FOOD

Factory Farms in New York

Fact Sheet • February 2011

O ver the last two decades, small- and medium-scale livestock farms have given
way to factory farms that confine thousands of cows, hogs and chickens in tightly
packed facilities. In New York, there were 59,000 hogs, 9,600 beef cattle, 213,000
dairy cows and 3.5 million chickens on the largest operations in 2007, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture. New York is the sixth-
largest factory-farmed dairy producer in the country.

The silos and gentle meadows pictured on the labels of

the food most Americans buy have little relation to how
that food is actually produced. The significant growth in
industrial-scale, factory-farmed livestock has contributed
to a host of environmental, public health, economic and
food safety problems. Tens of thousands of animals can

Concentration of factory farms in New York, taken from www.

factoryfarmmap.org. Dark red indicates the most severe density.

generate millions of tons of manure annually, which pol-

lutes water and air and can have health repercussions on
nearby communities. Consumers in distant markets also
feel the impacts, either through foodborne illness outbreaks
or other public health risks, or through the loss of regional
food systems. As consumers saw during the 2010 egg re-
call, food safety problems on even a few factory farms can
end up in everyone’s refrigerators. Even the producers are
not benefitting from this system of production because they
are not getting paid much for the livestock they raise.

The rise of factory farming was no accident. It resulted from

policy choices driven by big agribusinesses, especially
meatpackers and processors that dominate the links in the
food chain between livestock producers and consumers.
Factory-Farm Dairy Cows in New York
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
1997 2002 2007
Source: USDA.
Dairy
In recent decades, small and mid-sized dairy farms disap-
peared nationally and were replaced by factory-farmed
dairies that now dominate milk production. Between 1997
and 2007, the United States lost 52,000 dairy farms —
about 5,000 farms every year.1
Food & Water Watch found that although New York added
125,000 dairy cows to the largest operations over the de-
cade (a 143 percent increase), the growth of factory farms
in New York was overwhelmed by the size and growth of
factory-farmed dairies in western states. In 2007, there
were more than 2.7 million cows on factory-farmed dairies
in California, Idaho, Texas and New Mexico. The emer-
gence of western factory-farmed dairies has contributed to
the decline of local dairy farms in the Southeast, Northeast,
Upper Midwest and parts of the Midwest.2 The average
number of cows on New York factory farms in 2007 was
985, significantly lower than the national average of 1,480.
Small dairies generate less manure than factory farms and
can either apply it to cropland or incorporate it into pasture
as fertilizer at rates that the land can absorb. Big dairies
generate far more manure than they can use as fertilizer,
so it gets stored in lagoons or is over-applied to cropland
where it can run off into nearby waterways. The nearly
213,000 dairy cows on factory-farm dairies in New York
produce as much untreated manure as 47 million people
— two and a half times the population of the entire state
of New York. In 2009, a dairy manure spill in upstate New
York spilled into a tributary of the St. Lawrence River when
workers at a 6,000-head dairy spread manure to frozen
fields, which pooled and leaked into the river.
Factory farms cause extensive environmental damage and
leave communities with fewer independent family farms,
The nearly 213,000 dairy cows
on factory-farm dairies in
New York produce as much
untreated manure as 47 million
people — two and a half times
the population of the entire
state of New York
unsafe water, reduced air quality and depressed economies.
Instead of benefitting, consumers face foodborne illness
outbreaks and public health threats like antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, and they have fewer real choices about how their
food is produced.
Congress, regulatory agencies and state goverments need to
put a stop to the policies that have allowed these facilities
to proliferate. They must create and enforce farm and food
policies that allow farmers to make a living and do not
harm communities, the environment or public health.
Take action: Go to www.factoryfarmmap.org to learn more
about factory farms in New York and to take action to stop
the spread of factory farms.
Endnotes
1 USDA NASS. Agricultural Statistics Database. Accessed August 5,
2008. Available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/QuickStats; MacDon-
ald, James M. and William D. McBride. USDA ERS. “The Transfor-
mation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency, and Risks.”
EIB-43. January 2009; Miller, James J. and Don P. Blayney. USDA,
ERS. “Dairy Backgrounder.” (LDP-M-145-01). July 2006 at 7.
2 USDA NASS. Agricultural Statistics Database.
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Copyright © February 2011 Food & Water Watch