Animal Ag

A grower at City Roots Farm in Columbia, S.C., waters the microgreens at the family-owned local organic vegetable farm.

The Field Report: The Future of Organic Food Is Taking Shape at the USDA—and Beyond

January 25, 2023

Plus, the EPA will study water pollution from CAFOs, the FDA takes on lead in baby food, and some families are waiting months for SNAP benefits.

Does Pastoralism Have a Place in the Future of Food?

January 24, 2023

Ilse-Kohler-Rollefson, a camel, and the cover of the new book, hoofprints on the land

Can This Beef Cooperative Become ‘the West’s Largest Climate-Smart Ranching Program’?

By Caroline Tracey

January 10, 2023

Pratt Family Beef in Idaho is a member of Country Natural Beef. (Image courtesy of Country Natural Beef)

As Climate Changes Makes Desert Water Scarce, the Debate Over Livestock vs. Wildlife Heats Up

By Leorah Gavidor

December 19, 2022

Desert Bighorn Sheeps in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. California.

Catholics Used to Forgo Meat on Fridays. Could Bringing the Practice Back Help the Climate?

By Anne Marshall-Chalmers

December 14, 2022

Catholics celebrate Ash Wednesday during a mass at Holy Name Cathedral on March 1, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Field Report: FDA Data Shows a Worrisome Increase in Antibiotic Use in Animal Agriculture

December 13, 2022

a pig eating antibiotic-filled feed in a hog barn

In ‘Raw Deal,’ A Reporter Reveals the Dirty Underbelly of the Meat Industry

By Lindsey Margaret Allen

December 9, 2022

reporter chloe sorvino and the cover of her new book, raw deal

Can This Chicken Company Solve America’s Food Waste Problem?

November 30, 2022

a freshly roasted chicken from do good foods, in theory

Absent Federal Oversight of Animal Agriculture Safety, States and Others Step Up for Change

By Christina Cooke

November 18, 2022

A happy and healthy-looking worker in a clean and well-lit dairy. Photo credit: Vera Chang.

Tyson Says Its Nurses Help Workers. Critics Charge They Stymie OSHA.

By Alice Driver

November 17, 2022

An anonymous worker, 48, from Guatemala, has worked at the Tyson in Green Forest, Arkansas, for 20 years. She needs carpal tunnel surgery in both arms, and Tyson doctors have confirmed that she needs it. However, Tyson has told her the company will not cover the cost of the surgery. Her husband, also a Tyson worker, died of COVID in 2020. (Photo by Jacky Muniello for Civil Eats)

Biogas Expansion May Compound Worker Risks

By Kari Lydersen

November 16, 2022

An overhead view of an anaerobic digester pond next to animal barns and a cornfield. (Photo credit: Maas Energy)

‘I Was Coughing So Hard I Would Throw Up’

By Gosia Wozniacka

November 15, 2022

An animal-ag worker carries two piglets in a CAFO.

Animal Agriculture Is Dangerous Work. The People Who Do It Have Few Protections.

By Christina Cooke

November 14, 2022

A dairy worker in a barn. (Photo courtesy of Migrant Justice)

Can a Court Compel the EPA to Protect Communities of Color From CAFO Pollution?

October 26, 2022

During Hurricane Florence, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) like this one in Warsaw, North Carolina, flooded the surrounding community with hog waste. (Photo credit: Justin Cook for Earthjustice)

The Field Report: As COP27 Approaches, a Push for More Attention to Food and Agriculture

October 26, 2022

A details of a shop inside Mercado de La Boqueria, in Barcelona. Photo credit: Jacopo Maia, Unsplash

Ex-USDA Official Defends Pandemic Efforts to Keep Meatpacking Plants Running

By Mary Norkol, Investigate Midwest

October 13, 2022

The Field Report: Morality at the Center of Supreme Court Arguments Over Raising Farmed Pigs in Crates

October 12, 2022

PETA protesters outside the Supreme Court on the morning before oral arguments take place in NPPC v. Ross. (Photo Credit: Lisa Held)

Decolonizing Regenerative Cattle Ranching

By Ray Levy Uyeda

October 10, 2022

Kelsey Scott (left) and Monte Scott (right) pose together in front of a herd of cattle on the families' ranch in the Cheyenne River Reservation. (Photo credit: Jennifer Zeller)

Next on the Supreme Court Docket: Farm Animal Welfare

October 5, 2022

hogs in gestation crates in a large factory farm

Will New Standards for Salmonella in Chicken Cut Down on Food Poisoning?

September 27, 2022

A raw whole chicken on a tray to illustrate the risks of salmonella in chicken

Op-ed: It’s Time to End the Poultry Industry’s Exploitative Contracts

August 16, 2022

A contract chicken farmer raises chickens under the tournament system

Are Criollo Cattle a Regenerative Solution to a 1,200-Year Megadrought?

By Jacqueline Covey

August 8, 2022

criollo cattle grazing

Meet the Group That’s Been Bringing Bison Back to Tribal Lands for 30 Years

By Gabriel Pietrorazio

July 26, 2022

The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Harlem, Montana, has gathered an estimated 45 buffalo during two ITBC transfers in 1996 and 2014. (Photo courtesy of the InterTribal Buffalo Council)

How an American Crisis Brought Together US Dairy Farmers and Mexican Farmworkers

By Lindsey Margaret Allen

July 20, 2022

Ruth Conniff and the cover of her book, Milked, about the dairy industry and dairy workers

California Dairy Uses Lots of Water. Here’s Why It Matters.

By Twilight Greenaway

June 30, 2022

A milk tanker drives by a dairy feedlot in California.