Explainer
How Livestock Farming Affects Climate Change, Explained
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Reported
Hog Country Is Flooding
Animal Day/Flickr Four thousand clay lagoons full of manure runoff from North Carolina’s hog industry are at risk of overflowing after Hurricane Florence dumped more than 30 inches of rain across the state. North Carolina’s Black River, Northeast Cape Fear River, and Cape Fear River are cresting at historically high levels, and represent the most swine-farmed watershed on earth. [New Yorker]
Words by Sentient Media
Animal Day/Flickr
Four thousand clay lagoons full of manure runoff from North Carolina’s hog industry are at risk of overflowing after Hurricane Florence dumped more than 30 inches of rain across the state. North Carolina’s Black River, Northeast Cape Fear River, and Cape Fear River are cresting at historically high levels, and represent the most swine-farmed watershed on earth. [New Yorker]
But what exactly is in all that manure runoff? We’ve got you covered.
Your Five-A-Day
- 🐮 Half of American dairy farms have 900 cows or fewer. In 1987, that number was 80. Dairy farms are growing in size, largely because small operations like these 382 dairy farms in Wisconsin are being bought up by big dairy. [Eater]
- 😱 What if the world’s governments charged a resource extraction tax on factory farms to try and curb carbon emissions—would it work? Even assuming rapid technological innovation, studies show that we would hit 132 billion metric tons of carbon produced by 2050. [Foreign Policy]
- 🌱 There are 2 million vegetarians between the age of 8 to 18 in the United States. That’s more than the adults surveyed (18 and older). [New York Times]
- 🚨 More than 70% of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used on animals being raised for food. Every year, around 2 million Americans suffer from infections that are made more difficult to treat because of the antibiotics we consume through animal products. [mindbodygreen]
- 👌 Vegan brisket is taking over! Don’t call it dry until you try it. [Twitter]
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