230+ Orgs Urge Schumer to Reject Support for CAFOs in BBB Act

230+ Organizations Urge Senate Majority Leader Schumer to Reject Support for CAFOs in the Build Back Better Act

Washington – This week more than 230 climate, environmental justice, food justice, sustainable agriculture, animal welfare and social justice organizations sent a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer to remove portions of the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) that will provide funding for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

In the letter, the groups argue that “CAFOs are a driving factor of an unjust food system that pollutes the environment, threatens human health, and perpetuates systemic racism and inequity,” and that “Congress should be finding solutions that reduce reliance on a supply chain that creates liquid manure and methane, not patching together harmful remedies that prop up factory farms.”

CAFOs are large factory farms that produce tremendous amounts of waste, pollute nearby communities, and emit more methane than any other source in the United States, including oil and natural gas operations and landfills. They are also a key piece of a consolidated food system that squeezes smaller, more sustainable producers and serve as a key market for factory farms producing crops.

The Build Back Better Act was meant to be an historic investment in the fight against the climate crisis, which is why Congress shouldn’t support climate-destroying factory farms,” said Jason Davidson, Senior Food and Agriculture Campaigner with Friends of the Earth. Congress should invest in family farmers that build healthy soils to help sequester carbon, not provide handouts to factory farms that are the leading emitter of climate-warming methane and perpetuate environmental racism.”

Communications contact: Kerry Skiff, 202-222-0723, [email protected]

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