To food safety advocates, CAFO is a four-letter word.  The acronym stands for Concentrated Animal Feed Operations.  They came into being as industrialized farming methods took hold largely as a result of the demand for food worldwide and the decreasing amount of land upon which to grow it.  Author/journalist/activist Michael Pollan is among many others who have reported damage done to animals, the environment, and food itself with the advent of CAFOs that house cattle in large buildings with rows of narrow stanchions.  The cows eat feed from lower-quality surplus corn – not locally grown non-chemical feed corn raised in traditional fashion — and shipped in trucks traveling long distances that create local road congestion and burn precious fossil fuels.

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