factory farms

Can hamburgers survive the Green New Deal? The facts behind Trump and Ocasio-Cortez’s latest beef

The biggest problem with beef isn’t farting cows.

Giant hog farms are making people sick. Here’s why it’s a civil rights issue.

Communities of color in North Carolina have to endure bronchitis, asthma, and even high blood pressure caused by massive pools of pig poo. Ick.

Maryland chickens out on farm pollution rule

Just as the state was about to clamp down on farmers who coat their crops with chicken manure, officials cave to the poultry industry.

McDonald’s becomes one iota less horrible to pigs

McDonald’s has announced that it’s requiring pork suppliers to phase out gestation stalls — pig-sized pig cages where pregnant sows are confined, often unable to stand up or move around. Whoa, McDonald’s food has actual pigs in it? Who knew.

Chicken farm crates are basically never cleaned

If a bite of food falls on the ground, often we pick it up and eat it. Five second rule, right? But if it falls in something gross or we haven’t cleaned the floor in awhile, we don’t eat it. Because that’s gross. Especially if your floor is covered in chicken shit. It’s unclear, then, […]

‘Antibiotic-free’ pork has the same rate of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

We really do try to Pollan it up and do the whole “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” bit. But “mostly plants” obviously means “sometimes bacon.” And maybe the farmers’ market wasn’t open, so we bought that bacon at the store. Oh, but it was good bacon! “Raised without antibiotics” bacon! That’s something, right? […]

Meating halfway: Americans opt for less

The good news: Americans are consuming less meat. The bad news: The meat industry is still a terrible place to work.

FDA regulates 0.3 percent of antibiotics in livestock

So if you were the FDA, and you wanted to regulate the feeding of antibiotics to livestock -- which you don't, but bear with me -- there would be a couple of ways you could go. You could regulate the ones that are the most widespread and cause the most problems. Or you could regulate the ones that a tiny and decreasing number of people use in the first place. The second one is less effective, but it's easier! So that's what the FDA is doing.

The agency has announced that it will ban the agricultural use of cephalosporins, a class of antibiotic used in humans to treat pneumonia and certain infections. That's a good step towards keeping factory farms from becoming breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant microbes -- or anyway, it would be, if it weren't for the fact that effectively zero percent of farms use cephalosporins in the first place.

Ryan Gosling believes in treating chicks right

It may be time for a Chicken-Loving Ryan Gosling Tumblr — "Hey girl, I just wanted to know how you like your eggs in the morning, because I like mine organic and cage-free." Perhaps because his name gives him an affinity with all fowl, but more likely because he is a decent and animal-loving person, […]