Industrial farms pose health and environmental risks and must change their ways, commission says

Confined animal feeding operations often pose "unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves," and major overhauls are needed in the way the operations are run, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production said this week, concluding a study that lasted two and a half years. Rick Weiss of The Washington Post summed it up this way: "Factory farming takes a big, hidden toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural America's economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock increasingly demanded by American consumers."

Ann Bagel Storck of MeatingPlace.com, which covers the red-meat industry, writes that the study "raises issues such as the huge amount of animal waste industrial farms generate, use of antibiotics by such facilities leading to the development of drug-resistant bacteria and the high concentration of animals on industrial farms increasing the risk of disease spreading. The report's recommendations include phasing out the most inhumane production practices within 10 years; implementing federal performance-based standards to improve animal welfare; and expanding and reforming animal agriculture research."

Weiss reports, "Several observers said the report, by experts with varying backgrounds and allegiances, is remarkable for the number of tough recommendations that survived the grueling research and review process, which participants said was politically charged and under constant pressure from powerful agricultural interests. In the end, however, even industry representatives on the panel agreed to such controversial recommendations as a ban on the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals -- a huge hit against veterinary pharmaceutical companies -- a phaseout of all intensive confinement systems that prevent the free movement of farm animals, and more vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws in the increasingly consolidated agricultural arena." (Read more)

For the full report, click here. For the commission's press release, click here. For a rebuttal from the Animal Agriculture Alliance, click here.