FOOD

Factory Farms in Wisconsin

Fact Sheet • January 2011

O ver the last two decades, small- and medium-scale livestock farms have given
way to factory farms that confine thousands of cows, hogs and chickens in tightly
packed facilities. In Wisconsin, there were 270,000 hogs, 40,400 beef cattle, 257,000
dairy cows and 7.4 million chickens on the largest operations in 2007, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture. Wisconsin ranks fifth in
the nation in factory-farmed dairy cows.

The silos and gentle meadows pictured on the labels of

the food most Americans buy have little relation to how
that food is actually produced. The significant growth in
industrial-scale, factory-farmed livestock has contributed
to a host of environmental, public health, economic and
food safety problems. Tens of thousands of animals can
generate millions of tons of manure annually, which pol-
lutes water and air and can have health repercussions on
nearby communities. Consumers in distant markets also
feel the impacts, either through foodborne illness outbreaks
or other public health risks, or through the loss of regional
food systems. As consumers saw during the 2010 egg re-
call, food safety problems on even a few factory farms can
end up in everyone’s refrigerators. Even the producers are
not benefitting from this system of production because they
are not getting paid much for the livestock they raise.

The rise of factory farming was no accident. It resulted from

policy choices driven by big agribusinesses, especially
meatpackers and processors that dominate the links in the
food chain between livestock producers and consumers.

Dairy
In recent decades, small and mid-sized dairy farms disap-
peared nationally and were replaced by factory-farmed
dairies that now dominate milk production. Between
1997 and 2007, the United States lost 52,000 dairy farms
— about 5,000 farms every year.1 The rise of the factory- in 1997 to 257,000 in 2007, the state’s dairy industry was
farmed dairy industry has transformed the national land- still overwhelmed by the size and growth of factory-farmed
scape and shifted milk production away from traditional dairies in western states. Despite being outpaced, the state
dairy states like Wisconsin, Michigan and New York to still added more than 215,000 dairy cows to the largest op-
mega-dairy operations in western states.2 Food & Water erations over the decade and the average size of Wisconsin
Watch found that although the number of factory-farmed factory-farmed dairies increased by almost a quarter, from
dairy cows in Wisconsin has grown six-fold, from 42,000 778 in 1997 to 946 in 2007.
One processor, Dean Foods, controls around 40 percent of
the U.S. fluid milk supply. Dairy farmers of all sizes have
been in a financial crisis for several years, as milk prices
collapsed and production costs skyrocketed. Many dairy
farmers lost between $100 and $200 per cow every month
in 2009. This loss did not translate to savings for consum-
ers. Between July 2007 and June 2009, the price farmers
received for milk fell by nearly half. But the retail price for
whole milk only declined by 22.6 percent and the price of
cheddar cheese actually increased.
Small dairies generate less manure than factory farms
and can either apply it to cropland or incorporate it into
pasture as fertilizer at rates the land can absorb. Big dairies
generate far more manure than they can use as fertilizer,
so it gets stored in lagoons or is over-applied to cropland
where it can run off into nearby waterways. In 2010, a
Brown County, Wisconsin, dairy agreed to pay $80,000 to
settle state water pollution charges after the Department of
Natural Resources found that the operation’s manure pits
had overflowed, an unapproved three-sided manure bunker
had allowed manure to run off the farm, the stormwater
management system was not working and that the farm had
improperly spread manure on cropland.
According to a Wisconsin State Journal exposé, between
2003 and the end of 2010, Wisconsin will have permitted
200 mega-dairies to open or expand but has never turned
down a permit application or revoked a permit, even after
repeated environmental violations. Some Wisconsin mega-
dairies have operated without necessary permits and many
never receive an on-site inspection — the state’s goal is to
visit each dairy once every 5 years, but admits it does not
meet that goal.
Concentration of factory farms in Wisconsin, taken from
www.factoryfarmmap.org. Dark red indicates the most severe density.
Total Factory Farm Animals in Wisconsin
Beef Cattle Dairy Cows Broilers Layers
Source: USDA.
Factory farms cause extensive environmental damage and
leave communities with fewer independent family farms,
unsafe water, reduced air quality and depressed economies.
Instead of benefitting, consumers face foodborne illness
outbreaks and public health threats like antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, and they have fewer real choices about how their
food is produced.
Congress, regulatory agencies and state goverments need to
put a stop to the policies that have allowed these facilities
to proliferate. They must create and enforce farm and food
policies that allow farmers to make a living and do not
harm communities, the environment or public health.
Take action: Go to www.factoryfarmmap.org to learn more
about factory farms in Wisconsin and to take action to stop
the spread of factory farms.
Endnotes
1 USDA NASS. Agricultural Statistics Database. Accessed August 5,
2008. Available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/QuickStats; MacDon-
ald, James M. and William D. McBride. USDA ERS. “The Transfor-
mation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency, and Risks.”
EIB-43. January 2009; Miller, James J. and Don P. Blayney. USDA,
ERS. “Dairy Backgrounder.” (LDP-M-145-01). July 2006 at 7.
2 USDA NASS. Agricultural Statistics Database.
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Copyright © January 2011 Food & Water Watch