CAFO’s : Factory Farming in 2010 “ Many Americans have no idea where their food comes from, and many have no desire to find out. That is unfortunate.”
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) are defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as any facilities that confine and feed livestock for forty five days or more in any twelve month period and the area is absent of grass and vegetation typical of natural conditions.
Antibiotic resistant pathogens, parasites, bacteria and viruses may be spread by discharge of animal waste into rivers and lakes. Ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorous reduce oxygen in surface waters and contaminate drinking water. The main cause of this is over filled waste lagoons
Waste from lagoons produce many gases; four of which are known to cause health problems, such as methane, ammonia, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. In excess, all these gases are known to cause considerable health problems.
Feedlot animals live in crowded conditions and spend much of their time standing in their own waste. Unlike human waste, livestock waste is not treated; resulting in potential exposure by feedlot animals to various viruses from the manure and urine in their environment. Consequently, the animals often have residual manure on their bodies when they go to slaughter.
Factory farms are considered agricultural instead of industrial; which means that they are not subjected to the regulation that their scale of production and level of pollution warrants.
Factory farms are regulated by indifferent and underfunded state environmental enforcement. EPA rules released in 2008 only require permits for facilities that intend to release animal waste into waterways. Lagoons and applying manure to cropland don’t require any permit at all.
What can you do? Buy locally and tell the EPA that it is time to start regulating factory farms.