About 10 billion U.S. farmed animals annually live out their short lives mostly squeezed into filthy warehouse-like buildings, called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), or factory farms. Not only do these overcrowded environments give rise to animal welfare concerns, the concentration of pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, and other animals creates problems for people. Odors, hazardous air pollutants, and water contamination from the billions of gallons of waste generated each year turns rural landscapes into industrial dumping grounds. These mega-farms also emit massive amounts of greenhouse gases and encourage the rapid spread of pathogens, including diseases that can jump to humans.
There are several ways people can challenge CAFOs: individually, as a member of a Sierra Club Group or Chapter, or as part of a community directly threatened by a CAFO. Please click on the link(s) below that best suits your need or see our new one minute videos that summarize many of the harms of CAFOs.
Bull Sheets
See how BIG AG's political power
can frustrate environmental justice.
Success Stories
Activism pays off!
Learn the tactics used by the CAFO industry to evade regulations.
CAFO Horror Stories
See the horrible consequences of cramming large numbers
of hapless animals into enclosed spaces.
Voices from the Field
Challenging CAFOs requires making your voice heard.
Who we are:
What is a CAFO?
A Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) is a type of Animal Feeding Operation (AFO)—a facility that congregates large numbers of animals and their waste on a relatively small land area for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period. [EPA] CAFOs are often referred to as “factory farms.”
A large CAFO, by regulatory definition, confines at least 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 swine weighing over 55 pounds, 125,000 broiler chickens, or 82,000 laying hens.
The animals do not graze or forage. Feed—typically corn or soy—is delivered to them. They are confined in open feedlots or enclosed structures in stalls, pens, or cages. They live, sleep, and eat where they urinate and defecate. Vast quantities of manure are collected and stored until eventually applied to farm fields.
Why are CAFOs cause for our concern?
- CAFOs are responsible for multiple and significant well-documented public health and environmental harms. They threaten the air we breathe, the water we drink and recreate in, soil health, and biodiversity.
- Rural communities suffer socioeconomic losses and environmental injustice.
- Current regulations and laws do not adequately protect the environment and public health.
- CAFOs receive substantial taxpayer support.
- Generally, there are no CAFO size or density restrictions within communities, even those located within watersheds already impaired by agricultural pollution. CAFO expansions and new constructions amplify the associated harms. "Right to Farm" laws leave CAFO neighbors and their communities with little to no say.
- States may also set their own animal unit values. For example, Kansas recently assigned a lower value of 0.003 animal units per broiler chicken to encourage production in the state. This meant a new producer could permit some 330,000 chickens at a single location without qualifying as a CAFO, thereby enjoying much weaker standards for its separation from neighbors.