factory farming

Midsummer is the time for forecasts of the size of this year’s “dead zones” and algal blooms in major lakes and bays. Will the Gulf of Mexico dead zone be the size of New Jersey, or only as big as Connecticut? Will Lake Erie’s bloom blossom to a human health crisis, or just devastate the coastal economy?

How should the global agricultural system change in order to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis? A group of young activists believe the answer is a global shift towards plant-based diets, and they are not afraid to make their voices heard. The campaigners disrupted a meeting at the UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany, on Friday to call for a Plant Based Treaty. 

A highly infectious bird flu that has led to the deaths of millions of birds has been found in a U.S. human for the first time.  A Colorado man who worked at a farm where poultry had been infected tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or the H5N1 flu, the Colorado Department of Public […]

In December of last year, YouTuber Niko Omilana shot a video called Behind the Bucket, appearing to show happy birds at a farm that sells chickens to KFC. The video, shared on Twitter by media site Joe, shows the chickens wandering freely in a well-heated shed filled with straw and enrichment activities including a swing. 

According to a new study, children believe humans and farm animals should be treated in the same ways, but they start to lose these beliefs as they become teenagers. The study notes that speciesism is learned in adolescence. The study, done by researches at Exeter University and Oxford University, asked people of different age groups: […]

Many people buy steaks, hamburger meat and other beef products with labels that claim they’ve been raised without antibiotics because they believe it’s healthier and safer for themselves and the environment. But what if the “Raised Without Antibiotics” (RWA) labels weren’t accurate, and the cattle raised for meat destined to have the label actually had been given antibiotics?

Fifty years ago, the U.S. passed the Clean Water Act with the goal of ensuring  “fishable, swimmable” water across the U.S. by 1983. Now, a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) finds the country has fallen far short of that goal. In fact, about half of the nation’s lakes and rivers are too polluted for swimming, fishing or drinking. 

A bird flu outbreak is forcing farmers to put down millions of turkeys and chickens in eight states.  The discovery of the disease in an egg-laying farm in Iowa Friday meant that 5.3 million chickens were scheduled for euthanization on that farm alone, AP News reported. This brings the total number of chickens or turkeys […]