How do CAFOs impact the environment in Wisconsin?
Background and / or History of Controversy
What is a CAFO? CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, which is a farming operation with a high number of animals concentrated in one area. Hundreds or even thousands of animals are typically kept in one large building, packed wall to wall, with barely enough space to move. In Wisconsin, these operations typically hold hogs, cattle, or chickens. CAFOs have been controversial since their introduction in the 1970s due to the multitude of problems they create.
In northern and central Wisconsin, CAFOs are one of the most common types of animal farming operations. They create a number of large environmental problems for Wisconsin. The biggest problem with CAFOs is the enormous amounts of manure and animal waste they produce. If the waste were properly disposed of and contained, it would not be an issue, but the consistent history of storage leaks, contamination, and pollution makes it a major issue for Wisconsin wildlife and ecosystems. There have been many cases of water pollution due to manure runoff into nearby bodies of water contaminating water supplies for entire communities and local wildlife. Along with contamination from the bacteria in animal waste, the high amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus creates massive algae blooms which severely affects the health of the wildlife and vegetation in the water. There is also significant amounts of air pollution due to the high amounts of methane released from livestock. When concentrations are high enough due to the dense nature of animals in CAFOs, it can become highly toxic.
CAFOs have typically been favored by the law and legislation, as they bring in a significant amount of revenue and resources for the state of Wisconsin. Due to this, it has become extremely difficult to regulate and limit them.Many rural communities have no choice but to let them destroy their local ecosystems. After realizing the devastating impacts from this type of farming, many groups and communities have moved to change the regulations and protection on the state legislative level.
Ethical Issues
Is it ethical to keep animals in such bad living conditions? According to the Sierra club “CAFOs produce huge amounts of animal sewage and other pollutants. Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste, including hazardous chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane. Airborne particulate matter is found near CAFOs and can carry disease-causing bacteria, fungus, or other pathogens.” This article talks about animal waste in CAFOs and where it all goes. The idea of CAFOs is that we get cheaper food products from animals, this means that we need lots of animals and when we have lots of animals we don’t have a lot of space also when we have lots of animals we have lots of animals waste, this animal waste ends up getting into are water and that then effects are communities.
How do the animals stay healthy? “CAFOs and animal welfare measures introduce CAFOs and the agricultural industry. Briefly, the overview notes the animal welfare, environmental, and human health concerns that have arisen with CAFOs.” Michigan State University states in their article that not only are there human health issues but the animals health is also in danger because of CAFOs. The common animals found in cafos farms are dairy cows, hogs and chickens these animals are kept in a small cages or pens, cows are unable to the graze like they should be able to, because the cows are unable to graze the grass there digestive system are all messed up and it causes the cows to have gas that produces methane.
How do CAFO farms and family farms differ from each other? As we know CAFOs farms keep animals in cages and feed the animals poor diets. Family farms keep their animals in large pens and sometimes open fields, their diets are correct and the family farms take much better care of the animals' waist. “In 2009, there were 8.6 billion chickens, 113 million pigs, and over 34 million cattle, including 944,000 calves, killed for agricultural purposes. Almost all of these animals are raised on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.” This quote from Michigan State University shows that animals that are in CAFOs farms are in danger and have no purpose other than being killed. Overall Animals are in danger in the CAFOs community, animals should not be treated like this, it is unethical. Some solutions to this problem are buying local at your grocery store, eating less meat and buying free graze meat products can help with CAFOs.
Current Status of Controversy
Currently in Wisconsin there has been an increase in CAFOs production. In 2005 there were 135 permitted CAFOs in Wisconsin and in the past 15 years that number has increased. In 2019 304 CAFOs were permitted to be in production. The increasing number has resulted in our current situation, causing harm to the animals, the environment, and the people.
There are movements trying to get rid of CAFOs because of the damage they have had on the environment around Wisconsin. Some groups try to restrict it, it is believed that the production will not stop but can be slowed down to lower the chance of pollution, contamination, leaks, and even illnesses.
The CAFOs have been polluting the water, the air, and our food causing harm to human health and having negative effects on the environment around these farms. This has caused some roadblocks to appear in increasing the amount of CAFOs permitted, but it is still argued if CAFOs should still continue.
At the moment, manure from the CAFOs is being used for fertilizing plants and even used as an energy source. With the manure that CAFOs can produce, the manure is turned into methane gas and utilized for an energy source, however this is expensive and not widely used in Wisconsin.
In Kewaunee County, they have agreed to pay the state 144,000 dollars to resolve the pollution violation. This was the result of the CAFOs operation. The DNR (Department of Natural resources) has reported that runoff was polluting local waters, which called for immediate action. The East Twin River is a victim of CAFOs pollution, and an excessive amount of phosphorus found its way into the river. The phosphorus comes from the manure and urine the animals produced on the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. The DNR and DOJ (Department of Justice) are responsible for the impacts CAFOs have caused and ensuring justice for the people who care about their water.
In Crawford County, DNR has identified waterways and wetlands such as Kickapoo River Wildlife Area and Lower Wisconsin State Riverway to be conservation opportunity areas. The DNR has the responsibility to protect them and plan to build an agriculturally intensive facility around those areas. These areas are subjected to be at the highest level of environmental scrutiny.
Key Players List
Some of the key players in the situations would be the local farmers in Wisconsin, CAFOs owners, and environmental protection/conservation groups.
Some local farmers have been dealing with polluted water and have been growing crops using the manure produced by the animals from CAFOs. Although some farmers may use CAFOs as a source of fertilizer, some are becoming sick because of the manure the animals have produced and the gasses that have been emitted. This has resulted in the farmers spreading illness to the public through food or air borne pathogens.
CAFOs owners in this case are the ones who are keeping the animals in enclosed buildings with little space for animals to move around. They are still running unrestrictedly for economic reasons. Methods of keeping animals captive are inhumane and the reason why CAFOs are still continuing, not because it's the best choice, but it is the cheapest choice.
Environmental protection/conservation groups have been trying to restrict or remove CAFOs over the past couple of years. For example, the Clean Water Act. Its main aim is to keep the water pollution in check and make sure the water stays clean and protected against anything to do with interfering with the water in a bad way such as CAFOs. Another example would be Wisconsin's department of natural resources, using animal waste as a natural resource.
Even if it's not only Wisconsin, around 300 locals in America have signed a letter to congress to stop the operation or even restrict CAFOs from operating. This implies that every state will follow any response given by the congress and including Wisconsin.
Power Dynamics
CAFOs are large factory farms that destroy the environment. CAFOs get money from taxpayers. Who runs the Cafos industry? We know that the tax payers supply the funding for cafos but who is regulating the laws on cafos? According to county health rankings, “CAFOs are regulated by the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program. ... State and local regulations vary; some local governments have limited ability to enact regulations due to state preemption legislation 6, 7.” The article is telling us that CAFO laws are set by the Federal Clean Water Act. This quote also tells us that some states are limited to the regulation of CAFOs, what this means is that in some states CAFO regulations aren’t very prominent in the state.
How do taxpayers affect cafos? According to the Sierra club “Do CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies? Yes. CAFOs can't survive without taxpayer subsidies. CAFOs receive many subsidies, such as milk price support guarantees, federal EQIP money through the Farm Bill, CAFOs Right Agreements, tax abatements, grants, bonds, even economic development funds for roads.” This tells us how cafos would not survive without money from taxpayers.
Although the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Clean Water Act does regulate the CAFO farms, they do not set enough regulations to keep CAFOs safe, “Operating a farm with an expired permit is not an uncommon or illegal practice, but it is a source of frustration for farmers and residents concerned about oversight.” This is from the Wisconsin Radio and it is telling us that not having a permit is not even illegal in Wisconsin. This just shows that the National Clean Water Act is not taking CAFOs seriously enough and if we want better water we need to regulate CAFOs better. Who runs the cafos industry? The answer to that question is that the National Clean Water Act has the most power over CAFO farms, and the people who pay taxes and supply money to CAFOs have the least amount of power in the issue.
Solutions
The process of fixing the issues with CAFOs is not an easy one due to the many roadblocks and strong opposition at all levels, but there are possible solutions. Many if not all activists and environmental groups agree that Wisconsin must be transitioned away from CAFOs slowly; trying to outright ban them would never pass and would create even more problems as CAFOs produce a large portion of the food we consume. Therefore, we have decided that the best solution would be to take multiple steps to decrease our dependence on CAFOs and eventually outlaw them. The first step would be to ban the construction of new CAFOs, then to provide government buyouts and subsidies for current CAFOs operators who transition to other supporter farming methods, and then to limit the size and capacity of existing CAFOs to discourage their use as well as decreasing the amount of contamination.
Banning the creation of new CAFOs would have no adverse effect on our food supply and prices, as shown by a study done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They found that 40% of current medium sized animal feeding operations were just as cost effective as the average large CAFO. They also found there was no correlation between CAFOs and the price of food products as prices have continued to rise even with areas transitioning to using more CAFOs.
Many studies have found that one of the best ways to decrease the existing amount of CAFOs is to create government buyout programs that incentivize moving to other farming methods. A study done by Jasmine Brodie Washington and the University of North Carolina investigated the feasibility of buyout programs to deal with CAFOs, and they found that it was an effective solution to deal with the growing dependence and size of CAFOs. This is only a small solution to a very large and complex problem, but almost all of the support for keeping CAFOs stems from economic reasons, so if there was a comparable economic alternative provided, it would reduce the strength of the opposition trying to keep CAFOs as is.
While there are already some regulations set by the EPA and DNR, they are too easily avoidable and are not strict enough. Enforcing these regulations lies in the hands of the states, meaning new regulations could be passed in Wisconsin if supported. The EPA has regulations that requires much stricter waste management and sewer processing for CAFOs, but a study done by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University saw that the majority of large commercial animal feeding operations held just enough animals to stay right below the CAFO threshold, and therefore bypassed all the restrictions set by the EPA to limit pollution and contamination.
With this multifaceted approach to moving away from CAFOs, Wisconsin could greatly improve the state’s environmental health while keeping the farming and food market intact and stable for producers and consumers.
Works Cited
“CAFO Oversight in Wisconsin and Who Pays for It?” Wisconsin State Farmer, https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2019/06/19/what-cafo-oversight-and-who-pays-wisconsin/1452486001/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2021.
Anderson, Phil. CAFO Alternatives and Solutions.
https://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/03/03/106084-cafo-alternatives-and-solutions. Accessed 24 Mar. 2021.
Washington, Jasmine Brodie. THE SWINE FLOODPLAIN BUYOUT PROGRAM: A PROPOSED SOLUTION TO FLOOD-RELATED HOG LAGOON POLLUTION. studentorgs.law.unc.edu/documents/elp/2019/washington.pdf.
“Hundreds of Community Organizations Press for Nationwide Moratorium on CAFOs.” FoodPrint, 16 Sept. 2020, https://foodprint.org/blog/cafo-moratorium/.
“County Board Learns Limits of Managing Large-Scale Livestock Operations.” St. Croix 360, 23 Dec. 2020, https://www.stcroix360.com/2020/12/burnett-county-tries-to-figure-out-how-much-it-can-fight-factory-farms/.
“Why Are CAFOs Bad?” Sierra Club, 24 Feb. 2015, https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/why-are-cafos-bad.
What is a CAFO? CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, which is a farming operation with a high number of animals concentrated in one area. Hundreds or even thousands of animals are typically kept in one large building, packed wall to wall, with barely enough space to move. In Wisconsin, these operations typically hold hogs, cattle, or chickens. CAFOs have been controversial since their introduction in the 1970s due to the multitude of problems they create.
In northern and central Wisconsin, CAFOs are one of the most common types of animal farming operations. They create a number of large environmental problems for Wisconsin. The biggest problem with CAFOs is the enormous amounts of manure and animal waste they produce. If the waste were properly disposed of and contained, it would not be an issue, but the consistent history of storage leaks, contamination, and pollution makes it a major issue for Wisconsin wildlife and ecosystems. There have been many cases of water pollution due to manure runoff into nearby bodies of water contaminating water supplies for entire communities and local wildlife. Along with contamination from the bacteria in animal waste, the high amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus creates massive algae blooms which severely affects the health of the wildlife and vegetation in the water. There is also significant amounts of air pollution due to the high amounts of methane released from livestock. When concentrations are high enough due to the dense nature of animals in CAFOs, it can become highly toxic.
CAFOs have typically been favored by the law and legislation, as they bring in a significant amount of revenue and resources for the state of Wisconsin. Due to this, it has become extremely difficult to regulate and limit them.Many rural communities have no choice but to let them destroy their local ecosystems. After realizing the devastating impacts from this type of farming, many groups and communities have moved to change the regulations and protection on the state legislative level.
Ethical Issues
Is it ethical to keep animals in such bad living conditions? According to the Sierra club “CAFOs produce huge amounts of animal sewage and other pollutants. Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste, including hazardous chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane. Airborne particulate matter is found near CAFOs and can carry disease-causing bacteria, fungus, or other pathogens.” This article talks about animal waste in CAFOs and where it all goes. The idea of CAFOs is that we get cheaper food products from animals, this means that we need lots of animals and when we have lots of animals we don’t have a lot of space also when we have lots of animals we have lots of animals waste, this animal waste ends up getting into are water and that then effects are communities.
How do the animals stay healthy? “CAFOs and animal welfare measures introduce CAFOs and the agricultural industry. Briefly, the overview notes the animal welfare, environmental, and human health concerns that have arisen with CAFOs.” Michigan State University states in their article that not only are there human health issues but the animals health is also in danger because of CAFOs. The common animals found in cafos farms are dairy cows, hogs and chickens these animals are kept in a small cages or pens, cows are unable to the graze like they should be able to, because the cows are unable to graze the grass there digestive system are all messed up and it causes the cows to have gas that produces methane.
How do CAFO farms and family farms differ from each other? As we know CAFOs farms keep animals in cages and feed the animals poor diets. Family farms keep their animals in large pens and sometimes open fields, their diets are correct and the family farms take much better care of the animals' waist. “In 2009, there were 8.6 billion chickens, 113 million pigs, and over 34 million cattle, including 944,000 calves, killed for agricultural purposes. Almost all of these animals are raised on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.” This quote from Michigan State University shows that animals that are in CAFOs farms are in danger and have no purpose other than being killed. Overall Animals are in danger in the CAFOs community, animals should not be treated like this, it is unethical. Some solutions to this problem are buying local at your grocery store, eating less meat and buying free graze meat products can help with CAFOs.
Current Status of Controversy
Currently in Wisconsin there has been an increase in CAFOs production. In 2005 there were 135 permitted CAFOs in Wisconsin and in the past 15 years that number has increased. In 2019 304 CAFOs were permitted to be in production. The increasing number has resulted in our current situation, causing harm to the animals, the environment, and the people.
There are movements trying to get rid of CAFOs because of the damage they have had on the environment around Wisconsin. Some groups try to restrict it, it is believed that the production will not stop but can be slowed down to lower the chance of pollution, contamination, leaks, and even illnesses.
The CAFOs have been polluting the water, the air, and our food causing harm to human health and having negative effects on the environment around these farms. This has caused some roadblocks to appear in increasing the amount of CAFOs permitted, but it is still argued if CAFOs should still continue.
At the moment, manure from the CAFOs is being used for fertilizing plants and even used as an energy source. With the manure that CAFOs can produce, the manure is turned into methane gas and utilized for an energy source, however this is expensive and not widely used in Wisconsin.
In Kewaunee County, they have agreed to pay the state 144,000 dollars to resolve the pollution violation. This was the result of the CAFOs operation. The DNR (Department of Natural resources) has reported that runoff was polluting local waters, which called for immediate action. The East Twin River is a victim of CAFOs pollution, and an excessive amount of phosphorus found its way into the river. The phosphorus comes from the manure and urine the animals produced on the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. The DNR and DOJ (Department of Justice) are responsible for the impacts CAFOs have caused and ensuring justice for the people who care about their water.
In Crawford County, DNR has identified waterways and wetlands such as Kickapoo River Wildlife Area and Lower Wisconsin State Riverway to be conservation opportunity areas. The DNR has the responsibility to protect them and plan to build an agriculturally intensive facility around those areas. These areas are subjected to be at the highest level of environmental scrutiny.
Key Players List
Some of the key players in the situations would be the local farmers in Wisconsin, CAFOs owners, and environmental protection/conservation groups.
Some local farmers have been dealing with polluted water and have been growing crops using the manure produced by the animals from CAFOs. Although some farmers may use CAFOs as a source of fertilizer, some are becoming sick because of the manure the animals have produced and the gasses that have been emitted. This has resulted in the farmers spreading illness to the public through food or air borne pathogens.
CAFOs owners in this case are the ones who are keeping the animals in enclosed buildings with little space for animals to move around. They are still running unrestrictedly for economic reasons. Methods of keeping animals captive are inhumane and the reason why CAFOs are still continuing, not because it's the best choice, but it is the cheapest choice.
Environmental protection/conservation groups have been trying to restrict or remove CAFOs over the past couple of years. For example, the Clean Water Act. Its main aim is to keep the water pollution in check and make sure the water stays clean and protected against anything to do with interfering with the water in a bad way such as CAFOs. Another example would be Wisconsin's department of natural resources, using animal waste as a natural resource.
Even if it's not only Wisconsin, around 300 locals in America have signed a letter to congress to stop the operation or even restrict CAFOs from operating. This implies that every state will follow any response given by the congress and including Wisconsin.
Power Dynamics
CAFOs are large factory farms that destroy the environment. CAFOs get money from taxpayers. Who runs the Cafos industry? We know that the tax payers supply the funding for cafos but who is regulating the laws on cafos? According to county health rankings, “CAFOs are regulated by the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program. ... State and local regulations vary; some local governments have limited ability to enact regulations due to state preemption legislation 6, 7.” The article is telling us that CAFO laws are set by the Federal Clean Water Act. This quote also tells us that some states are limited to the regulation of CAFOs, what this means is that in some states CAFO regulations aren’t very prominent in the state.
How do taxpayers affect cafos? According to the Sierra club “Do CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies? Yes. CAFOs can't survive without taxpayer subsidies. CAFOs receive many subsidies, such as milk price support guarantees, federal EQIP money through the Farm Bill, CAFOs Right Agreements, tax abatements, grants, bonds, even economic development funds for roads.” This tells us how cafos would not survive without money from taxpayers.
Although the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Clean Water Act does regulate the CAFO farms, they do not set enough regulations to keep CAFOs safe, “Operating a farm with an expired permit is not an uncommon or illegal practice, but it is a source of frustration for farmers and residents concerned about oversight.” This is from the Wisconsin Radio and it is telling us that not having a permit is not even illegal in Wisconsin. This just shows that the National Clean Water Act is not taking CAFOs seriously enough and if we want better water we need to regulate CAFOs better. Who runs the cafos industry? The answer to that question is that the National Clean Water Act has the most power over CAFO farms, and the people who pay taxes and supply money to CAFOs have the least amount of power in the issue.
Solutions
The process of fixing the issues with CAFOs is not an easy one due to the many roadblocks and strong opposition at all levels, but there are possible solutions. Many if not all activists and environmental groups agree that Wisconsin must be transitioned away from CAFOs slowly; trying to outright ban them would never pass and would create even more problems as CAFOs produce a large portion of the food we consume. Therefore, we have decided that the best solution would be to take multiple steps to decrease our dependence on CAFOs and eventually outlaw them. The first step would be to ban the construction of new CAFOs, then to provide government buyouts and subsidies for current CAFOs operators who transition to other supporter farming methods, and then to limit the size and capacity of existing CAFOs to discourage their use as well as decreasing the amount of contamination.
Banning the creation of new CAFOs would have no adverse effect on our food supply and prices, as shown by a study done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They found that 40% of current medium sized animal feeding operations were just as cost effective as the average large CAFO. They also found there was no correlation between CAFOs and the price of food products as prices have continued to rise even with areas transitioning to using more CAFOs.
Many studies have found that one of the best ways to decrease the existing amount of CAFOs is to create government buyout programs that incentivize moving to other farming methods. A study done by Jasmine Brodie Washington and the University of North Carolina investigated the feasibility of buyout programs to deal with CAFOs, and they found that it was an effective solution to deal with the growing dependence and size of CAFOs. This is only a small solution to a very large and complex problem, but almost all of the support for keeping CAFOs stems from economic reasons, so if there was a comparable economic alternative provided, it would reduce the strength of the opposition trying to keep CAFOs as is.
While there are already some regulations set by the EPA and DNR, they are too easily avoidable and are not strict enough. Enforcing these regulations lies in the hands of the states, meaning new regulations could be passed in Wisconsin if supported. The EPA has regulations that requires much stricter waste management and sewer processing for CAFOs, but a study done by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University saw that the majority of large commercial animal feeding operations held just enough animals to stay right below the CAFO threshold, and therefore bypassed all the restrictions set by the EPA to limit pollution and contamination.
With this multifaceted approach to moving away from CAFOs, Wisconsin could greatly improve the state’s environmental health while keeping the farming and food market intact and stable for producers and consumers.
Works Cited
“CAFO Oversight in Wisconsin and Who Pays for It?” Wisconsin State Farmer, https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2019/06/19/what-cafo-oversight-and-who-pays-wisconsin/1452486001/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2021.
Anderson, Phil. CAFO Alternatives and Solutions.
https://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/03/03/106084-cafo-alternatives-and-solutions. Accessed 24 Mar. 2021.
Washington, Jasmine Brodie. THE SWINE FLOODPLAIN BUYOUT PROGRAM: A PROPOSED SOLUTION TO FLOOD-RELATED HOG LAGOON POLLUTION. studentorgs.law.unc.edu/documents/elp/2019/washington.pdf.
“Hundreds of Community Organizations Press for Nationwide Moratorium on CAFOs.” FoodPrint, 16 Sept. 2020, https://foodprint.org/blog/cafo-moratorium/.
“County Board Learns Limits of Managing Large-Scale Livestock Operations.” St. Croix 360, 23 Dec. 2020, https://www.stcroix360.com/2020/12/burnett-county-tries-to-figure-out-how-much-it-can-fight-factory-farms/.
“Why Are CAFOs Bad?” Sierra Club, 24 Feb. 2015, https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/why-are-cafos-bad.