Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are a major environmental polluter, destroying both soil and waterways. Making matters worse, a large portion of the food produced by American CAFOs is not even sold in the U.S. It’s exported to China.

What’s more, Chinese companies are increasingly buying up American farmland and U.S. food producers.¹ So while China is reaping the best of what rural America has to offer, all of the pollution remains on American land and in our waterways.

The U.S. is also using up precious water to grow animal feed for export. In 2014, during the worst drought on record, California farmers were using 100 billion gallons of water to grow alfalfa (hay), destined for export to China, Japan, Korea and the United Arab Emirates.  The combination of polluting streams, rivers and lakes while draining the aquifers is setting ourselves up for a disaster.

At the time, professor and water policy and law expert Robert Glennon, from the University of Arizona College of Law, told BBC News:2

"A hundred billion gallons of water per year is being exported in the form of alfalfa from California. It's a huge amount. It's enough for a year's supply for a million families — it's a lot of water, particularly when you're looking at the dreadful drought throughout the southwest."