How big are factory farms?

[Lou]

Another great article from Vox.
I have posted so many articles from Vox. In retrospect, I should have created a thread titled "Another Great Article From Vox

Forty years ago, a facility raising 100,000 chickens per year would have passed for a large factory farm; now more than three-quarters of chickens live on massive complexes that sell more than 500,000 animals annually. These mega factory farms, as some observers have called them, look more like chicken megalopolises. The same pattern holds for other animals raised for food, like cows and pigs.​

How big are factory farms? How mega-sized factory farms took over America’s food system, explained in 9 charts. - Vox

 

[LoreD]

Pig farms are about 35,000. They produce as much poop as a town of 65,000 people. Some of the big dairy factory farms have 15,000 cows.

 

[Lou]

Seems like most of the really good Vox articles are accompanied by really good graphs. Vox's Graphic Department is so good.
What's that old saying? A good graph is worth ten thousand words?

I'm also pleased that they didn't entirely disregard the social justice angle.

"Such high concentrations of animals — and their waste — smell terrible and release hazardous air pollution linked to respiratory problems in the communities in which they’re located, a growing environmental justice issue."

 

[diannethomas877]

Factory farms can vary in size, but they often encompass vast areas of land and house thousands, if not millions, of animals. These industrial-scale operations prioritize efficiency and mass production, raising concerns about animal welfare and environmental impact. The scale of these farms underscores the need for sustainable and ethical practices in modern agriculture.

 

[Lou]

This is by the same author.
So good.

I gave up meat and gained so much more

Going vegan doesn’t have to mean restriction. For me, I became more connected to my community, family, and the animals around me.

www.vox.com

 

[LoreD]

Remnants of bird flu virus found in pasteurized milk, FDA says​

Remnants of bird flu virus found in pasteurized milk, FDA says

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk had tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has infected dairy cows. “To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in a...

www.yahoo.com

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk had tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has infected dairy cows.

The announcement comes nearly a month after an avian influenza virus that has sickened millions of wild and commercial birds in recent years was detected in dairy cows in at least eight states. The Agriculture Department says 33 herds have been affected to date.

Officials with the FDA and the USDA had previously said milk from affected cattle did not enter the commercial supply. Milk from sick animals is supposed to be diverted and destroyed. Federal regulations require milk that enters interstate commerce to be pasteurized.

Because the detection of the bird flu virus known as Type A H5N1 in dairy cattle is new and the situation is evolving, no studies on the effects of pasteurization on the virus have been completed, FDA officials said. But past research shows that pasteurization is “very likely” to inactivate heat-sensitive viruses like H5N1, the agency added.

 

[LoreD]

Texas cats die on dairy farm after drinking raw milk contaminated with bird flu​

Texas cats die on dairy farm after drinking raw milk contaminated with bird flu, CDC warns

A cluster of cats on a Texas dairy farm died after drinking raw milk from dairy cows affected with bird flu, according to a report from the CDC. An infectious disease expert commented.

www.yahoo.com

A cluster of cats on a Texas dairy farm died after drinking raw milk from dairy cows affected with bird flu, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The felines developed "fatal systemic influenza infection" after drinking the unpasteurized colostrum and milk from cows that tested positive for the virus.

Initally, the cats developed signs of sickness that included "a depressed mental state, stiff body movements, ataxia (impaired coordination), blindness, circling and copious oculonasal discharge," the report said.

"The death of the cats suggests that avian flu can cause illness due to ingestion," said Edward Liu, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in New Jersey, in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The FDA also urged producers to "take precautions" when discarding milk from affected cows, "so that the discarded milk does not become a source of further spread."

So far, only one person is confirmed to have contracted the virus after exposure to infected cows, the FDA said.

 

[Lou]

A cluster of cats

the correct term is a clutter of cats. Or sometimes a chowder of cats.

The felines developed "fatal systemic influenza infection" after drinking the unpasteurized colostrum and milk from cows that tested positive for the virus.

Then... are the cats capable of spreading the bird flu to other cats?

They also should have mentioned that so far pasteurization has proven to be an effective method to make the milk from infected cows safe.

So people, go ahead and keep drinking milk and keeping cows in big factory farms. Move along. Nothing to see here.

 

[LoreD]

the correct term is a clutter of cats. Or sometimes a chowder of cats.

Then... are the cats capable of spreading the bird flu to other cats?

They also should have mentioned that so far pasteurization has proven to be an effective method to make the milk from infected cows safe.

So people, go ahead and keep drinking milk and keeping cows in big factory farms. Move along. Nothing to see here.

The cluster was a quote from the article. I think they were referring to disease "cluster". It is a term used in epidemiology.

I would assume they are capable of spreading it to other cats because one farm worker caught it from cows, and the cows must have caught it from other farm animals.

Also, I knew some people who had farm cats that lived in their barn. They tried spaying and neutering them, but farm cats would arrive from other farms. Which means these cats move arround. The cows could have been infected by birds in the field, or an infected animal from another farm.

 

[Lou]

Animal rights comes to ‘America’s Provence’ and farmers are worried​

Sonoma County ballot measure asks voters in rural region to ban what critics call factory farms.​

In November, voters will weigh in on a proposal to prohibit large poultry and livestock operations, which activists say are factory farms that pollute the environment and mistreat animals with closely packed confinement. Sonoma would be the first county in the United States to ban such facilities.​

​

Farmers say it is an effort to push a “vegan mandate” to end animal farming and that the initiative would close more farms and have spinoff economic effects, both immediately and in the future.​

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/09/animal-rights-california-sonoma-farms-00162034

 

[Lou]

Sonoma loves its farms. Activists call them factories.​

Could a ballot measure upend this county?​

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/sonoma-farms-measure-j-19607917.php

Quick summary: A small county in California has a measure on the ballot to ban Factory Farms.

I think it will be very interesting to see how the election goes. Sonoma county is "urban rural". a large percentage of the land is rural but only 30% of the population lives there. Most people live in the cities (1).
Only a small portion of the population will be economically impacted by the measure.

No on J supporters have "raised about $1 million to fight it, about five times the sum that supporters reported.

"And for voters, Measure J is a chance to answer a question they’ve never before been asked: Are CAFOs, which produce an estimated 90% or more of the country’s livestock and poultry, an ethical way to farm?"

IMHO, this is a good example of reporting. I thought it thorough, informative, fair, and balanced. The article is long, too. over a newspaper page long.

I thought this quote is a good example of the reporting throughout

On average, Weber said, less than one-tenth of a percent of his birds — fewer than 500 out of 500,000 — die each week, which he called typical but activists termed alarming.​

​

another good excerpt

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If activists see specific problems in Sonoma County, opponents argue, they should write a narrow measure that targets those issues instead.​

​

“This measure doesn’t address water quality. This measure doesn’t address animal welfare. It simply just looks at farms and says, ‘If you’re a certain size, you just can’t operate that way,’” said Dayna Ghirardelli, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.​

1. Geography, Demographics, and Socio-Economic Data