Climate and the Animals

The peril that animals experience daily is always on my mind even if sometimes it recedes to the back. And when I say animals on my mind it is the farmed animals, the ones excluded from the Animal Welfare Act. While farmed animals may be covered under State cruelty statutes what is done to then can be written off as a ‘common industry standard’ giving a pass to treatment that would otherwise be actionable if it was done to a companion animal.

Activists are detailed, arrested, and go to trial to defend just shedding a light on what goes on behind closed doors at factory farms.

A farm is classified as a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) based on the number of animals it confines, how long they are confined, and how waste is managed. The EPA defines CAFOs as Large, Medium, and Small.

Large CAFOS: Confine animals for more than 45 days without vegetation in the confinement area and meet one of the following:

Cattle: 1,000 or more.

Dairy cows: 700 or more.

Pigs who are weigh less than 55 lbs 2,500 or more, Pigs greater than 55 lbs 10,000.

Chickens (liquid manure system): 30,000 or more. (FYI, a liquid manure system involves manure that is flushed or washed with water into storage pits or lagoons.)

Chickens (non-liquid/manure system, broilers): 125,000 or more. In case you were wondering what

Laying hens (non-liquid manure): 82,000 or more

Turkeys: 55,000 or more

Sheep or lambs: 10,000 or more

Horses: 500 or more

Medium CAFOs: Confine animals for less than 45 days and either:

Discharge manure or wastewater into waters of the U.S. directly or through a man-made ditch, or are designated by the EPA or state agency as a CAFO.

Animal numbers for Medium CAFOs are lower.

Cattle: 300–999

Pigs less than 55 lbs. 750–2,499

Chickens (non-liquid manure): 37,500–124,999 (broilers)

Laying hens (non-liquid manure): 25,000–81,999

Small CAFOs have fewer animals than the medium thresholds but can still be designated as CAFOs if they discharge pollutants into waters of the U.S.

Climate Week in NYC 2025

Project Drawdown presenter shared statistics about animal agriculture.

• 38% of the earth’s land is used from agriculture

• The food system drives 70% of global water use.

• Food, agriculture, land use = 22%

• Indirect emissions (transportation, waste removal) = 34%

• The food system contributes 34% of the world’s greenhouse gases,, but it receives less than 3% of climate funding.