Industrial Farm Production

Page 20 of the report:

"Industrial farm animal production (ifap) stands in sharp contrast to previous animal farming methods because of its emphasis on production efficiency and cost minimization. For most of the past 10,000 years, agricultural practice and animal husbandry were more or less sustainable, as measured by the balance between agricultural inputs and outputs and ecosystem health, given the human population and rate of consumption. ifap systems, on the other hand, have shifted to a focus on growing animals as units of protein production. Rather than balancing the natural productivity of the land to produce crops to feed animals, ifap imports feed and medicines to ensure that the animals make it to market weight in the shortest time possible. Animals and their waste are concentrated and may well exceed the capacity of the land to produce feed or absorb the waste. Not surprisingly, the rapid ascendance of ifap has produced unintended and often unanticipated environmental and public health concerns.

Storage and disposal of manure and animal waste are among the most significant challenges for ifap operators.By any estimate, the amount of farm animal waste produced annually in the United States is enormous. The United States Department of Agriculture (usda) estimates around 500 million tons of manure are produced annually by operations that confine livestock and poultry—three times the epa estimate of 150 million tons of human sanitary waste produced annually in the US (epa, 2007b). And in comparison to the lesser amount of human waste, the management and disposal of animal wastes are poorly regulated.

Until the late 1950s, manures typically were either deposited directly by animals on pastures or processed in solid form and collected along with bedding (usually hay or straw) from animal housing facilities for application to the land as a crop nutrient. There were no regulated rates of application, seasonal restrictions, or requirements for the reporting, analysis, or monitoring of applied manures. This lack of protection may have been without consequence before ifap because animal farmers managed fewer animals, widely dispersed among agricultural lands, and relied on natural ecosystems for attenuating pathogens and absorbing or diluting nutrients. But as the number of animals on individual farms increased, the need for more efficient and regulated methods of manure management grew in importance.

As in large human settlements, improper management of the highly concentrated feces produced by ifap facilities can and does overwhelm natural cleansing processes. Because of the large concentrations of animals and their manure, what was once a valuable byproduct is now a waste that requires proper disposal. As a result, animal feeding operations in the United States, whether ifap or not, now use a number of manure management strategies depending on the type of operation and state and federal regulations."

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