Fact Sheets

• How Corporate Control Squeezes Out Small Farms

  • Jul 18, 2012, 15:35 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Competition is a critical element of our free market economy and is particularly important in agriculture. Consumers understand almost instinctively that market domination by a single powerful business can lead to higher prices. Less obvious is the role that lack of competition has played in squeezing out small and midsize farms and ranches and in changing the nature of animal agriculture across the country.More

   

• Industrial Animal Agriculture: A Broken System

  • Jul 21, 2011, 11:25 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Over the past 50 years, the raising of animals for food in the United States has shifted from traditional, diversified family farms to an industrialized system reliant on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). This change has primarily been led by large companies, known as integrators, that control every aspect of production while ensuring that regulations remain minimal and farmers bear the brunt of the responsibility for waste management.  More

   

• Cleaning Up the Chesapeake Bay

  • Dec 02, 2010, 12:15 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Farming and farmland has long been an important part of the Chesapeake Bay region, and the preservation of those traditions can contribute significantly to the improved health of the Bay. More

   

• Animal Agriculture and Water Pollution

  • Dec 02, 2010, 12:10 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  No central repository of livestock-related pollution problems exists, but federal agency studies, state water quality assessments and reports of pollution incidents all point to significant and growing threats to water resources from confinement agriculture.More

   

• Animal Agriculture and the Clean Water Act

  • Dec 01, 2010, 12:15 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The Clean Water Act is the principal law for controlling pollution of rivers, lakes and wetlands in the United States.More

   

Reports

• Big Chicken: Pollution and Industrial Poultry Production in America

  • Jul 26, 2011, 21:25 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Broiler chickens are big business. Produced by the millions, their waste pollutes many of our nation’s waterways. A new Pew Environment Group report analyzes 50 years of data to illustrate the environmental effects of a business transformed by industrialization.More

   

• Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America

  • Apr 29, 2008, 16:35 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The current industrial farm animal production system often poses unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves, according to an extensive two and a half year examination conducted by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.  More

   

Other Resources

• EPA Delays Action on Regulations for Animal Agriculture

  • May 21, 2013, 09:00 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Pollution from animal agriculture is threatening our nation’s waterways. Each year, livestock operations in the United States generate up to a billion tons of manure, much of it from concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.More

   

• Pew Testimony in Opposition to SB 1029

  • Mar 19, 2013, 14:30 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Velma Smith of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ campaign to reform animal agriculture testified before the Maryland State Senate on the Maryland Agriculture Certainty Program.More

   

• Remarks from Karen Steuer on CAFO Pollution and the Public Outcry for Stronger Regulation

  • Oct 11, 2012, 12:05 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Karen Steuer, who directs the Pew Environment Group’s campaign to reform animal agriculture, made the following remarks today on the strong public support, and the critical need, for a new rule to limit pollution from concentrated animal feeding operations.More

   

• Infographic: Cleaning Up CAFO Permit Rules

  • Aug 27, 2012, 12:05 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Some of our Nation’s most prized waterways—such as the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and Mississippi River—as well as streams, estuaries and wells, are at risk from pollution from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).More

   

• Pollution: Coming to a Waterway Near You?

  • Aug 20, 2012, 09:40 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The health of many waterways, from the Chesapeake Bay to the Great Lakes—and the livelihoods, flora, and fauna they support— are in jeopardy.More

   

• Maryland Department of Agriculture Adopts Regulations to Help Protect the Chesapeake Bay from Manure Pollution

  • Aug 17, 2012, 11:45 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  In comments sent to the Maryland Department of Agriculture, the Pew Environment Group urges the agency to swiftly finalize new regulations to improve controls on pollution from manure entering the Chesapeake Bay and offers suggestions to further enhance protection of the Bay. More

   

• Obama Administration Reneges on Modest Steps to Protect Our Nation's Waters from CAFO Pollution

  • Jul 23, 2012, 15:35 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  In a dramatic departure from the Obama administration’s promise to pursue better protections of our waters from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has withdrawn a proposed rule that would have required the most basic reporting from these operations—information that would have given the EPA the information necessary to monitor and address CAFO pollution.More

   

• Pew Urges House of Representatives to Oppose Efforts to Undermine States' Rights and to Derail Rules to Protect Farmers

  • Jul 17, 2012, 12:30 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  In a letter to the House of Representatives, the Pew Environment Group urges lawmakers to reject new bills now moving through the House. The bills would repeal finalized regulations intended to help level the playing field for farmers who raise livestock under contract with large meat-processing companies.More

   

• Pew Environment Group Urges Senate to Reject Cloaked Attack on Contract Poultry Growers

  • Jul 13, 2012, 10:00 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) has quietly attached a rider to the House agriculture appropriations bill that would effectively close off every avenue to a fair marketplace for contract chicken growers.More

   

• Pew Environment Group Urges Senators to Support America's Independent Livestock Farmers and Ranchers

  • Jun 06, 2012, 09:40 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  A handful of multimillion-dollar meatpacking companies dominate the animal agriculture industry. Their consolidated power enables them to control the market, at the expense of farmers and ranchers. By limiting independent producers’ access to processing plants and primarily buying and trading livestock among themselves, giant meatpackers are able to artificially lower the prices that farmers and ranchers receive for their livestock.More

   

• Pew Comments on the Environmental Protection Agency's CAFO Inventory Rule

  • Jan 20, 2012, 15:10 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The Environmental Protection Agency recently requested public comments on a proposed rule regarding the information the agency will collect from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). This important rule may establish expanded reporting requirements for CAFO owners and operators, which will enhance transparency and accountability, and result in improved environmental management.More

   

• Environmental Leaders Call on President Obama to Restore Critical Clean Water Act Protections

  • Jan 17, 2012, 17:25 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  As leaders of the nation’s largest environmental organizations, we write you on behalf of our millions of members and supporters to urge you to act quickly to restore critical Clean Water Act protections to America’s waterways.More

   

• New Rule Falls Short for Independent Farmers

  • Dec 15, 2011, 14:55 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  On Dec. 8, 2011, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the publication of the long-awaited Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) rule. The final version is a significant departure from the comprehensive draft initially proposed in June 2010, which addressed a range of agricultural marketing and contracting practices that favor large meat processors and producers to the detriment of small and midsize family farm operators. More

   

• Talking Turkeys

  • Nov 17, 2011, 16:00 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  This year, 88 percent  of Americans will enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner. The custom dates back nearly 400 years, but today’s turkeys are vastly different from those eaten at the first feast and come from industrial operations that are a far cry from those of just 50 years ago.More

   

• Transparency Needed for Industrial Animal Agriculture

  • Oct 25, 2011, 12:30 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Under a settlement agreement resulting from a lawsuit, the EPA has committed to proposing a regulation that would collect basic information about CAFOs nationwide. Learn more about the proposed CAFO reporting rule.More

   

• Campaign Ad: Stand Up to the Meat Industry Giants

  • Oct 17, 2011, 09:55 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  View the latest ad from the Pew Campaign for Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture.More

   

• Improving the Picture for Independent Farmers

  • Oct 16, 2011, 18:05 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Read stories from farmers and ranchers across the U.S. who are fighting to reform the current industrial animal agriculture system.More

   

• Murky Waters: A Bird's-Eye View of Chesapeake Bay Runoff

  • Sep 15, 2011, 15:45 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Record rainfall on the East Coast over the past month has washed pollutants from farm fields, industrial animal operations, suburban lawns and urban construction sites throughout the watershed into the Chesapeake. A satellite image from this week captures the polluted brown waters in the bay and is a striking reminder that every day, through small showers and large storms, what happens on the land does not stay on the land. More

   

• Clean Water at Risk: Take Action to Oppose H.R. 2018

  • Jul 26, 2011, 14:35 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The Clean Water Act, one of our nation’s most important environmental protection laws, is under threat from H.R. 2018, the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011. Find out more and take action.More

   

• Proposed Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) Rules

  • Jun 21, 2011, 12:00 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The Pew Environment Group supports the efforts of the USDA to enforce the anti-trust provisions of the Packers and Stockyards Administration and to foster a more equitable relationship between producers and the meat companies through clear contract guidelines, more transparency in the contract relationship, as well as clearly defining abuses.More

   

• Polluting Poultry in the Chesapeake

  • Apr 14, 2011, 15:05 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Today, as Chesapeake Bay leaders struggle to clean up pollution, a long-overlooked source of damage has become apparent: Large-scale industrial animal agriculture operations in the Bay region are producing huge volumes or manure and manure-related pollutants.More

   

• Comments from the Pew Environment Group Urging the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard Administration to Restore Competition and Contract Fairness to Livestock and Poultry Markets

  • Nov 22, 2010, 14:55 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Newly proposed rules by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard Administration  are the first steps on a path to restoring a much needed level of fairness to the structure of animal agriculture in the US.More

   

• Pew Environment Group’s Comments to the Environmental Protection Agency Regarding Pollution from Industrial Animal Agriculture in the Chesapeake Bay

  • Nov 08, 2010, 14:55 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Large scale animal agriculture has long been and remains a major source of polluting nutrients to the Chesapeake Bay.More

   

• Statement: Robert Martin on Competition in the Livestock Industry

  • Aug 27, 2010, 14:10 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  Independent producers, operating in a fair and open marketplace, can raise livestock in ways that safeguard public health, protect vulnerable water sources and other natural resources, maintain traditions of responsible animal husbandry, deliver healthy food at an affordable price to American families and provide a strong economic base for thriving rural communities.More

   

Videos

• 

  The Rise of Industrial-Scale Chicken Production

  • Jul 29, 2011, 14:15 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The broiler industry has changed drastically over the last 50 years and now produces more than 8 billion birds—an increase of more than 1400%.More

   
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  How Chicken Litter Becomes a Water Pollutant

  • Jul 29, 2011, 11:10 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  The manure produced by the hundreds of thousands of chickens within a single concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) carries serious negative consequences for water quality in and around these CAFO-dense regions.More

   
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  The Poultry Industry's Threat to the Chesapeake

  • Jul 28, 2011, 16:30 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  There are hotspots along the Broiler Belt with even greater concentrations of poultry operations. Nowhere has the problem of managing broiler manure waste and its associated pollution become more evident than in parts of Maryland and Delaware, known as the Delmarva Peninsula.More

   

Image Galleries

• Polluting Poultry in the Chesapeake

  • Apr 12, 2011, 12:25 EST
  • Reforming Industrial Animal Agriculture

  As efforts continue to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, a long-overlooked source of pollution has become apparent: large-scale industrial animal agriculture operations in the Bay region.More