Editing Intensive farming (section)

==== Concentrated animal feeding operations ====
{{Main|Intensive animal farming}}
[[File:Florida chicken house.jpg|thumb|left|A commercial chicken house raising broiler pullets for meat]]

Intensive livestock farming or "factory farming", is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density.<ref>Sources discussing "intensive farming", "intensive agriculture" or "factory farming":
* Fraser, David. [http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0158e/a0158e00.HTM ''Animal welfare and the intensification of animal production: An alternative interpretation''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110913214809/http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0158e/a0158e00.htm |date=2011-09-13 }}, [[Food and Agriculture Organization]] of the [[United Nations]], 2005.
* Turner, Jacky. [http://www.unsystem.org/SCN/archives/scnnews21/ch04.htm#TopOfPage "History of factory farming"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131116060714/http://www.unsystem.org/SCN/archives/scnnews21/ch04.htm |date=2013-11-16 }}, United Nations: "Fifty years ago in Europe, intensification of animal production was seen as the road to national food security and a better diet ... The intensive systems—called 'factory farms'—were characterised by confinement of the animals at high stocking density, often in barren and unnatural conditions."
* [[John Humphrys|Humphrys, John]]. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,475210,00.html Why the organic revolution had to happen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080118163147/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,475210,00.html |date=2008-01-18 }}, ''[[The Observer]]'', April 21, 2001: "Nor is a return to 'primitive' farming practices the only alternative to factory farming and highly intensive agriculture."
* Baker, Stanley. [http://century.guardian.co.uk/1960-1969/Story/0,,105655,00.html "Factory farms – the only answer to our growing appetite?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106220300/http://century.guardian.co.uk/1960-1969/Story/0,,105655,00.html |date=2011-01-06 }}, ''[[The Guardian]]'', December 29, 1964: "Factory farming, whether we like it or not, has come to stay ... In a year which has been as uneventful on the husbandry side as it has been significant in economic and political developments touching the future of food procurement, the more far-seeing would name the growth of intensive farming as the major development." (Note: Stanley Baker was the Guardian's agriculture correspondent.)
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1205545.stm "Head to head: Intensive farming"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090222181507/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1205545.stm |date=2009-02-22 }}, [[BBC News]], March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of [[Bovine spongiform encephalopathy|BSE]] from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an [[Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Germany)|Agriculture Minister]] from the [[Alliance '90/The Greens|Green Party]]. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."</ref><ref>Sources discussing "industrial farming", "industrial agriculture" and "factory farming":
* [http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/Y2772E/y2772e0c.htm "Annex 2. Permitted substances for the production of organic foods"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126040445/http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/Y2772E/y2772e0c.htm |date=2012-01-26 }}, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: "Factory farming" refers to industrial management systems that are heavily reliant on veterinary and feed inputs not permitted in organic agriculture.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1205545.stm "Head to head: Intensive farming"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090222181507/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1205545.stm |date=2009-02-22 }}, BBC News, March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of BSE from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the Green Party. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."</ref><ref name="Kaufmann">Kaufmann, Mark. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501785.html "Largest Pork Processor to Phase Out Crates"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016115415/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501785.html |date=2011-10-16 }}, ''The Washington Post'', January 26, 2007.</ref><ref name="mc1">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1046184.stm "EU tackles BSE crisis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711010659/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1046184.stm |date=2017-07-11 }}, BBC News, November 29, 2000.</ref><ref>"Is factory farming really cheaper?" in ''New Scientist'', Institution of
Electrical Engineers, New Science Publications, University of Michigan, 1971, p. 12.</ref> "[[Concentrated animal feeding operations]]" (CAFO), or "intensive livestock operations", can hold large numbers (some up to hundreds of thousands) of cows, hogs, turkeys, or chickens, often indoors. The essence of such farms is the concentration of livestock in a given space. The aim is to provide maximum output at the lowest possible cost and with the greatest level of food safety.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nierenberg |first=Danielle |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62104329 |title=Happier meals : rethinking the global meat industry |date=2005 |publisher=Worldwatch Institute |others=Lisa Mastny, Worldwatch Institute |isbn=1-878071-77-7 |location=Washington, D.C. |oclc=62104329}}</ref> The term is often used pejoratively.<ref name="encyc-organic">{{cite book|last=Duram|first=Leslie A. |title=Encyclopedia of Organic, Sustainable, and Local Food|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-35963-7|page=139}}</ref> CAFOs have dramatically increased the production of food from animal husbandry worldwide, both in terms of total food produced and efficiency.

Food and water is delivered to the animals, and therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth hormones are often employed. Growth hormones are not used on chickens nor on any animal in the [[European Union]]. Undesirable behaviors often related to the stress of confinement led to a search for docile breeds (e.g., with natural dominant behaviors bred out), physical restraints to stop interaction, such as individual cages for chickens, or physical modification such as the [[debeaking]] of chickens to reduce the harm of fighting.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Van Boeckel|first1=Thomas P.|last2=Brower|first2=Charles|last3=Gilbert|first3=Marius|last4=Grenfell|first4=Bryan T.|last5=Levin|first5=Simon A.|last6=Robinson|first6=Timothy P.|last7=Teillant|first7=Aude|last8=Laxminarayan|first8=Ramanan|date=2015-05-05|title=Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=112|issue=18|pages=5649–5654|doi=10.1073/pnas.1503141112|issn=0027-8424|pmc=4426470|pmid=25792457|bibcode=2015PNAS..112.5649V|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2023-04-23 |title=Intensive farming |url=https://tuoitho.edu.vn/intensive-farming-4ofbbz4p/ |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=tuoitho.edu.vn |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-07-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705180055/https://tuoitho.edu.vn/intensive-farming-4ofbbz4p/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The CAFO designation resulted from the 1972 U.S. [[Federal Clean Water Act]], which was enacted to protect and restore lakes and rivers to a "fishable, swimmable" quality. The [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]] identified certain animal feeding operations, along with many other types of industry, as "point source" [[groundwater]] polluters. These operations were subjected to regulation.<ref>Sweeten, John et al. [http://www.lpes.org/cafo/01FS_History.pdf "Fact Sheet #1: A Brief History and Background of the EPA CAFO Rule"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217125833/http://www.lpes.org/cafo/01FS_History.pdf |date=2008-12-17 }}. MidWest Plan Service, Iowa State University, July 2003.</ref>

[[File:Hog confinement barn interior.jpg|thumb|Intensively farmed pigs]]

In 17 states in the U.S., isolated cases of [[groundwater contamination]] were linked to CAFOs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/conservation-environment/clean-water-act/|title=CAFOs & Clean Water Act|access-date=2013-11-05|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105034639/http://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/conservation-environment/clean-water-act/ |archive-date=2013-11-05}}</ref> The U.S. federal government acknowledges the [[waste disposal]] issue and requires that [[animal waste]] be stored in [[manure lagoon|lagoons]]. These lagoons can be as large as {{convert|7.5|acre|m2}}. Lagoons not protected with an impermeable liner can leak into groundwater under some conditions, as can runoff from manure used as fertilizer. A lagoon that burst in 1995 released 25 million gallons of nitrous sludge in North Carolina's [[New River (eastern North Carolina)|New River]]. The spill allegedly killed eight to ten million fish.<ref>Orlando, Laura. ''McFarms Go Wild'', ''Dollars and Sense'', July/August 1998, cited in Scully, Matthew. ''Dominion'', St. Martin's Griffin, p. 257.</ref>

The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and dead animals in a small space poses ethical issues to some consumers. [[Animal rights]] and [[animal welfare]] activists have charged that intensive animal rearing is cruel to animals.