The Pew Foundation has released a study of the effects of factory farming on American agriculture, environment, and rural life: "Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America". Basically, the study finds that concentration of livestock in industrial factory-sized farms imperils the biosafety of the animals, makes our food supply unnecessarily vulnerable to disease and disruption, pollutes the environment, and impoverishes rural life.
The Pew study supports my conclusions and recommendations in my discussion of local food and rural America.
The executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, Robert P. Martin, provides a synopsis of the Commission's findings in an op-ed article, "Reject Mega-Farms", reprinted in The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California, Wednesday, May 14, 2008, B13.)
Updated. May 16, 2008.
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