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Conservation
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CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) are large-scale animal feeding operations that have significant negative environmental and public health consequences, largely as a result of poor waste disposal practices.
Background- MVC Position on CAFOs: provides background information and observations about Missouri’s public policy environment relating to CAFOs.
- Socially Responsible Agricultural Project. Extensive information and resources on factory farming practices and related issues, such as health effects, regulation, pollution, and agribusiness.
- Missouri Rural Crisis Center. Resources on CAFOs, local control, farm bills, agricultural policy and more.
- Impacts of Industrial Agriculture, Union of Concerned Scientists. Provides both basic and in-depth reports on the impacts industrial-style agricultural practices.
- Industrial Livestock at the Taxpayer Trough Prepared by Elanor Starmer for the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, December 2008. Report revealing the disproportionate federal subsidization of factory farms through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
- CAFOs Uncovered: The untold costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations. The U.S. livestock industry is dominated largely by CAFOs, which has produced detrimental consequences to water and air quality, and additional risks to public health.
Public Health Impacts- Transporting Broiler Chickens Could Spread Antibiotic-Resistant Organisms
November 24, 2008. News release of a research study from the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in the Journal of
Infection and Public Health. Study found that bacteria can be
transmitted from chickens to humans via the backs of trucks.
- About Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 2004. One page
document outlining public health problems associated with CAFOs.
- 2007 & 2008 Recalls on Contaminated Food, Compiled by Terry
Spence. Detailed list of recalls of meat products, obtained from the
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service website.
- Livestock Manure Stinks for Infant Health Rachel Ehrenberg, Science News, January 16, 2009. Article points to new research linking infant mortality and industrial livestock production.
- Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells. Charles Duhigg, NY Times. Health risks associated with an overabundance of manure runoff in water systems examined.
Sustainable Agriculture
- A Message for Climate Change Negotiators: Small Farmers Key to Combating Climate Change Annie Shattuck. CommonDreams.org, December 2, 2008. Article discussing the role of agriculture in climate change, and the potential of small-scale sustainable agriculture as a solution.
- The Pope of Pork: In tiny towns across Missouri, old-school hog farming stages a comeback -- and at tables across the nation, diners rejoice Kristen Hinman, Riverfront Times, November 25, 2008. Describes a small-scale hog farm, showing it as an alternative to industrial factory farming.
- National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, 2008 Farm Bill Priorities. Outlines the campaign's policy recommendations in areas such as organic agriculture, stewardship, and rural development.
- National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Extensive information on sustainable agriculture practices, ranging from basic overviews to detailed farming techniques.
- Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. Resources on sustainable agriculture, including information on grants.
Legislation- Cluck and Clover
Carol Ness. Grist, October 23, 2008. Profiles California’s
Proposition 2, which “requires that calves raised for veal, egg-laying
hens, and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways that allow these
animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around
freely." It passed with a wide margin on November 4, 2008.
- Californication of U.S. farm-animal code? Tom Philpott. Grist, November 6, 2008. About the farm industry backlash to Prop. 2.