And we call for a moratorium on new and expanding CAFOs until there are less than 100 water impairments in Iowa. "We don't have a handle on what's happening on Iowa's landscape.". All Rights Reserved. The state requires that large hog facilities, with 2,500 or more pigs, meet minimal distances from homes, drinking water sources, businesses, churches, schools and public trails and other recreational amenities. The leading cause of impairments is bacteria, often associated with waste from animals and people. by Mark A. Kuhn, courtesy The Des Moines Register. Jeff Jones, a cattle farmer in Calloway County, said that with a lack of local control, there could be many larger corporations coming into Missouri that won’t be held accountable. Local residents worry it could be a dozen or more. But while the expansion of CAFOs has made Iowa hog farms more productive than ever, this hasn’t brought farmers higher incomes or more stability. "I try to be an excellent neighbor, and I ask that they do the same," said Hosek, who later added that she and her husband chose Rockwell City because they wanted to support rural Iowa. Iowa’s failure to appropriately monitor and control pollution from CAFOs was raised by Iowans again in early 2019. Lee said the facility should sit farther away from the drainage intake, but Iowa Select and DNR say the drainage ditch doesn't qualify as a protected water source. A facility expansion included the addition of or increase in size of livestock barns, or in the case of cattle, the addition of or increase in size of feedlots or paddocks. We are calling for a moratorium on the construction and expansion of medium and large AFOs and CAFOs in Iowa, which are the focus of this fact sheet. But not all of the growth comes from new operations: Expansions of existing facilities have also contributed significantly to the boom. 98 More than 2900 of these house more than 1000 animal units, qualifying them as large CAFOs under the EPA’s guidelines. It later landed in Wright County. EWG estimates that in 2019, hog operations account for 62 percent of all annual waste from the large concentrated animal feeding operations in Iowa. In total, more than 60 percent of the animal waste produced by the largest CAFOs in Iowa comes from hogs. In total, EWG successfully dated 3,936 large AFOs in Iowa – 99.5 percent of the total number of operations. 99 In comparison, the other three states comprising the EPA’s Region 7—Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska—have 446, 554, and 862 CAFOs respectively. These outbreaks are triggered by nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizer, manure and other sources. Iowa Select is among the fastest-growing pork producers in the state. The clamor over confinements has grown louder after one expert estimated Iowa could support 45,700 CAFOs, four times more facilities for pigs, cattle and chickens than currently exist in the state. A Rodger Routh video “Last year a proposal was put forth in the Iowa legislature to increase oversight of CAFOs and to place a moratorium or ban on construction of new CAFOs and expansion of existing CAFOs. He's filed a complaint against the state agency, alleging it mismanaged some funding and seeks to return to the department. 1980s – color infrared aerial photography: 1-meter horizontal resolution. "I don't want to live next to something that could contaminate my well," said Hosek, adding that a field next to her home will be sprayed with manure from the project. 53% of all … The mountains of animal waste produced by these facilities pose a serious and growing threat to human health, the environment and water resources in the state. "These safeguards ensure the state’s natural resources are protected," she said. Iowa Select, declining to outline its entire expansion plans, said it is considering building three, 2,450-head facilities in Calhoun County. These units were then converted to animal counts and given a daily waste estimate, which was then multiplied by 365 to model a year. Reprint Permission Information. Skirmishes between CAFOs and their neighbors have played out across Iowa for at least three decades. Ironically, Iowa imports almost all of its food from outside of the state. According to the EPA, medium-sized AFOs confine between 750 and 2,499 hogs weighing over 55 pounds, while large AFOs confine 2,500 or more hogs weighing over 55 pounds. It's about half of all assessed waterways in Iowa. CAFO sites under 500 animal units included on this map were independently discovered by JFAN. "We're already seeing a high level of concern from Iowans who can't enjoy life outside," she said, adding that Iowa also has a record number of impaired waterways. He is co-founder of the Iowa Policy Project, an Iowa City-based nonprofit group that offers research on environmental, economic, energy and tax policies, which released the report. Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Their Impact . But Thiele, the 35-year-old pig producer, said some of his neighbors are raising pigs for him and his four partners, with the value of the manure reducing their costs and making their operations more financially viable. Iowa law mandates that, an individual or company seeking to construct a CAFO over a certain size must build it at a minimum specified distance The public health risks of CAFOs posed by Neighbors feel like facilities are "getting shoved down their throats," said Tinker, who was laid off by DNR last year due to budget cuts. Growing contract production, where farmers own the facilities but Iowa Select and other corporations provide the pigs, feed and other services, generates too little value to pull young Iowans back to rural homes, Lee said. He said mainly small farmers were raising pigs 30 years ago. You may not know what to do, who to turn to or who to trust. Seaboard-Triumph Foods' $300 million pork processing plant opened in Sioux City last fall. The Iowa Falls-based company produces many of the master matrices and manure management plans for CAFO applications in Iowa and helps steer them through the DNR process. Factory hog farming now dominates certain counties in Iowa, the nation's number-one hog-producing state. Research: Large number of CAFOs in Western Iowa increases nitrate in streams University of Iowa paper quantifies commercial fertilizer and manure … There's no support in the Republican-controlled Legislature for a moratorium, either, he said. Rose Hosek, who lives a mile from the proposed facility, said she's worried about the project's impact on her water. EWG used this collection of aerial photography, along with recent satellite imagery from Planet, to document the history of CAFO construction in Iowa between the 1980s and 2019. Before dating analysis began, the data were subset to extract all active operations housing a dominant livestock group, including poultry (chickens and turkeys), swine, beef cattle and dairy cattle. This represents approximately 5 percent to 8 percent of the total acreage that must be planted in cover crops – between 10 and 14 million acres – to meet the strategy’s 45 percent nutrient reduction goals. The DNR's CAFO oversight responsibilities are focused on water quality, but odors are often what drive tensions between large livestock facilities and their neighbors. “It goes on the ground. In 2007, state environmental organizations asked the EPA to take over regulation of CAFOs in Iowa, arguing that the state had failed to regulate CAFO pollution according to the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act. The clamor over confinements has grown louder after one expert estimated Iowa could support 45,700 CAFOs, four times more facilities for pigs, cattle and … The final count for large, active animal feeding operations to be dated included 3,955 operations. There are thousands of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, around the United States, but no one knows the exact number. "Forty-five thousand factory farms is scary, but what we have right now is not good," Blair said. But rarely is it called what it is: a mess from the CAFO with 3,500 cows. CAFOs can also be the source of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global climate change. 2019 – Planet (PlanetScope) satellite imagery: 3-meter horizontal resolution. Iowa had 750 impaired waterways in 2016, based on an Iowa Department of Natural Resources estimate. “Each of those black dots has a sewage treatment plant for human waste, and each of the red dots has nothing,” he said. Medium-large factory farms, or CAFOs, in the U.S. generally consists of 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 pigs, 55,000 turkeys, 30,000 egg-laying hens, or 125,000 broiler chickens. (For full methodology, click here.). Swine and other livestock raised in Iowa’s large CAFOs now produce 68 billion pounds of manure a year – conservatively, 68 times the total amount of fecal waste produced each year by the state’s 3.15 million residents. "We saw this coming with the Prestage plant," she said. In that time, the number of pigs has grown about 60 percent in the nation's largest pork-producing state as farmers have shifted from smaller to bigger operations. Two Stanford University professors published research this week in the journal Nature Sustainability, saying there’s an easy way to … EWG found that in 1990, Iowa had 789 large CAFOs – those housing 1,000 or more animal units – swelling to 3,963 in 2019.1 The findings are supported by the federal Census of Agriculture, which reported that Iowa, the top hog-producing state, housed more than 22.7 million hogs in 2017, an increase of 8.5 million since 1992. Without the northeast Iowa business, Thiele said he would be forced to move to a city or town to support his wife and their five children, a common tale in a state that's seen rural jobs and opportunity drain away over several decades. There are approximately 450,000 AFOs in the United St… 2002 – color infrared aerial photography: 1-meter horizontal resolution. Environmental Working Group. With projects like Calhoun County's, the Iowa Falls company expects to boost its employment —  workers and contract pig producers — by 33 percent to about 2,460 by 2019 in Iowa. Both AFO types are confined (kept and fed for 45 days or more per year) in a lot, yard, corral, building or other area. The analysis notes that CAFO as defined by the EPA and what the public would call a factory farm are not necessarily the same. A CAFO discharge may be called many things: a spill, accident, terrorist attack, or blamed on birds, cherry trees, deer, horses, geese, raccoons, or the neighbors. Iowa has more than 5,400 pig farms. It's strong profits over the past three years that's fueling recent confinement expansion, Hayes said. Instead, companies reap profits without concern for their impact on the environment, and rural Iowans, hungry for jobs, go along, he said. That lawsuit alleges that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has still failed to issue a single Clean Water Act permit to address water pollution from a hog CAFO anywhere in Iowa. 53% of all … Efforts to regulate CAFOS are often portrayed as anti-farmer by organizations like the Iowa Farm Bureau, which is closely aligned with the hog industry. Industrial Animal Agriculture: CAFOs Over the past few decades, industrial animal agriculture in the U.S. has grown rapidly, with increasingly more animals housed in fewer, larger buildings. "It's an appalling number of factory farms that could be on Iowa’s landscape," Blair said. As one of 12 legislators who drafted the bill in 2002 that created the Master Matrix, a current member of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors tasked with reviewing Master Matrix applications, and a lifelong Iowa farmer, I have a unique perspective on the Master Matrix, its failings and how it could be improved. Without adequate management of CAFO facilities, Iowans will continue to face a growing threat of serious – in some cases, life-threatening – illnesses from bacteria, nitrates and cyanotoxins in their water. Source: USDA, National Agriculture Imagery Program (1m) 2011, 2019, By Sarah Porter, Senior GIS Analyst, and Soren Rundquist, Director of Spatial Analysis. Feed is brought to the animals rather than the animals grazing or otherwise seeking feed in pastures, fields, or on rangeland. Even with little legislative action, Humboldt County supervisors are fighting against a 5,000-head Iowa Select finishing facility, saying it could hurt area water. Thiele, an independent producer whose business lets the partners share duties, risks and costs, feels lucky to be his own boss, able to take time off for a sick child or school event. Ouch. Iowa Select Farms has one of the fastest-growing Cafo operations in the country, with 800 farms spread through half of the counties in Iowa. Two years ago this week the Iowa Policy Project published our paper on industrial hog facilities: The Explosion of CAFOs in Iowa and Its Impact on Water Quality and Public Health. 2017 – NAIP aerial photography: 1-meter horizontal resolution. David Johnson, an Ocheyedan independent, has gained little traction in his efforts to tighten the rules governing livestock operations, especially limiting how close facilities can be to homes. IAGLR 2017 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan, Abstracts, p. 244. EWG found that in 1990, Iowa had 789 large CAFOs – those housing 1,000 or more animal units – swelling to 3,963 in 2019. The DNR publishes this information as attributed point locations. Concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, house thousands of animals in the same facility. Legal Disclaimer | — Trent Thiele loves feeding and caring for the 3,400 pigs that live less than a half mile from his home. Facility attribution was performed using the best judgment of the geographic information system analyst. 2007 – National Agriculture Imagery Program, or NAIP, aerial photography: 2-meter horizontal resolution. The dataset included general information for 12,358 operations, including but not limited to: facility name, facility status, facility location and number of animal units of each animal type. All of the environmental problems with CAFOs have direct impact on human health and welfare for communities that contain large industrial farms. In western Iowa, Luke Haffner says ag's seemingly unfettered expansion is among the reasons he and his wife may give up on rural Iowa. That limit was set in 1962 by the Environmental Protection Agency to guard against blue baby syndrome, a potentially fatal condition that starves infants of oxygen if they ingest too much nitrate. Maccoux MJ, … Lee said the county plans to challenge the project in court, even though the state approved it. The DNR maintains a large collection of statewide aerial photography, dating as far back as the 1930s. Few places are better suited for pork production: Iowa, the nation's top corn producer, has ample feed, 30 million acres of crops that can use fertilizer that CAFOs create, and a growing number of meatpacking plants to process the animals. Most people attending the meeting last month supported the project, saying it would provide good-paying jobs — about 18, the company said — in a rural community that needs them. To ensure safe drinking water and swimmable beaches, Iowa needs to make big changes immediately. "Just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's good," said Tinker, adding that it unnecessarily creates livestock opponents. EWG downloaded these data from the Iowa Geodata website on July 30, 2019. Please type below a 5-digit Zip Code, then click on "SEARCH", the level linked to an increased risk of cancer, keep nitrogen out of their drinking water, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/plantsanimals/livestock/afo/, https://www.lawserver.com/law/state/iowa/ia-code/iowa_code_459-102, EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce™, Iowa’s Private Wells Contaminated by Nitrate and Bacteria, America’s Nitrate Habit is Costly and Dangerous. Since 1990, 27 percent of existing facilities have added at least one barn to their operations – swine facilities accounted for 71 percent of that expansion. The top five Iowa counties for pig production are … And he's building value in his operation and supporting other northeast Iowa businesses. Medium-large factory farms, or CAFOs, in the U.S. generally consists of 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 pigs, 55,000 turkeys, 30,000 egg-laying hens, or 125,000 broiler chickens. 1 The findings are supported by the federal Census of Agriculture, which reported that Iowa, the top hog-producing state, housed more than 22.7 million hogs in 2017, an increase of 8.5 million since 1992. The number of large concentrated animal feeding operations, or large CAFOs, in Iowa increased nearly fivefold in the past two decades, a new study from Environmental Working Group reveals, with almost all of the growth from big hog-feeding operations. whether that's next to housing developments, sinkholes or trout streams,", Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Mason City rejected the Prestage project after a contentious debate. All Rights Reserved. But the state’s progress reports have not been encouraging. He sees big corporations buying land to put up hog and other confinements, without connections to the local communities that he believes would make them operate more responsibly. More pigs drive the need for added processing space, Hayes said. There have been more than 800 documented manure spills since 1996 and Iowa currently has more than 725 polluted waterways. Prestage Foods is building a $250 million plant near Eagle Grove that's slated to open early next year. CAFOs in Iowa is not exact. Behind the buildings lies the lagoon, the source of the stench, where all of the manure and waste (dead hogs) are dumped. Blair blames new pork processing plants for industry growth. Contact Us | For the survey, EWG analyzed all active operations in the state housing 1,000 or more animal units. "The expansion we’re seeing in communities across Iowa is massive," said Erica Blair, an organizer for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a grassroots group based in Des Moines that is fighting confinement expansion. As was the case for Russ Hanson's in-laws, Wisconsin's "right-to-farm" law means neighbors don't have much legal recourse if they perceive a farm's odors to be a nuisance. An animal unit is the equivalent of 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of "live" animal weight. Copyright © 2020. Blair said rapid expansion highlights the need for leaders to talk about limiting growth, especially with the potential for 45,700 CAFOs. ELMA, Ia. By federal definition, these are 1,000 animal units (AU); smaller animal feeding operations (AFOs) are classified as permitted medium sized (500 AU to 999 AU), or small (below 500 AU in Iowa, but generally below 300 in other states). Iowa farmer: We should not put a limit on CAFOs. "Fundamentally, Iowa's pork industry is growing because they're making money," said Hayes, who is selling about 3 acres to Iowa Select for a facility near Clarion. After the farm crisis in the 1980s , factory farms began sprouting up across the nation and they were increasingly built in places situated on rich and fertile soil — like here in Iowa. In turn, Iowa Select has asked that DNR revoke Humboldt County's ability to review projects. Iowa Select Farms has one of the fastest-growing Cafo operations in the country, with 800 farms spread through half of the counties in Iowa. In 2013, EPA Region 7 compelled the DNR to determine the total number of CAFOs of all sizes. Kim Reynolds' spokeswoman, said the livestock industry is important to rural Iowa's economy. DNR reported to EPA in 2016, through the use of satellite imagery, that it had found over 5,000 “new” CAFOs of undetermined size. "I don't know why we'd want to limit future generations," Thiele said, adding that farmers need the fertilizer. That's why Thiele, 35, doesn't understand calls for a moratorium on concentrated animal feeding operations. In May 2013, Iowa adopted a Nutrient Reduction Strategy, which aims to achieve a 45 percent reduction in both nitrogen and phosphorus largely through voluntary, incentive-based programs to reduce farm pollution. 1990s – aerial orthophotography: 1-meter horizontal resolution. Iowa’s more than 20 million hogs confined in thousands of factory farms produce nearly ten billion gallons of toxic manure every year. The supervisors approved the project a few days later. The Kanawha CAFO consists of five buildings that can each house up to 2,500 hogs. Gene Tinker, who was DNR's coordinator of animal feeding operations for 14 years, said Iowa needs to have more discussion about where livestock facilities should be located. To estimate animal waste output for a year, the DNR data were used to identify the large operations housing 1,000 or more animal units and the corresponding animal type. Then last summer, a state report revealed satellite imagery had detected 5,000 more confinements than regulators previously knew about, nearly doubling earlier counts and outraging critics. 2011 – NAIP aerial photography: 1-meter horizontal resolution. The number of pigs in Iowa has climbed 17.5 percent over the past decade, USDA data show. The interactive map below shows their locations, the type of facility, the animals housed there and the growth in facilities over the past two decades. Prestage Foods, based in North Carolina, said it would provide about 60 percent of the pigs processed at the plant from about 100 Iowa facilities it owns. will help local board of health members understand their role in developing ways to mitigate potential problems associated with CAFOs. Bacteria and nitrogen contamination has been documented in Iowa’s drinking water supplies and surface water, and outbreaks of toxic algae forced the closure of more than 20 beaches in 2019 alone. * Animal type, size and total manure by pounds, from the 2004 Midwest Planning Service, * Chicken and turkey animal units combined, EWG.org | EWG's Guide to Sunscreens | EWG's Food Scores | EWG's Guide to Healthy Cleaning | EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce™, Environmental Working Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, EIN 52-2148600. It will have an economic impact of $1 billion as it ripples into the economy, the company says. This year, U.S. hog production is forecast to grow 4 percent, but expansion in Iowa is likely to be even stronger, said Dermot Hayes, an Iowa State University economics professor. A recent report from EWG and the Iowa Environmental Council shows that many households whose drinking water comes from private wells are struggling with contamination from nitrate and bacteria. Iowa tracks data on two types of DNR-regulated AFOs, both of which house animals kept and fed for 45 days or more per year: confinements and open feedlots. They point out that the number of Iowa livestock farms called concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs has grown to more than 10,000 from 722 in 2001. Below the legal limit to fill that space new facilities this year says... In 2013, EPA Region 7 compelled the DNR publishes this information as attributed point.... 7500 animal feeding operations, or NAIP, aerial photography: 2-meter horizontal resolution can help you organize fight! Opportunity to expand nearly unchecked, Abstracts, p. 244 performed using the best judgment the. 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