CAFOs vs. Free Range

Politicians and headline writers often tout new trade announcements as big wins for U.S. farmers and ranchers. Almost never do they declare plainly, and more accurately: this deal is a big win for global agribusiness! Conflating the interests of global agribusiness operating in multiple countries and U.S.  farmers’ is a misleading spin that helps serve corporate interests over the rest of us. 

Nearly every county in England has at least one industrial-scale livestock farm, with close to 800 US-style mega farms operating across the UK, new research reveals.

The "land application" of sewage sludge has been promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1993 as the preferred method for the disposal of this by-product of municipal wastewater treatment. Millions of tons of hazardous sewage sludge have subsequently been spread on farmland and public parks in the United States. No matter how it is processed or how slick it is marketed as a fertilizer or soil amendment, putting sewage sludge on land is a health and environmental disaster. 

Cornucopia has been filing formal complaints about Aurora Dairy, and several other giant certified “organic” operations in the west, for over 10 years. The USDA has sometimes refused to investigate their alleged lack of grazing and confinement conditions, even when Cornucopia provided aerial images of ungrazed, sometimes hayed, pasture. When the USDA has investigated, and found operations operating illegally, as the Post documented all too often they are led off with a slap on the wrist and no monetary penalty.