NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 28: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks during a press conference to announce the "Gateway Turnaround" Hudson Tunnel project at Penn Station on June 28, 2021 in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) held a press conference with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and members of the NY/NJ House delegation announcing an update on the Gateway Turnaround Hudson Tunnel project and renewed federal partnership, pledging billions of dollars for the project along with an expedited timetable for the project which was stalled under the Trump administration. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Cory Booker is on a mission to shut down factory farming in the U.S.
The New Jersey Senator and Democratic presidential candidate hopeful put forward a new bill earlier this month. Titled the Farm System Reform Act (FSRA), the bill is aimed at transitioning agriculture away from the factory farming system.
In the U.S., 99 percent of all animal products currently come from factory farms. These conditions are not only harmful to the animals, but they’re a threat to the planet too. One farm of 5,000 pigs can produce as much waste as a town of 20,000 people, according to animal protection organization Make It Possible.
This waste can pollute soil and make its way into water systems, including oceans, rivers, and streams.
If passed, FSRA will place an immediate moratorium on new large-scale facilities known as CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). It will also place limits on existing CAFOs. It will devote $100 billion over a period of ten years to helping CAFO owners transition to more sustainable forms of agriculture. By 2040, the bill hopes to phase out the largest CAFOs.
Booker — who follows a vegan lifestyle — hopes the new bill will help small farmers and hold larger corporations to account for their environmental impact.
He said in a statement, “large factory farms are harmful to rural communities, public health, and the environment and we must immediately begin to transition to a more sustainable and humane system, such as raising pasture-based livestock, growing specialty crops, or organic commodity production.“
Booker isn’t the only presidential candidate to slam factory farms. Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders labeled them a “threat” to America. He wrote on Twitter back in May, “factory farms are responsible for 1.4 trillion pounds of animal waste in America.”
“They are a threat to the water we drink and the air we breathe,” he continued. “It is unbelievable to me that Republicans in Congress have been working overtime to exempt factory farms from environmental laws.”
In 2018, the United Nations Environment Programme condemned the meat industry. It labeled tackling meat consumption as the world’s most “urgent problem.” It stated, “the greenhouse gas footprint of animal agriculture rivals that of every car, truck, bus, ship, airplane, and rocket ship combined.”
This post was last modified on %s = human-readable time difference 4:05 am