factory farming

FDA Approves First Waste-Gas-Reduction Drug for Cattle

FDA Approves First Waste-Gas-Reduction Drug for Cattle

By Dan Nosowitz When we think of dangerous gases emitted by cattle, the logical first thought is of methane, let loose into the air by burps and farts to contribute to climate change. But cattle are complex creatures in their diversity of noxious fumes, and the FDA just approved the first drug to treat a […]

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    Under the USDA’s Definition, 90% of Iowa’s Farms Are ‘Family Farms’

    Under the USDA’s Definition, 90% of Iowa’s Farms Are ‘Family Farms’

    By Dan Nosowitz When you think of “family farms,” a nice bucolic image probably comes to mind: something small, maybe lower-budget or lower-tech, run by a family. According to the USDA’s definition, those farms definitely are “family farms.” But so, under this definition, are multi-thousand-acre corporate entities using automated machinery to grow genetically engineered corn. […]

    Will Hurricane Florence Flood North Carolina Factory Farms and Manure Pits?

    Will Hurricane Florence Flood North Carolina Factory Farms and Manure Pits?

    When Hurricane Matthew hit North Carolina in 2016, it flooded more than 140 feces-strewn industrial-scale swine and poultry barns, more than a dozen open pits brimming with liquid hog waste and thousands of acres of manure-saturated fields. As Hurricane Florence—far bigger than Matthew—bears down on the state, Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Waterkeeper Alliance are […]

    Investigation Exposes Animal Abuse at U.S. Supplier to World’s Largest Meat Company

    Investigation Exposes Animal Abuse at U.S. Supplier to World’s Largest Meat Company

    By Reynard Loki Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and images of animal abuse. In September of last year, two executives of JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, based in Brazil, were arrested and charged with insider trading. In May 2017, the billionaire siblings—Wesley Batista, JBS’s CEO, and his younger brother Joesley, the firm’s former […]

    Why Non-GMO Plant Based Proteins Are One Solution to Factory Farming

    Why Non-GMO Plant Based Proteins Are One Solution to Factory Farming

    By Lisa Archer Friends of the Earth recently released a brief that raised important questions about laboratory-created animal replacement products (in vitro meat and genetically engineered proteins) that are in development or on the market ahead of robust health and environmental assessment, oversight and labeling. Some of the coverage and responses to our report created […]

    Superbugs Found in Nearly 80 Percent of U.S. Supermarket Meat

    Superbugs Found in Nearly 80 Percent of U.S. Supermarket Meat

    The latest round of tests by federal scientists found antibiotic-resistant bacteria on nearly 80 percent of supermarket meat in 2015, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Working Group. Those bacteria were resistant to at least one of 14 antibiotics tested for by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, a federal public health partnership. […]

    What Fossil Fuels and Factory Farms Have in Common

    What Fossil Fuels and Factory Farms Have in Common

    By Wenonah Hauter In 2008, Cabot Oil and Gas started fracking operations in Dimock, Pennsylvania. It was around that time the community started noticing their water was turning brown and making people and animals sick. One woman’s water well exploded. Fracking had come to town. It’s a familiar story in other rural communities—from Pennsylvania to […]