can absorb or crops need to grow. It’s also important to note that manure from these operations contains nitrogen, phosphorus and bacteria that can endanger the environment and people’s health. You don’t want this stuff anywhere near your drinking water, but that’s often where it ends up.

Waste from factory farms is an enormous problem, one that market-based schemes such as pollution trading – which should really be called “Pay-to-pollute” – don’t begin to resolve. Factory farms concentrate too many animals – and too much waste – in one place. Tell the EPA that the only solution is to regulate factory farm pollution.