Inside Blog

Inside Corn – How much really goes to animal feed and why it matters

Corn is the largest U.S. crop by acreage and production volume. It is the quintessential industrialized monoculture crop, mostly grown on tracts of more than 500 acres. The corn production system has enormous negative impacts on land, water, soil, and biodiversity. We pay this environmental toll mostly in the service of factory farming.

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Inside Corn – How much really goes to animal feed and why it matters

Corn is the largest U.S. crop by acreage and production volume. It is the quintessential industrialized monoculture crop, mostly grown on tracts of more than 500 acres. The corn production system has enormous negative impacts on land, water, soil, and biodiversity. We pay this environmental toll mostly in the service of factory farming.

Loss of the wild ones – no room on the farm

Wild mammal populations are about one-seventh the size of pre-human days, as measured by total weight. Humans and farmed animals now dominate the earth, with wild land mammals just 2% of total land mammal biomass.

Until All the Rivers Run Dry

The Colorado River and the Rio Grande are running dry. The major U.S. aquifers are being depleted at alarming rates. Yet no one seems to be asking: Is feed for livestock really where our water should be going?

Counting the Uncounted

Last year 1,358,812,000 farmed land animals in the U.S. died or were killed before reaching the slaughter line. That’s 43 animals dying every second of every day. In the drive to maximize profits, animal death and suffering is just a line item on an expense sheet.

Neonics: Poison, Profit, and Policy

Take a highly toxic pesticide with limited efficacy and bundle it to increase sales. Now it’s the default option for feed crop farmers. Neither monitored nor regulated by the government. Myriad species are harmed and the potential for human health risk grows.

Factory farm manure is a pollutant – the valuable fertilizer pretense is wearing thin

Factory farm manure creates nutrient pollution that poisons waterways, kills wildlife, and degrades drinking water. That reality has been obscured by federal agencies and the animal ag industry for decades.

The Animal Ag Industry: Hiding in Plain Sight

Factory farming wears a thin but effective disguise. Because of our appetite for cheap meat, we’re easily taken in by labels with red barns or photos of family farmers with cows on pasture.