Contents

1. Summary
2. CAFOs Uncovered
3. Antibiotics Legislation
4. Naturally Raised Label

Summary

In April, UCS issued a landmark report—CAFOs Uncovered: the Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations—examining the economic, health, and environmental costs we are paying as a society for these huge crowded facilities. The report demonstrates that smaller, less damaging operations often can be as cost effective as CAFOs. It also outlines important policy changes needed to protect our food, health, environment, and communities, and to support smarter alternatives for food production. UCS has also weighed in on a proposed new label on meat from “naturally raised” animals and continues to push for legislation to end the overuse of antibiotics in animal feed.

CAFOs Uncovered

The news has been full of stories recently about the rising cost of food. But a new UCS report finds that when it comes to most meat, milk, and eggs sold in the United States, consumers have paid more for years—they just didn’t know it. CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations reveals how the methods by which most of our food animals are raised cause fish kills through water polluted by manure or fertilizers, generate antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the overuse of antibiotics in CAFOs, and emit air pollution so severe that rural neighbors sometimes can't leave their windows open. Modern alternatives—such as spreading animals out on pasture—minimize pollution and produce healthier animals and abundant meat, milk, and eggs. So why do destructive CAFOs dominate the rural landscape? CAFOs Uncovered explains how federal subsidies helped establish the CAFO system and continues to help keep them in business today. More than 5,000 UCS supporters have signed a petition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urging them to end policies that give an unfair advantage to the polluting CAFO industry and to support modern alternatives instead.

Antibiotics Legislation

The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act continues to gather steam on the Hill, as UCS works to secure new cosponsors for this legislation in the House and Senate. The bill would end the practice of adding antibiotics to the feed and water of animals that are not sick. This misuse of drugs that are critical to treating diseases in humans—and animals—contributes to the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance. Bacteria that are constantly exposed to antibiotics develop resistance to these drugs. When humans get sick from resistant bacteria, the antibiotics prescribed will no longer work. More than 13,000 UCS supporter have asked their legislators to cosponsor this critical legislation. Click here to see if your members of Congress have cosponsored this legislation, and to urge them to do so.

Naturally Raised Label

UCS continues to fight for meaningful labels that will help consumers make informed choices regarding their food. The latest proposal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would allow producers who forgo the use of antibiotics, added hormones, and meat by-products in animal feed to label their meat as “naturally raised.” At the same time, the agency will continue to allow the term “natural” on other meat products that do not use these practices. The term “natural” is used on CAFO-raised meat products that have merely been “minimally processed” without artificial ingredients. UCS feels strongly that allowing these two competing claims to stand side by side on store shelves will only confuse consumers and undermine the efforts of producers who adopt the practices necessary to use the “naturally raised” label. The USDA is considering comments from UCS and others before issuing a decision on the fate of this proposed label.