agricultural storm water Runoff that has been polluted by manure and can infiltrate water sources off-site from where the manure was applied.
alternative animal production Animal farming other than CAFOs; includes sustainable practices such as access to pasture and maintaining animals at a low-enough density that the nearby land can safely absorb their manure.
animal unit (AU) Counting method allowing comparison between livestock species; e.g., as defined by the EPA, 1 AU equals 1 beef cow of feedlot size, typically at least 500 pounds, or 2.5 hogs over 55 pounds.
battery cage Industrial cage system that confines multiple egg-laying chickens; typically provides less than 1 square foot of space per animal.
bioaccumulation Accumulation of toxins in the fat of an animal; such toxins can move up the food chain through the rendered fat from slaughtered animals, later used as a protein supplement for other livestock; ultimately this bioaccumulation of toxins can be passed on to humans who consume animal products.
biogas Combustible fuel produced from the methane in CAFO manure.
biological diversity The variety and number of organisms in a given area, with an emphasis on native species.
CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) Feeding facility with at least 1,000 animal units; defined by the EPA as containing one of the following: at least 700 dairy cows; 1,000 beef cattle; 2,500 hogs over 55 pounds; 30,000 broiler chickens producing wet manure; 125,000 broiler chickens producing dry manure; or 82,000 laying hens; smaller operations are classified as CAFOs when they discharge manure directly into waterways.
cake Poultry manure combined with absorbent material that has formed a layer of “cake” on the bottom of a poultry shed.
captive supply An economic advantage for a packing company, in which the corporations that slaughter, process, and distribute animal food products also own the animals raised either by their own CAFOs or by contract growers.
cold pasteurization Irradiation or exposure of meat (and other foods) to nuclear radiation to kill potential pathogens.
commodity crops Crops that are eligible to receive subsidies under Title I of the U.S. federal farm bill; includes corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, and cotton.
common farming exemptions (CFEs) U.S. state laws designed to exempt factory farms from animal cruelty laws; use terms such as common, customary, established, and generally accepted practices within the industry to justify inhumane treatment of farm animals.
contract grower Farmer contracted to grow animals based on an agreement to house, feed, and maintain animals supplied by a processor and return the animals for processing when ready.
conversion efficiency Amount of feed needed to produce a unit of animal product.
CR4 (four-firm market concentration) Amount of market share held by the four largest companies within an industry; a value higher than 40 percent often indicates levels of concentration that interfere with basic supply-and-demand mechanisms.
dead zones Bodies of water with low oxygen content; created when nutrients such as fertilizers from feed production and animal wastes overwhelm an aquatic environment. Pollution from CAFOs contributes to dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and estuaries along the East Coast that can no longer support fish and shellfish.
direct subsidy Payment to a business that reduces or compensates for production costs—e.g., direct subsidies provided in U.S. farm bills have compensated grain farmers when market prices fell below the cost of production.
distillers grains with solubles Residue that remains after corn has been fermented to produce ethanol; commonly used as a cheap livestock feed; have been shown to result in significantly higher ammonia emissions in manure.
diversified farm A farm that raises both livestock and crops; more generally, a farm that raises multiple crops or crops and livestock.
docking Clipping the tails of piglets or dairy cows to accommodate intensive animal concentrations and conditions of confinement.
downer animal An animal too sick, diseased, or disabled to walk on its own; slaughtering a downer animal for food production has been banned in the United States.
E. coli O157:H7 A virulent and potentially lethal strain of a bacteria associated with grain-fed cattle and hamburger; the U.S. Department of Agriculture banned the sale of meat contaminated with the disease after a deadly outbreak was traced to Jack in the Box restaurants.
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Provisions that help increase the public’s knowledge of and access to information on chemicals at individual facilities, their uses, and releases into the environment.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Government-funded U.S. farm bill “conservation” program that has historically paid CAFO operators up to $450,000 to aid in waste processing.
eutrophication Degradation of a body of water due to the growth and subsequent death of vegetation that lowers oxygen content as it decays; results in the death of fish and other aquatic organisms.
externalized costs Environmental, social, and health costs related to pollution that are borne by society instead of the enterprise responsible—e.g., health problems resulting from air pollution caused by CAFO animal waste.
farm bill Package of federal laws that establish U.S. agricultural policy and economic incentives; typically renewed every five years.
farrowing crates Restrictive stalls where pregnant sows are moved right before giving birth, designed to separate the mother pig from her nursing piglets; the stalls are so small that the sow can only stand up and lie down.
feathermeal Undecomposed feathers from slaughtered poultry broken down by heat and pressure; sometimes used as a feed supplement.
feedlots Confinement areas housing thousands of beef cattle to be fattened on grain prior to slaughter; generally open to the air or partially roofed.
feed-to-meat conversion rate Measure of an animal’s efficiency in converting feed mass to increased body mass.
finishing operations Facilities where animals—e.g., beef cattle, hogs, broilers, or chickens—are fattened on grain prior to slaughter; large finishing operations are usually CAFOs.
food disparagement laws (veggie libel laws) Laws adopted by U.S. state legislatures intended to prosecute the disparagement or dissemination of false information that a perishable food product or commodity is not safe for human consumption; it is still untested whether these laws are defensible under the federal constitution.
Food Safety and Inspection Service The public health agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) responsible for ensuring that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
forage Plant material eaten by grazing livestock—e.g., alfalfa, grasses, stems, and leaves.
fugitive manure Manure that leaks out of storage lagoons, becomes volatilized in the atmosphere, or seeps into waterways in other manners.
gestation crate 7-foot by 2-foot metal enclosure used in intensive pig farming, in which a female breeding pig (sow) may be confined during pregnancy—in effect for most of her adult life.
growth promoters Arsenicals, antibiotic medicines, growth hormones, and other additives used to speed weight gain in animal factories.
Humane Slaughter Act Federal law passed in 1958 requiring that food animals be stunned into unconsciousness prior to their slaughter; 90 percent of all animals slaughtered in the United States are chickens, but birds are excluded from the act.
indirect subsidy Support received as a result of direct subsidies paid to another party; e.g., corn subsidies result in indirect subsidies for CAFO producers when they are able to purchase feed at artificially low prices.
industrial agriculture complex Ownership or control of multiple stages of production by a single entity—e.g., in animal production: meat processors, agriculture commodity groups, scientists paid by the industry, and government representatives and policy makers sympathetic to industry.
inputs Supplies used to produce livestock—e.g., feed, water, energy, infrastructure, and antibiotics.
knock box First station on a beef slaughter line, where the cow is rendered brain dead (“insensible”) with a bolt pistol.
lagoon Massive open-air holding facility that stores liquid CAFO urine and feces; may be lined or unlined; depending on size, construction, and location may be susceptible to leakage, overflow, or evaporation with the potential to pollute water sources.
litter Mixture of poultry manure, excess feed, and bedding material (such as wood chips) that builds up in broiler facilities; commonly mixed in with feed for other livestock as a cheap source of protein.
livestock Animals raised for meat, milk, and eggs.
mad cow disease Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE); fatal, neurodegenerative disease in cattle, thought to be caused when cows eat the brain or spinal tissues of animals infected with the disease.
manure injection Incorporation of manure into the soil by pumping it into shallow or deep furrows across fields to help control odor, conserve nutrients, and decrease runoff.
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Multidrug-resistant bacterium created by excessive use of antibiotics in animals and humans; responsible for difficult-to-treat and sometimes fatal infections in humans.
nutrient banking Spraying of liquid manure on snow as a method of disposal; has the potential to become surface runoff as the snow begins to melt.
plumping Injecting salt water, seaweed, chicken broth, or other animal proteins such as beef or pig wastes into chicken to “enhance” its mass and flavor.
point source Single and identifiable localized source of air, water, thermal, noise, or light pollution.
prion Protein suspected of carrying BSE, or mad cow disease.
processing Slaughter of livestock, carcass dressing, packaging, and distribution of finished animal products.
recycling Practice of feeding slaughterhouse scraps and rendered animal wastes back to livestock.
reservoirs of resistance Community of genetic resources—both disease causing and non–disease causing—that carry resistance to antibiotics; can carry the genetic material (resistance genes) that may eventually be transferred to an organism that can cause disease in humans.
reverse protein factories Feeding operations that consume far more animal or plant protein than they ultimately provide.
rotational grazing Method of raising livestock on pasture in which the animals are moved periodically so that no single area is overgrazed; rate of livestock movement is based on optimum grazing levels for different forage species under different environmental conditions.
ruminant-to-ruminant feeding bans Regulations adopted by many countries designed to prohibit nearly all tissues from ruminants—cows, sheep, and goats—from being fed to ruminants; experts question, however, whether enough is being done to prevent materials from entering the feed supply through loopholes in the system.
specified risk materials (SRMs) Cattle body parts that are disallowed for cattle feed but that can be used for nonruminant protein supplements—e.g., skull, brain, eyes, parts of vertebral column, spinal cord, trigeminal ganglia, and dorsal ganglia of cattle over thirty months of age, as well as the tonsils and distal ileum.
sprayfield Land close to a manure storage facility that is fertilized with liquid manure.
subsidies Payments that artificially support an industry by offsetting its costs of production or by compensating producers for low market prices.
subtherapeutic doses Antibiotics given in a quantity below the level used to treat disease; often used as a method of growth promotion; can lead to antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
transgenic animal Animal whose genome has been modified to carry a gene from another species using a recombinant DNA technology—e.g., a transgenic dairy cow that produces a milk protein that kills the bacteria responsible for causing mastitis.
vat meat Manufactured animal flesh that has never been part of a complete animal (also known as in vitro meat or cultured meat); not to be confused with imitation meat, which is a vegetable food product.
vertical integration Corporate control of multiple stages of production (e.g., feed mills, hatcheries, breeding facilities, processing facilities, distribution outlets) “from squeal to meal” or from “semen to cellophane.”
volatilization The transformation of pollutants (such as the ammonia in manure) into their airborne form.