
CAFOs vs. Free Range
Demand Labels on Factory-Farmed Meat
Factory farms, or Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), are a disaster for the environment and our health. Nearly 65 billion animals worldwide, including cows, chickens and pigs, are crammed into CAFOs, where they are literally imprisoned and tortured in unhealthy, unsanitary and unconscionably cruel conditions. Sickness is the norm for animals who are confined rather than pastured, and who eat GMO corn and soybeans, rather than grass and forage as nature intended.
Thousands of pages of documents obtained by ProPublica show how quickly public health agencies were overwhelmed by meatpacking cases. One CEO described social distancing as “a nicety that makes sense only for people with laptops.”
Read moreThere’s a serious flaw in the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES Act) just passed by the House: It includes a bailout for the four largest factory farm meat companies—Tyson, Cargill, JBS and Smithfield.
Congress should help independent family farmers, who are on track to
Read moreAs COVID-19 swept through U.S. meatpacking plants (slaughterhouses currently account for almost half of the country’s hotspots), plants closed, leaving farmers with millions of animals they couldn’t get to market. This prompted Tyson to take out an ad in the New York Times,
Read moreThe Organic Consumers Association today announced that it has sued Smithfield Foods for falsely advertising Smithfield pork products as the “safest” U.S. pork products.
The complaint was filed on behalf of OCA by Richman Law Group in D.C. Superior Court, under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
“Consumers are unlikely to know that the USDA has notified Smithfield slaughter plants on multiple occasions that
Read moreTwo weeks ago, we asked you to “Tell Congress: No more COVID-19-contaminated factory farm slaughterhouses!”
Members of Congress listened!
On May Day, Reps. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) introduced
Read moreTony Thompson, sheriff for Black Hawk County in Iowa, told the New York Times that Tyson’s disregard for workers in its Waterloo, Iowa pork plant “shook me to the core.” Thompson asked the Times reporter:
“Which is more important? Your pork chops, or the people that are contracting Covid, the people that are dying from it?”
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed what has
Read moreFor nearly 30 years, a Kansas state law made it illegal to take photographs or record video in a factory farm or slaughterhouse “with the intent to damage an enterprise conducted at the animal facility.” A federal court in Kansas just ruled that people cannot be barred from conducting undercover investigations on factory farms.
Read moreYou probably don’t give antibiotics much thought—until you need them. But what happens if you need them, and they don’t work?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi cause more than 2.8 million infections and 35,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. On average,
Read moreFactory farms are a threat to Iowans. We get the pollution, our farmers get the risk, and our quality of life takes a dive—all while corporate ag rakes in massive profits.
With an average of 500 additional factory farms being built in Iowa each year, we need to act fast to protect our environment, our communities and our climate.
TAKE ACTION: Join the Stop Factory Farms Lobby Day. RSVP here.
Read moreVermont is suing the largest dairy in the state for dramatically expanding its operations without proper permits in 2017.
Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced the charges Thursday against the Berkshire-based Pleasant Valley Farms for work at its Lumbra Farm in Enosburg Falls.
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