Factory farms

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Four: Cleaning up the CAFO Mess

The rise of factory farms in the U.S. didn't happen by accident. Corporate influence over our political system has created policies that subsidize and incentivize the industrial model. But our food system does not have to be this way.

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Three: Communities Fight Back

In South Dakota, Iowa and all across factory farm country, everyday people are stepping up and organizing their neighbors to prevent factory farms from being built in their communities. How to fight a factory farm? People power.

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Two: The Price We Pay

What does it mean to get big or get out? As CAFOs began to take over livestock production in the U.S. through the 1990s, the consequences of this corporate-controlled, vertically-integrated system rippled throughout rural economies, putting smaller independent farmers and their suppliers out of business, and trapping others in debt and dependence on exploitative meat companies.

Speaking on Factory Farms

The Congressional staffer moved up in their chair and looked up from the notepad with a quizzical expression. These farmers were asking for more regulation of the meat industry? They didn’t like factory farming and what it was doing to rural communities? And they wanted the government to stop subsidizing this factory farm system for livestock and dairy?

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode One: Raising a Stink

What is a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), and what does it mean that nearly all farm animals in the U.S. are now raised in them? Independent family farmers and rural communities are facing the brunt of these consequences, but they're not going to take it lying down.

Introducing: How to Fight a Factory Farm

Coming October 2 from the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, a new four-part podcast series about factory farms, and the farmers and rural organ

With restored NEPA, Biden administration strengthens rural community protections

MINNEAPOLIS—Today, the White House Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized reforms that would reinstate environmental protections for rural communities.

US ag emissions declined in 2022. A blip or trend?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported today that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture fell in 2022, even as overall United States emissions rose.

Why is California funding big dairies in Minnesota?

The following opinion was originally published by MinnPost on February 16, 2024. 

IATP Comment to the California Air Resources Board on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed amendments to its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). IATP is a 38-year-old, non-profit organization with headquarters in Minnesota that works nationally and internationally for fair and sustainable food and trade systems.