Industrial Livestock

Time to hold agribusiness accountable for its climate footprint

IATP’s new study on Big Dairy makes the connection between emissions and the rural crisis

New Report Finds Dramatic Increase in Global Dairy Companies' Emissions as Overproduction Forces Small Farms Out of Business

BERLIN/MINNEAPOLIS—A new report released today by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) reveals that the total combined greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 13 of the largest dairy corporations rose by 11% in just two years (2015-2017), with some increasing their emissions by 30%.

Cold hard (storage) facts about meatpacker threats of scarcity

"It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running,” said Smithfield Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth Sullivan when he announced the closing of its Sioux Falls, South Dakota slaughterhouse due to a COVID-19 outbreak among more than 200 Smithfield workers.

Nature-based Solutions for Livestock

Three major scientific reports published in the past year—the IPCC Land Report, the IPBES Global Assessment and the IPCC 1.5°C Report—confirm what agriculture and food activists have been warning for years: our food system is broken and government action without further delay is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. The IPCC estimates that our current global food system emits b

The climate crisis requires government action: regulate Big Ag, transition to agroecology

As world leaders gather at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), in its new publication, calls on U.N.

Climate change and a new agricultural system

This week, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a long-awaited report on land, climate change and agriculture.* The report’s findings confirm that the agriculture and food systems on which we now depend are no longer viable. 

The real future of agriculture

Last month, Woody Johnson, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, called the U.S.

New FAO, Dairy Platform report whitewashes industry's climate change contributions

MINNEAPOLIS—A new report published today by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the industry group Global Dairy Platform (GDP) largely ignores the role of global dairy corporations in driving up greenhouse gas (GHG) emissio

COP 24: Time to draw the line between agribusiness and agriculture

For an agriculture decision in 2020 to be meaningful, substantive and truly allow for agriculture to contribute to the 1.5°C pathway and become climate resilient, the UNFCCC, governments and IGOs must begin today to make a distinction between agribusiness and agriculture (including the food growers that represent 88 percent of global farmlands).

Factory farms slip environmental review for USDA loans

In August 2016, the Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency quietly announced a major change regarding its loan program for medium-sized Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The agency would no longer require an environmental review under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) prior to the approval of such loans.