Factory farms

Flying Under the Radar: Gaps in satellite detection of factory farm methane emissions

In recent years, researchers have begun using satellite imaging to detect methane plumes from factory farms — but the picture is still incomplete. We found that, of the 15,726 total cattle and hog AFOs identified in the U.S., 1,222 aren’t captured by satellite technology, concealing operations that are emitting plumes of methane and harming efforts to effectively measure and address livestock methane emissions.

Energy transition or false solution? How the EU’s plan to boost biomethane feeds the factory farm system

As the European Union (EU) looks for ways to cut its agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and manage its energy transition, biogas and with it biomethane has gained renewed traction. 

Bad climate policy is locking in the factory farm system

Despite a range of climate policies backing factory farm gas, the emerging sector is highly controversial, particularly in rural communities where the highly polluting operations are located.

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Four: Cleaning up the CAFO Mess

The rise of factory farms in the U.S. didn't happen by accident. Corporate influence over our political system has created policies that subsidize and incentivize the industrial model. But our food system does not have to be this way.

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Three: Communities Fight Back

In South Dakota, Iowa and all across factory farm country, everyday people are stepping up and organizing their neighbors to prevent factory farms from being built in their communities. How to fight a factory farm? People power.

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Two: The Price We Pay

What does it mean to get big or get out? As CAFOs began to take over livestock production in the U.S. through the 1990s, the consequences of this corporate-controlled, vertically-integrated system rippled throughout rural economies, putting smaller independent farmers and their suppliers out of business, and trapping others in debt and dependence on exploitative meat companies.

Speaking on Factory Farms

The Congressional staffer moved up in their chair and looked up from the notepad with a quizzical expression. These farmers were asking for more regulation of the meat industry? They didn’t like factory farming and what it was doing to rural communities? And they wanted the government to stop subsidizing this factory farm system for livestock and dairy?

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode One: Raising a Stink

What is a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), and what does it mean that nearly all farm animals in the U.S. are now raised in them? Independent family farmers and rural communities are facing the brunt of these consequences, but they're not going to take it lying down.

Introducing: How to Fight a Factory Farm

Coming October 2 from the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, a new four-part podcast series about factory farms, and the farmers and rural organ