Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Why You Should Care

[nosmokes]

Good article about the travesty that is corporate agriculture, providing us calories w/o nutrition, depleting the top soil so that it is nothing more than dead sterile dirt that we compensate for with expensive synthetic *inputs* and poisons and horrific torture chambers for animals.
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original-www.organicconsumers.org

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Why You Should Care

* By Jim Goodman, Policy Board Member
Organic Consumers Association, April 4, 2008

I have farmed for 30 years, land that has been in my family since 1848. Farming has gotten pretty intensive, small farms with kids and dogs and sheep and chickens running around are mostly just a fond memory.

Back in the 70's, USDA Secretary Earl Butz urged farmers to plant commodity crops "fence row to fence row" and told us "Adapt or die". It was bad enough when USDA Secretary Ezra Taft Benson told us (in the 50's) to "get big or get out", but adapt or die?

No matter, American farmers were listening to these two guys because getting big and planting fence row to fence row became gospel. Farms, almost all of them, have become very specialized. Most function as part of the animal production chain, either housing and feeding cattle, pigs and poultry, or growing the grain commodities (corn and soy) for all those animals to eat.

Commodity crop farms have gotten large, thousands of acres, and they generally plant corn one year and soy the next which is pretty hard on the soil. Animals are often raised in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), which characteristically confine large numbers of animals either in specialized buildings or outdoor feedlots. Animals may not have access to pasture, outdoors, fresh air or natural light. They are confined.

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complete article here

[cornermouse]

1. Small farmers watch the health of their animals closely.

CAFO's may or may not notice sick livestock in the early stages. Fence row to fence row or "barrier to barrier" planting can result in erosion. Small farms and small farm produce tend to be much healthier and much better.

[fed-up]

2. some good news is that organic greens farmer BF says sales keep increasing at local farmer's market

where he sells his organically grown greens at prices close to chemically grown greens at the local stores

he also is planting lots of celery, onions and other things that will be great for people that will be eating a lot of (cheaper) soup and stews

He said all my harping about prices of food going up are making him rethink what he plants-so he is planting lots more of the cheaper veggies this season