More than 700 US veterinarians are asking Congress to leave out an industry-backed provision from the Farm Bill that would preempt states from having stricter animal welfare laws than other states.
The number of large, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Iowa increased 13% over the past six years, according to a new report. It’s a mounting problem in a state that generates more than 100 million tons of manure annually, contributing to persistent water pollution and health problems.
A coalition of family farmers, ranchers, and independent meat companies launched a campaign to pressure the Senate Agriculture Committee to drop the Save Our Bacon Act provision from its version of the Farm Bill.
Animal welfare advocates are preparing for a fight in the US Senate where the new Farm Bill will be taken up in the next couple months, bringing with it a contentious provision that would undo state measures to protect livestock.
Iowa continues to dominate the US hog farming market — slaughtering more than 39 million hogs last year, roughly 30% of the nationwide market, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) annual livestock slaughter report released this week.
By Keith Schneider
President Donald Trump’s campaign to carve up federal environmental agencies and paralyze statutes that cleared the air, cleaned US waters, and protected wildlands marks the opening of MAPA, the new era to Make America Polluted Again.
A coalition of environmental organizations faced off against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in federal appellate court on Thursday in the latest skirmish in a long-running battle over the agency’s regulatory approach to water contamination connected to industrial agricultural operations.
A recent state court decision could transform how animal agriculture is regulated in Michigan, and potentially influence how other state and federal regulators oversee the industry’s mammoth waste stream, according to environmental lawyers and activists.
EMMETSBURG, IOWA – Raised in rural Iowa, 71-year-old Maureen Reeves Horsley once considered her tiny hometown in the northwest part of the state to be a blessed space. She recalls a time when the streams here ran clean and the lake water was clear.
By Sara June Jo-Saebo
Few books about America’s industrial agriculture system and food industry uncover the billionaires behind its biggest corporations. But a new book by Austin Frerick, a former tax economist at the US Treasury Department and current Fellow at Yale University’s Thurman Arnold Project, reveals the amassed fortunes of Big Ag’s most powerful families. Barons: Money, Power, and Corruption of America’s Food Industry exposes these ill-gotten gains and a cadre of complicit government players who made it all possible.