A Breakdown of CAFOs
How they are affecting our general well-being through health and environmental Implications
When I moved to North Carolina I was shocked to learn that North Carolina ranked 3rd in the country for the amount of CAFOs as of 2022. As of 2015, “researchers from the groups estimate more than 10 billion pounds of wet animal waste and 2 million tons of dry animal waste is generated annually in North Carolina from CAFOs, leaving tens of thousands of rural residents susceptible to air and water quality contamination”. I was shocked to learn that a state would prioritize the economic benefits of CAFOs over the general well-being of the people that live there.
What is A CAFO?
With the industrialization of America came the industrialization of animal farms. Farm animals are now housed in factory farm set-ups across America. These factory farms are called CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). CAFOs are farms that house large amounts of animals in small spaces.
The animals are kept in such tight spaces that many times they are unable to turn around. Factory Farms sound like an ethical issue, but these are also environmental issues. Like a lot of environmental issues, factory farms cause both ethical issues for the people living near them and hurt the fiscal environment that surrounds them.
CAFOs are dangerous because of these animals’ large amounts of waste and what the farms do with it. Most farm animals make a large amount of waste, and these farmers do not know what to do with it. There are different chemicals that come from animal waste and depending on what the farmers are feeding/injecting these animals there can also be hormones or antibiotics.
Environmental Implications
The animal waste is housed in insufficient ways that can cause run-off into the local watersheds or can put particulates in the air. More times than not the waste is at some point in time housed in an open pit. These pits can be unlined and do not have overtop covers which causes runoff when there is a big storm.
This then puts the waste directly into the local watershed. The waste can also get into the watershed by leaching through the soil and entering the groundwater. The chemicals can enter the air when just sitting in the pits or when they are sprayed over open plots of farmland.
When there is too much waste to dispose of farmers have been known to spray the waste from a sprinkler system, which they are legally allowed to do. This puts waste particulates in the air directly affecting the conditions of our air.
Health Implications
Similar to the environmental problems, most of the health implications come from the long laundry list of chemicals that can be in the feces of these farm animals.
The CDC defines this list as “plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, pathogens such as E. coli, growth hormones, antibiotics, chemicals used as additives to the manure or to clean equipment, animal blood, silage leachate from corn feed, or copper sulfate used in footbaths for cows”.
When these chemicals get into the groundwater, the reason why this can affect our health is a large portion of America gets its drinking water from groundwater. Our water filtration methods cannot effectively filter out all the chemicals that can be found in waste. One of the chemicals that has the most dangerous health implications is nitrogen and its possibility to become nitrate. There are very serious health concerns that can happen when nitrates are ingested by humans. The CDC says some of these are blue baby syndrome, miscarriages, possibly death, and general health issues.
The other issue that goes along with CAFOs is the air quality issues. There are chemicals that can often be released into the air around CAFOs such as particulate matter and ammonia. There are very serious health implications that can be caused when these chemicals get into our lungs such as coughing, asthma, bronchitis, and lung disease.
Environmental Implications
CAFOs are a prime example of environmental injustices happening across the globe.
The EPA defines environmental justice as “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies”.
CAFOs placement has become an issue of environmental injustice and environmental racism. CAFOs have been located and established in communities that are either high poverty or have high populations of minorities. When you look at the distribution of where CAFOs are located they are in the same places with high poverty and high minority populated communities.
The people who are stuck living near CAFOs are forced to live with a decrease in quality of life. The quality of life decrease comes from the potent odor that comes from the CAFOs, the health issues associated with the chemicals that come from CAFOs in the groundwater, and the respiratory issues from the high amount of particular matter.
These people are stuck because when the CAFOs are built and established it can become very hard to move. First, houses that are near CAFOs are going to be sold for less since many people do not hope to live downwind of an animal farm. Second, as we established earlier normally these CAFOs are placed in communities that already are living in poverty. These two factors make it hard to move out of the areas surrounding CAFOs, forcing those who do live by them to face the associated health effects.m
What can we do about it?
- Get in contact with your local government
- Sign Petitions that encourage more Regulations for CAFOs
- Look up resources for your state
- Reach out to local communities who are trying to fight against CAFOs
