Phase out Factory Farming

The intensive production of unprecedented numbers of animals in confinement (Confined Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs, better known as factory farms) is an unmitigated disaster for rural communities, public health, regional economies, and the environment, as factory fishing and industrial aquaculture are for coastal communities, family fishers, and marine ecosystems.

With negative impacts on workers, water, animals, communities, and the climate, factory farming and fishing are simply not conducive to a just and sustainable food system.

Animal agriculture and aquaculture systems should prioritize the health and safety of people, animals, communities, and ecosystems, while adding to regenerative economic activity that produces wealth for people who do the work.

Our vision of sustainable livestock and seafood production centers on the development of locally appropriate ecological principles that foster stewardship of the land, rivers, and oceans.

We want a future with: pasture-raised livestock on independent small and medium scale family farms and farmer- and worker-owned cooperatives, with soil-building fertilization systems; thriving wild seafood populations procured by community-based fishers using appropriate technology, whose scale of operation has the smallest ecological footprint on the ocean; and diversification of ownership, including farmer, fisher and worker ownership, from producer, to processor, to manufacturer.

• Strengthen environmental and conservation regulation.
• Dismantle the pillars propping up CAFOs, including non-therapeutic use of antibiotics, consolidation, and mandatory checkoffs.
• Align federal subsidies with conservation principles and in support of small/mid-size farms.
• Regulate and reduce line speeds to reduce worker injuries and contamination.
• Oppose trade agreements that include measures allowing transnational corporations to undermine sovereignty through investor-state trade dispute settlement mechanisms, and that drive up demand for factory-farmed and inhumane meat production (see Plank 3).