The Manure Surplus: Digging Into The Numbers
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Karol Orzechowski, Faunalytics
May 2018

The number of animals being farmed in the U.S. generates so much manure, that it exceeds the fertilization needs of crop and grazing land by alarming rates.

Photo by Flickr user erokcom

It may be one of the most important negative by-products of intensive animal agriculture, but it needs to be taken seriously: manure. Waste from animals can be an important way to fertilize land for plants to grow – though proponents of “veganic” farming argue that’s not necessary – and indeed, there are ways of having animal manure be used in a farming cycle without harming them. However, with factory farming, the number of animals generating manure is higher than what the land can sustain. According to a previous article covered in our library, “the manure produced by CAFOs comprises 65% of all manure from U.S. animal operations, to the tune of about 300 million tons per year, which is more than double the amount generated by this country’s entire human population.”

Even though the report is focused on manure, the researchers note that it is a symptom of the bigger problem: animal farming itself. For advocates, the study provides information that could be useful in general farmed animal advocacy, and getting to that root problem.

Read more at The Manure Surplus: Digging Into The Numbers

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Karol Orzechowski is an animal advocate with a passion for blending activism and art. In addition to producing numerous investigative short films on various animal issues, and co-producing the Animal Voices radio show for a number of years, Karol is the director of Maximum Tolerated Dose, a full-length documentary about the psychological toll of vivisection on both animals and humans. Read A Conversation with Karol Orzechowski the Director of the film Maximum Tolerated Dose

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