Hidden Food Costs - Confined Animal Operations Cost Taxpayers Billions

Dear Charles,

The news has been full of stories recently about the rising cost of food. But when it comes to most meat, milk, and eggs sold in the United States, consumers have paid more for years—they just didn’t know it.

According to a new Union of Concerned Scientists report, the true cost of meat and milk produced in massive CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) includes billions in unaccounted-for taxpayer dollars that pay for the economic, health, and environmental problems CAFOs create.

CAFOs are supported by misguided government policies. Meanwhile, modern, alternatives are already in practice today that can produce the quantity of food we need, often without government subsidies. These alternatives can safeguard our health while protecting the foundations of our food supply—like healthy soil and fresh water. Please sign our petition to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), asking him to end policies that give an unfair advantage to the polluting CAFO industry and to support modern alternatives instead.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Palembas
National Field Organizer
Food and Environment Program



Sign this petition :

CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) are costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars in unaccounted for costs, according to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. "CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations" examines how misguided government policies force the public to pick up the tab to support these operations. This gives CAFOs an economic edge over small and medium-sized livestock, poultry, egg, and dairy operations that use modern, alternative methods to avoid the health and environmental problems that plague CAFOs.

As the leader of the government agency with the responsibility to regulate and research agricultural methods, we urge you to reject policies that support CAFOs at the expense of more sustainable alternatives, and to embrace policies that support those alternatives, including:

• enforcing antitrust and anti-competitive laws to prevent huge meat and poultry processors from dominating the production industry and shutting out smaller producers,
• allocating research dollars to methods of animal agriculture that benefit the environment, public health, and rural communities, especially smaller, smarter alternatives to CAFOs,
• reducing payments to CAFOs from agricultural conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and
• updating slaughterhouse regulations to afford smaller, alternative producers better access to markets.

Your support for these measures would save taxpayers billions, while leveling the playing field for producers that can provide high quality, affordable food without threatening our health and the resources we depend upon.

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More information:
CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations explains how misguided federal farm policies have encouraged the growth of massive CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) by shifting billions of dollars in environmental, health, and economic costs to taxpayers and communities. As a result, CAFOs now produce most of the nation's beef, pork, chicken, dairy and eggs, even though there are more sophisticated and efficient farms in operation.

Instead of favoring CAFOs, the report recommends that government policies provide incentives for modern production methods that benefit the environment, public health, and rural communities. The report also shows that several smart alternative production methods can offer meat and dairy at costs comparable to CAFO products. More...