Factsheets & Activist Materials

This page contains resources for activists working to protect communities from factory farms, including factsheets, information for community organizers, downloadable activist signs/slogans, and more.

Read SRA Project’s Guide to Confronting a Factory Farm for tips on organizing to prevent industrial agriculture from ruining your community.

Featured

Overview of CAFOs

A firsthand account of the devastating impacts of factory farms in Illinois by farmer and community activist, Karen Hudson. The document includes facts about CAFOs from peer-reviewed scientific studies.

CAFO Annotated Bibliography

A collection of scientific and medical studies that examine public health impact, several forms of water contamination, emissions of toxic air pollutants, and other negative effects associated with CAFOs, high-density animal production systems and other non-traditional agricultural operations known as “animal factories.”

Antibotics and Factory Farms

Tom Philpott of Mother Jones wrote this article about the recent USDA technical report on the growing problem of antibiotic-resistent infections and their link with factory animal farms. Tom’s article provides a link to the original report.

Factsheets

A Focus on Antimicrobial Resistance

A technical review on the topic of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Anitbiotic Resistance (ABR) a growing health concern world-wide.

Addressing the True Impacts of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

Designed to educate political candidates about the damage caused by factory farms, these reports are full of statistics about the impact of CAFOs on farm economies, communities, and the environment.

Air Pollution Factsheet

Information about air and odor pollution generated by factory farms.

Air Quality Factsheet

A compilation of key facts reported in a comprehensive Iowa CAFO Air Quality Study. Focuses on the human health effects and exposure risks associated with ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions from CAFOs.

CAFOs and Water Quality

A two-page compilation of facts from Carole Hodne’s Concentrating on Clean Water: The Challenge of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.

Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms

A compilation of facts from the NRDC.

This is Your Beef on Drugs: The Health and Environmental Risks of Hormones in Meat

This factsheet from Friends of the Earth describes the hazards of hormone use in the beef industry.

Why Animal Waste Lagoons on Factory Farms Should Be Banned

A factsheet based on the NRDC’s Cesspools of Shame report, which describes how animal waste from factory farms threatens human health and our nation’s rivers.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) Factsheets

Sierra Club Factory Farm Factsheets

Resources for Activists

Useful Contacts for Factory Farm Activists

Visit our State Pages to find organizations in your area that work to protect communities from factory farms and promote socially responsible agriculture. You can also view these directories of useful contacts for factory farm activists (please note: some entries may be outdated):

Corporate Agribusiness Research Project

CARP’s goal is to increase public understanding of corporate agribusiness through awareness, education, and action in addition to promoting alternative, democratically controlled food systems. CARP offers a range of technical assistance including research, public education materials and tools, lectures, and trainings.

Factory Farm Tax Protest

Factory farms can decrease the market values of nearby properties. Your property tax assessment should account for any harmful impacts of factory farms – if it doesn’t, you can challenge it so you can receive a lower assessment and avoid paying more than your fair share of property taxes. A project of the Vermont Law School, this website provides free information about challenging tax assessments to help those whose property is affected by factory farms. The site includes several state-specific guides.

Five Local Strategies to Keep CAFOs Out

Excellent advice about preventing factory farms from being constructed. (Sierra Club.)

The Effects of Industrial Swine Production: A Speaker’s Packet

This speaker’s packet includes a color brochure, 140 slides, and a narrative to accompany the slides. An informative presentation for civic, public policy, or agriculture groups; includes facts about pork production and sections about adverse environmental outcomes, public health effects, occupational health effects, effects on community dynamics, and potential solutions. For more information, contact the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture at 918.647.9123.

Hog Wars: The Corporate Grab for Control of the Hog Industry and How Citizens Are Fighting Back

Chronicles the Missouri Rural Crisis Center’s efforts to fight hog factories in the Midwest. (24 pages, $5.)

Regulations.gov

E-government tool created to facilitate public commentary on pending legislation. Users can search by keyword or relevant agency for current bills, and can send comments to legislators via an electronic form on the site or by mailing or delivering printed comments.

Sierra Club Factory Farm Activist Resources

Various resources for activists from the Sierra Club, including factsheets, reports, articles, and more.

US Fish & Wildlife Service – Endangered Species Program

The Endangered Species Act created special protections for endangered species of wildlife and plants. If construction of a factory farm will damage “critical habitats” of an endangered specie, you might be able to use the Endangered Species Act to prevent the facility from being built. Find a list of endangered species in your state.

Activist Signs

These simple, powerful slogans can be printed and brought to your next meeting. Support for your cause can be very effectively demonstrated by raising dozens of these signs at the same time!

You can download these images as PDF files or Word documents by clicking “PDF” or “Word” next to the title. To download as a jpeg file, click the image, then right click and choose “save as.” The images are also included in our photo gallery.

Don’t Fowl Air & Water, No Mega Feed Lots PDF | Word

Wake Up! And Smell the Cow Poop! PDF | Word

Family Farms, Not Animal Factories PDF | Word

Farms Not Factories PDF | Word

Stop the Mergers – Enforce Anti-Trust Laws PDF | Word

Hog Farmers YES, Hog Factories NO PDF | Word

Farm Policy Ingreedients PDF | Word

No Factory Dairy-Air PDF | Word

Pigs in Pasture, Not in Factories PDF | Word

We Need Mega Laws for Mega Hawgs PDF | Word

Stop Factory Farms Before They Stop Us PDF | Word

Illinois Livestock Laws Stink PDF | Word

Pig Factories Hog the Neighborhood! PDF | Word

Poster: “What to Expect When a Factory Farm Comes to Town” PDF

Rural Community Bill of Rights PDF | Word

This “Bill of Rights” was used by Illinois citizens to inform decision makers of the harmful impacts of factory farms. Tailor this document to your area by filling-in the blanks with the name of your state.