Cows, pigs, turkeys, and chickens raised on factory farms are among the most abused animals in the world. Yet today, there are hardly any federal protections for them in the United States. Big multinational corporations turn massive profits by cramming these animals into barren sheds and massive feedlots. As a result, billions of farmed animals suffer miserable lives, not to mention the detrimental environmental toll factory farming has on our planet. The Farm System Reform Act would help put a moratorium on large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), helping to end one of the largest sources of cruelty to animals in the world.
This critical piece of legislation was introduced by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and has a companion bill in the House by California Representative Ro Khanna. But taking on one of the most powerful special interest groups in Washington—the multinational animal agricultural industry—is going to require all of us working together.
This proposed bill would decrease the number of farmed animals kept in extreme confinement and subjected to brutal mutilations, as well as reduce the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture. It also calls for uplifting independent family farmers, protecting frontline workers, rural communities, and public health, and overhauling our broken food system.
What the Farm System Reform Act will do
- Hold meat companies responsible for the harm caused by the factory farms that raise animals;
- Provide a $100 billion voluntary buyout program for contract farmers who want to transition away from factory farming;
- Impose stricter environmental standards in the interim;
- Strengthen the Packers & Stockyards Act to protect family farmers and ranchers;
- Protect livestock and poultry farmers from retaliation if they raise concerns about their contracts or join together in grower associations;
- Prohibit meatpackers from owning livestock more than seven days prior to slaughter or using unfair contracts;
- Prohibit USDA from labeling foreign imported meat products as “Product of USA.”