Factory Farming Impacts

Factory farming is destroying family farms and damaging the environment.

Factory Farming Impacts

Northeast Wisconsin is in the grip of major agricultural changes, as we lose farmland to sprawl and many small farmers are driven out of business. The remaining farmland is being consolidated into huge industrial operations housing thousands of animals.

The huge scale of the new farms is out of proportion to the rural areas where they are sited, which degrades the quality of life for most everyone around them. Whether its cows, hogs, chickens or turkeys - their high numbers can seem intolerable to neighbors.

According to Midwest Environmental Advocates, smaller dairy farms in Wisconsin (those with 20-99 milk cows) decreased 28% between 1992 and 1997. Conversely, since 1992 the number of dairy farms with herd sizes of more than 1,000 milk cows increased 23 times. Of these large livestock factories, more than half were started in the last few years.

Industrial Hog Pens

Almost every county in Northeast Wisconsin is suffering from existing or proposed factory farms, and local residents are hard pressed to defend themselves, given lax state rules which favor large farms. Clean Water Action Council is currently trying to help some of these citizens, with information and support.

Drawbacks of Factory Farming

1. Water Pollution --- Huge amounts of manure are produced under concentrated conditions in most factory farms. Manure management becomes a major headache, to collect, store and disposal of properly. Up to now, the state has been weak in enforcing manure management plans, with the result that nearby streams and lakes have often been damaged by the excess nutrients, chemicals and bacteria flowing into them. In Brown County, we already have more animals and manure than we have land to spread the manure on. Our land base is inadequate for the number of animals we have.

2. Severe Odors --- Neighbors who live near factory farms often suffer nauseating levels of manure smells. In fact, high odor concentrations (chemical gases) are unhealthy, not just annoying.

3. Noise and Traffic --- When thousands of animals are involved, a farm must operate a lot of equipment and trucks to keep everything properly managed - shipping in feed and shipping out manure and animals. The intensity is much higher than for the old traditional farms, with frequent truck traffic, truck fumes, equipment noise, animal noise, truck noise and general confusion.

4. Property Values Destroyed --- Neighbors who moved to the country for fresh air and quiet find that their personal dreams are destroyed, and yet they can't afford to move away because their home value has plummeted due to the nearby factory farm. No one will buy their home at its previous value.

5. Family Farms Driven Out --- The huge agribusinesses who operate the factory farms can take advantage of many government subsidies that are out of reach for smaller, poorer operators. Industrial farming is distorting the farm economy, forcing many small family farms out of business. The agricultural economy is quickly becoming concentrated in far fewer hands, destroying the American ideal of the independent farm family which this country was founded on.

Links to More Factory Farming Information

Wisconsin Activities