When it comes to animal agriculture, a lot of terminology is thrown around, and it’s easy to get confused. The often-used acronym CAFO is otherwise known as a concentrated animal feeding operation.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a CAFO keeps and raises more than 1,000 animal “units in extreme confinement. The EPA includes any farm that raises animals and discharges manure or wastewater into a natural or manmade ditch, stream, or other waterway.
In short, CAFOs are factory farms. There are thousands in the United States, and together they raise and slaughter billions of animals each year.
At factory farms, animals raised for food suffer unimaginable cruelties: extreme confinement; brutal mutilations; and bloody, violent deaths.
Most laws that protect dogs and cats from abuse exclude farmed animals. As a result, blatant cruelty is now standard practice.
Don’t believe us? Watch.
As if abusing animals weren’t terrible enough, CAFOs are also destroying the environment. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, carbon dioxide emissions from raising farmed animals make up about 15 percent of global human-induced emissions. That’s more than all forms of transportation combined.
Furthermore, animal excrement and other agricultural runoff from large-scale farms have already polluted nearly one-third of the nation’s rivers.
Whether you call them factory farms or CAFOs, they are downright dangerous for our planet and absolute hell for animals.
The best thing consumers can do is boycott this terrible industry and switch to a sustainable, healthy, and compassionate vegan diet. Click here to get started!
