The Wasting of Rural New York State
A report generated by Citizen's Environmental Coalition & Sierra Club
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are large animal-product production facilities that confine hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of cattle, dairy cows or pigs, or tens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of chickens or turkeys, in enormous buildings or feedlots. This report deals primarily with dairy CAFOs, which are the greatest CAFO problem in New York State at present. It also concentrates on the environmental and economic concerns raised by CAFOs, and does not deal with animal welfare or food quality issues. To dispose of their waste, dairy CAFOs often store liquid manure in football field-sized lagoons, to be spread later on nearby fields. As a consequence of CAFO operations, Sierra Club has documented contaminated drinking water supplies and water bodies, fish kills, and neighbors suffering from exposure to toxic gases across New York State. This report discusses how CAFOs: endanger our health, drive out responsible family farmers, pollute our air, and pollute our water.