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When the Dust Settles: Airborne Pollution From Factory Farms

  • August 30, 2016

CAFO operations may be concentrated but the damage they cause is not confined. The US Department of Agriculture funded a grant to determine if harmful residue from these operations were dispersed by prevailing winds. As reported in Texas Monthly, "steroids were indeed blowing off of feedlots and settling into the local environment, where they could act as endocrine disrupters among nearby aquatic species."

Factory-type slaughterhouses magnify the risk to the end user, as infection in a single animal can spread rapidly in confined conditions, and can contaminate large batches of meat during processing. Bacterial infections may spread easily in the confined small spaces of a CAFO. To protect from large losses and increased weight gain, many producers include antibiotics in their livestock feed. Our food supply is being turned into a vector for disease and death. The careless pursuit of profit is responsible.