CAFOs: A Q&A with OEFFA Member Emily Kichler

What are CAFO systems?

CAFO stands for concentrated animal feeding operations, which is how 99 percent of all meat, dairy, and egg operations are estimated to run in the United States. It’s essentially a description for a bunch of farmed animals crammed as tightly as possible into an enclosed structure. This is why there’s so much ambiguity or warranted mistrust with product labeling. Take one facility and put a ton of chickens into that space in cages. The cages will be small, and this is unethical.  Take the cages away, and you have cage-free chickens. The problem is that it’s still the same enclosure with way too many chickens for one space. Add a door and a small, fenced-in area, which chickens likely don’t even know is there, and you can say that chickens have access to outdoor space. 

Why are CAFO systems important to eliminate, and why is it particularly important to our environment and food systems in Ohio?

Aside from the inherent and abhorrent ethical issues of CAFOs, they also pose a major threat to the environment. Because the concentration of animals in a space is so high, the concentration of waste is also extremely high. We’re talking about one CAFO being able to produce more than one and a half times the amount of sewage of the city of Philadelphia annually. Put another way, this waste is equivalent to more than one and half times that of Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Saginaw, Traverse City, and Warren combined—all the largest cities in Michigan. 

Completely untreated urine, feces, and blood are routinely held in gigantic cesspools. These cesspools can range in size and are often multiple football fields large. When these pools fill up, or when large rains come, their contents are often sprayed onto fields and onto neighboring lands. This spraying often happens in underserved communities and communities of color. In 2001, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) warned about cesspool walls’ susceptibility to rupture and contaminate groundwater. Since then, there have been numerous reports of leaking pipes and hundreds of thousands of gallons of waste contaminating nearby waterways in each instance. Interestingly, large capacity cesspools for human waste are illegal, as similar warnings and concerns are laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

In Lake Erie and surrounding rivers and valleys, 90 percent of harmful algal blooms are attributable to industrial animal agriculture waste and runoff. And this kind of water pollution extends well beyond our region, all the way into the Gulf of Mexico, where there is a 6,500 square mile dead zone caused by harmful algal blooms. For decades, NRDC has warned against the harms of CAFOs and particularly the ways in which waste is managed. NRDC’s main recommendation for a sustainable transition is to implement practices of rotational grazing and composting. 

Whether we’re talking about greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, or water pollution, all are attributable to highly industrialized methods of extracting products from animals and the earth.  All could be mitigated with different practices and priorities. 

In your research, what have you found as potential policy solutions that could happen or are currently in the works?

Policy that is thorough is often not passed, let alone enforced. I’m a big advocate for good policy, but I am most skeptical of the power of policy on this issue in particular. The Union of Concerned Scientists has identified agriculture as receiving the most lobbying dollars of any sector—more than oil and gas, and more than defense. What we are looking at, first and foremost, is even the most basic oversight of these facilities. As it stands, the EPA doesn’t even have a clear count on these facilities or know where all of them exist. 

The other major problem we face following the NRDC recommendations now is that we have an issue of available land. Not only are farmland prices and competition high, but as it stands, 77 percent of all globally farmed land is used for animal agriculture and feed. It is estimated that pasture raised animals would require at least double that amount, and we have 99 percent of all meat, dairy, and egg operations for which to account. Simply, there is not enough land to make this transition without a drastic reduction in the U.S.’ current animal product consumption, which has nearly doubled per capita in the last century. 

Perhaps the most effective legislation will be indirect: a de-prioritization of subsidies and bailouts of meat, dairy, and eggs, countered with a deeply needed prioritization of regenerative and nutritive crops. To be specific, the vast majority of main commodities represented in the farm bill are either animal feed or animals (as used for their parts or products). The farm safety net programs for fruits and vegetables are marginal compared to those of meat and dairy, and can be difficult to access. There are existing programs that could be used to better benefit small, regenerative farmers, but these programs often don’t meet the need, are oversubscribed, or are inaccessible due to burdensome application requirements. 

Research and promotion infrastructure, known as checkoffs, are funds by which all farmers are required to pay into a larger pool to promote their respective fields (beef, dairy, eggs, etc.), but these programs are often ultimately used to line the pockets of wealthier producers, inhibiting the spread of small, local farms. Checkoff programs have been used to give huge end-of-year bonuses to corporate CEOs or to prop up organizations that appear as small farm representatives but are actually just Big Ag lobbyists. They have also been used for huge campaigns, like “Got Milk?” which was great at promoting the mass consumption of dairy. Due to such high consumer demand, however, the program only contributed to a greater consolidation of dairy, bringing us to the problematic and destructive infrastructure of CAFOs today. 

Who is leading the way in this work and how can people engage with them?

You can support the Environmental Law & Policy Center, which sued the EPA for its lack of CAFO oversight or regulation, leading to massive pollution in the Great Lakes. I highly recommend following Cory Booker’s legislative work, particularly the Farm System Reform Act and the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act, in addition to important farm equity work.  Farm Action is a great resource and advocate for checkoff reforms and has had some big wins recently with country-of-origin labeling for beef and pork. There are so many angles and battles to the bigger fight here and so many organizations doing important work. RAFI is another organization that is worth a mention and a follow. And of course, getting involved with and supporting your local ecological food association, OEFFA, is going to help small farmers to even exist in a world of ever- consolidating markets. 

How should consumers look to source their meat and other protein needs?

Personally, I would love to see a greater expansion of local lentils, beans, nuts, and seeds, which have never been prioritized or even a part of the major commodities supported in the farm bill. 

Local pasture-raised animals are going to be the most ecologically sustainable when consuming farmed meat, dairy, and eggs. Again, labeling can be misleading here, so this can take quite a bit more commitment than simply seeing what’s available at your local grocery store. Knowing your farmers and where your food comes from is a great plan of action. 

Finding a local CSA or shopping at a farmers’ market is a great way to support local farmers and get farm-fresh food, often at a relatively accessible price point for what you’re buying. 

One of the most sustainable places I’ve lived was a homestead in which most food was grown in the garden, and there was half a deer in the freezer, shared by a neighbor. This was the only meat eaten all year by four to six inhabitants, and most of it was eaten in the winter. 

What does Ohio stand to gain by shifting away from CAFOs?

We are part of a watershed with some of the world’s only surface freshwater on the planet.  Freshwater lakes make up 0.2 percent of all water on Earth. The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of all the world’s surface freshwater and 90 percent of all surface freshwater in the United States. We are polluting these waters with methods of industrial animal agriculture that are not and were never sustainable. The end of CAFOs is an end to an inhumane system and a stop to local pollution of precious resources. This is the water many of us drink! 

After writing this piece, what’s next for your research and interest in this?

I’d love to just get the word out about this topic; in any way it comes up and with any new pertinent research that comes my way. It’s overwhelming for one article, but there are even more jarring statistics on animal agriculture that we didn’t even get to here! 

Food systems in the U.S. in general are in need of deep overhaul and repair. The farmworkers who grow, harvest, slaughter, and butcher our food are in need of recognition and support—from everyday subsistence farming to migrant work to prison labor—and I’d love to dig deeper into the humanity of farming as well. I love the work of United Farm Workers, Equal Exchange, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and National Farm Worker Ministry.  I highly recommend giving these organizations your attention and support.