In recent years, public awareness about the shocking cruelty of the animal agriculture industry - particularly factory farms - has greatly increased. At the same time, more and more people are beginning to learn about how harmful the industry’s practices are to the environment. Far higher amounts of freshwater and land resources are required for the production of meat and dairy than for the production of plant-based foods. To take just one example, the production of beef requires approximately 160% more land resources than the production of plant-based protein products. Additionally, a person who stops eating meat and dairy products for one year can save 200,000 gallons of freshwater!

The world’s farmed animals produce around 130 times more waste than the entire human population. Approximately 150 gallons of water are required per cow, per day, to hydrate the animals, remove excrement from the floors of factory farms, and clean slaughter equipment. Once this water has been used, it contains too much animal waste, antibiotics, growth hormones and bacteria to be returned to the water treatment system. Instead, it must be stored in open-air lagoons that can be the size of several football fields. These lagoons often leak into the surrounding groundwater – and some farmers even drain them by spraying the polluted water onto neighboring lands – which can cause massive problems for drinking water supplies in the area.

This week, the World Health Organization — which works globally to improve human health — will meet in Geneva to select a new director general. We have a mission for that leader: take on factory farms, a major threat to health and the environment.

Starting just after World War II, animal production in the United States became increasingly industrialized. Factory-like farms radically increased the number of cows, chickens and pigs they could raise and slaughter with economic efficiency. This is one reason meat consumption rose sharply in the United States after the war. So, too, worldwide, meat production has tripled over the last four decades and increased 20 percent in just the last 10 years, according to research by the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group.

This sweeping change in meat production and consumption has had grave consequences for our health and environment, and these problems will grow only worse if current trends continue.

Taking on this public health issue is well within the W.H.O.’s mandate. Addressing last year’s World Health Assembly, Margaret Chan, the organization’s departing director general, called antibiotic-resistant microbes, climate change and chronic diseases “three slow-motion disasters” shaping the global health landscape. Factory farming connects the dots among them.

In a heartbreaking new undercover video, Compassion Over Killing reveals violent abuse of gentle mother cows at Mason Dixon Farms, a massive dairy factory farm in Pennsylvania with more than 2,500 animals.

Mason Dixon supplies some of the biggest names in dairy, including Dairy Farmers of America and Land O’Lakes. 

One of the largest dairy facilities on the East Coast, Mason Dixon was the first in the US to implement milking of cows by machines, known as “robo-milking.” Approximately half of the 2,500 cows on this factory farm are now “robo-milked.”

Though Mason Dixon touts itself as a leading example in the dairy industry, the footage taken by COK’s investigator who worked inside the facility uncovers a different reality

The world's largest fast-food franchise, Subway, has agreed to meaningful changes to its chicken welfare policies after a national initiative of The Humane League led by Philadelphia high school student Lia Hyman. 

This effort was part of our larger 88% Campaign.

Just last week, Lia and others traveled to Subway headquarters in Milford, CT to deliver a petition with over 50 thousand signatures from concerned citizens asking for better treatment for chickens in the company's supply chain and stage a silent demonstration. 

In addition, a billboard was launched on the main highway to Subway's headquarters directing the general public to the campaign website. Our grassroots team held dozens of protests across the country and hundreds of consumers and students also spoke out against Subway on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, asking the restaurant to address the violent abuse taking place in its supply chain.

Their efforts, and the voices and input of the thousands who called, emailed, wrote letters and protested, didn't go unanswered, as a new welfare policy was released today.