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Food Politics and Feed Lots

Building a more just and sustainable world, starting with your dinner plate

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To eat meat, or not to eat meat:  that is the question.  And it’s not just one of personal health.  In the U.S., choosing to eat meat–and what meat we eat–is a question of social responsibility.  The majority of U.S. beef, pork, and poultry is produced by only 5% of U.S. livestock farms on what are called “concentrated animal feeding operations”, or CAFO’s (Yu et al., 2021).  Is this a bad thing?  Let’s take a closer look at the impact and how the U.S. is handling it.


A Matter of Efficiency


As Americans, we like our meat.  Beef, chicken, pork–as obsessed as we are with getting enough protein, you would think it was at the bottom of the old school food pyramid–you know, the one that was filled with bread, pasta, corn, rice, and grains–before we realized that half our plate really needed to be full of fruits and vegetables?  


As it turns out, all that grain is not just feeding us.  It’s feeding the animals we eat.  Cows, pigs, and chickens, though designed to eat grass, or forage for scraps and bugs, can’t find a single blade of grass on the land on which they’re kept, because we have packed them so densely into agricultural facilities (Ayala-Ramirez et al., 2023).  That picturesque ideal of quaint farmers tending to their cattle in grass-filled fields simply doesn’t reflect what modern farming has become:  a place of compact confinement, where animals are packed into stalls, can barely move, and are fed corn, soy, and grain byproducts that have been artificially made amazingly cheap thanks to U.S. subsidies (The Cattle Site, 2008).  While this scenario certainly makes farming more efficient, and meat more affordable at the grocery store, it doesn’t come without a cost.


Arthritis, Asthma, Adverse Health Outcomes (and we’re only in the A’s):  the cost of CAFO’s on our health, economy, and communities


A farmer at my local feed-and-seed, giving us advice on raising our first set of backyard chickens told us to give them plenty of space, because “Happy chickens make happy eggs.”  The age old wisdom is there–treat your animals with respect and dignity, giving them the space and healthy conditions they deserve, and they will in a sense give right back to you.  The stressful, unhealthy conditions of CAFO’s is a complete disregard for their wellbeing.  The animals themselves are paying for it–and so are we.


Due to the dense concentration of animals and manure on CAFO’s, these factory farms produce an estimated 380 million tons of waste annually, releasing harmful, potent pollutants into the water, soil, and air (Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, n.d.), and even into crops growing in the surrounding area, thereby polluting even the fruits and vegetables you eat (Son et al., 2024a).  And back-to-back animals with nary an inch to turn around can only mean one thing:  breeding grounds for disease, including “hyper transmissable” and “highly pathogenic” viruses such as the avian flu, hepatitis E, and E. coli (Guo et al., 2022).  In fact, we’ve known since 1998 that taking cattle off of that cheap grain diet and giving them grass for five days would rid their rumens of at least 70% of the E.coli that would have eventually worked its way to human consumers (Diez-Gonzalez et al., 1998).  


It doesn’t end there.  The very diseases that we are breeding result in the subsequent need for excessive use of antibiotics to tamp down the spread of infection–antibiotics, which eventually work themselves down the food chain to consumers of meat, contributing to antibiotic resistance in humans (Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, n.d.).


The environmental atrocities and health hazards produced by CAFO’s, however, pale in comparison to the glaring social justice issues they create.  Living in close proximity to a CAFO has been associated with preterm birth (Son et al., 2024b); various cancers and bacterial infections (Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, n.d.); autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, hyper-and hypothyroidism, and allergies and asthma (Ayala-Ramirez et al., 2023); and other adverse health outcomes, including tuberculosis and antibiotic-resistant staph infections (Pohl & Lee, 2024).  Should we really be able to sleep at night knowing that a disproportionate number of CAFO’s are strategically placed in minority and low income communities (Son et al., 2024a)?  It’s a social injustice that none of us should be turning a blind eye to as we scarf down our evening meal.


Are CAFO’s just a natural response to market demand for meat, and thereby a beast, created by capitalism, that we cannot regulate?  The Cattle Site (2008) argues that it is not; it is rather a beast created by public policy, as government subsidies encourage ultra cheap animal feed and ultra efficient farming.  The small number of large CAFO’s run off of economic efficiency, making it difficult for smaller farmers using more sustainable practices to be competitive in the market.


The Politics of Meat:  how America is handling CAFO’s


It is clear that evidenced-based policies are necessary to reduce the negative impact of CAFO’s on our health, economy, and communities (Pohl & Lee, 2024); and yet the regulations are a bit unclear.  Guidelines for feedlots are split among state, federal, and county/parish jurisdictions.  For example, clean water is regulated federally by the EPA, while livestock health generally falls under state regulation, though local zoning laws can also play a role.  


Furthermore, while regulations may exist, that does not mean that they are thoroughly enforced.  For example, states are required to administer the federal Clean Water Act.  Enacted in 1972, it was not truly enforced until its revision in 2003, though Yu et al. (2021) estimate that its impact was still minimal.  It requires CAFO’s to take certain steps, including applying for a water pollution permit and developing a Nutrient Management Plan if they discharge pollution into state waters.  However, many CAFO’s assert that they do not discharge, and therefore do not have to comply with this standard (Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, 2022).  Beyond the Clean Water Act, it is difficult for residents of a community to file a complaint related to, for example, the air pollution put out by CAFO’s, since all 50 states have “right-to-farm” laws that will usually supersede the complaint (Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, 2022).


This is an important point when you consider that one CAFO can produce the same amount of waste as an entire city; yet they are not required to process this waste safely in the same way that a city is with sewage treatment facilities.  A CAFO need only to store it in open pits before applying it untreated to the surrounding area (Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, n.d.).  



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A Call for Change


Unclear regulations with weak implementation led to the American Public Health Association (2019) calling for a moratorium on new CAFO’s in 2019.  They further called for the federal government to stop allowing exemptions that many CAFO’s can take advantage of when it comes to environmental emissions, to better implement the Clean Water Act, better regulate emissions, better research health outcomes as they relate to CAFO’s, and stop the excessive use of antibiotics.  The Association's adoption of this policy is not a binding law.  Though it is intended to inform policy and guide decision makers, it remains to be seen if it will lead to any major changes at the federal, state, or local levels when it comes to how we approach CAFO’s.


However, there are many grassroots efforts working toward a positive change.  The Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (n.d.) advocates, educates, and provides farmers and communities with resources not only to protect themselves from CAFO’s, but to transition to socially responsible agriculture.  Their message is clear:  we can reduce pollution to our soil, water, and air; support local communities, rural economies, and food security; and even reduce chronic disease by shifting away from the CAFO model.


How can you get involved to support more sustainable farming practices in your community and advocate for change?  Check out the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project and find ways you can get involved.  Buy locally and sustainably produced meat where possible--and that is if you are even eating meat at all, since eating more plants in general is a much more sustainable way for the world to produce and eat food.  Visit your local farmers market to see how you can support local farmers. 


It’s not just about saving a buck at the grocery store.  It’s about your health, your economy, your neighbor, your community.  It’s about building a more just, sustainable world–starting with your own dinner plate.


References

American Public Health Association. (2019, November 5). New public health policy statements at APHA 2019. https://www.apha.org/news-and-media/news-releases/apha-news-releases/2019/policy-statements-

Ayala-Ramirez, M., MacNell, N., McNamee, L. E., McGrath, J. A., Akhtari, F. S., Curry, M. D., Dunnon, A. K., Fessler, M. B., Garantziotis, S., Parks, C. G., Fargo, D. C., Schmitt, C. P., Motsinger-Reif, A. A., Hall, J. E.,

Miller, F. W., & Schurman, S. H. (2023). Association of distance to swine concentrated animal feeding operations with immune-mediated diseases: An exploratory gene-environment study. Environment

Diez-Gonzalez, F., Callaway, T. R., Kizoulis, M. G., & Russell, J. B. (1998). Grain feeding and the dissemination of acid-resistant Escherichia coli from cattle. Science, 281(5383), 1666–1668.

Guo, Y., Ryan, U., Feng, Y., & Xiao, L. (2022). Association of Common Zoonotic Pathogens With Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Frontiers in microbiology, 12, 810142. 

Pohl, E., & Lee, S. (2024). Local and Global Public Health and Emissions from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in the USA: A Scoping Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,

Natural Resources Conservation Service. (n.d.). Louisiana State Office. U.S. Department of Agriculture. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/state-offices/louisiana

Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. (n.d.). Why we care. Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. https://sraproject.org/why-we-care/

Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. (2022, November 19). Louisiana CAFO guide. Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. https://sraproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Louisiana-CAFO-Guide-2022.11.19.pdf

Son, J., Heo, S., Byun, G., Foo, D., Song, Y., Lewis, B. M., Stewart, R., Choi, H. M., & Bell, M. L. (2024a). A systematic review of animal feeding operations including concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) for exposure, health outcomes, and environmental justice. Environmental Research, 259, 119550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.119550

Son, J.-Y., Heo, S., Byun, G., Foo, D., Song, Y., Lewis, B. M., Stewart, R., Choi, H. M., & Bell, M. L. (2024b). Disparities in exposure to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and risk of adverse birth outcomes

in Pennsylvania, USA. Heliyon, 10(15), e34985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34985

The Cattle Site. (2008, May 2). CAFOs uncovered – The untold costs of confined animal feeding Operations. https://www.thecattlesite.com/articles/1432/cafos-uncovered-the-untold-costs-of-confined

Yu, C., Du, X., & Phaneuf, D. (2021). The impact of the Clean Water Act on farm practices: The case of U.S. dairy concentrated animal feeding operations. Journal of Agricultural 

and Resource Economics, 46(3), 380–400. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.307457


 
 
 

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