The True Cost of Factory Farming

“Factory farming, a trillion-dollar industry, is the lynchpin of the GMO industry and the primary driver of deteriorating public health, environmental destruction, water pollution and global warming.” — Ronnie Cummins, OCA

“Globalized industrialized food is not cheap: it is too costly for the Earth, for the farmers, for our health.” — Vandana Shiva

Today, 95% of the meat, dairy, and eggs consumed in the United States comes from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. These are not farms. They are industrial facilities where billions of animals live in confinement, pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, producing food that is nutritionally diminished and environmentally catastrophic. Factory farms are a leading driver of water pollution, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and the destruction of biodiversity. The workers inside them endure some of the most dangerous conditions in any industry.

OCA’s True Cost of Factory Farming campaign, formerly known as Boycott Big Meat, is a national consumer education and lobbying effort to advance the transition away from industrial meat production toward a system of organic, regenerative, pasture-raised, and grass-fed production built by a diverse network of independent farmers, ranchers, processors, and retailers committed to justice and fair pay for all workers throughout the supply chain, respect for animals and all natural systems, and public health through the production of drug and pesticide-free meat and animal products.

The alternative to factory farming is not synthetic food or lab-grown meat. It is farming that works with nature rather than against it. For more on GMOs and synthetic food, visit our Truth About GMOs and Synthetic Food campaign.