Public Health and Pandemics

Three years into the outbreak and amidst outrageous increases in egg prices, the United States Department of Agriculture continues to make dangerous payouts to big companies and delay corrective action.

While inflation has impacted all food categories, two significant factors have disproportionately driven up animal product prices: the devastating impact of avian influenza, and systematic price manipulation by major meat producers.

Farm Forward is deeply alarmed by the first bird flu death recorded in the United States. The federal government must act to get the outbreak under control.

Farm Forward has long warned that industrial farming practices are a major driver of zoonotic diseases. Recent bird flu cases in humans underscore the urgent need for meaningful action.

The government is freaking us out on bird flu. It’s not what they’re saying—it’s what they are not saying.

A USDA testing program finds that at least 20 percent of tested cattle samples labeled “raised without antibiotics” or “no antibiotics ever” tested positive for antibiotics. USDA buries findings and reports no punitive action.

Antimicrobial Resistance is an increasing threat to human and animal health. Solving the problem requires significant reforms to agricultural policy and industrial animal farming practices. Yet, the largest international One Health programs largely fail to acknowledge industrial animal farming as a key threat to the One Health mission.

Even as the seriousness of the bird flu outbreak increases, the government refuses to address the underlying cause: factory farming.

An investigation by Farm Forward and Our Honor, covered by The New York Times, shows how the federal government has allocated hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to poultry companies like Tyson and Hormel for bird flu outbreak losses, despite these companies’ factory farming practices being linked to the outbreaks.

Farm Forward submitted a comment to the CDC and HHS we consider critical for addressing zoonotic disease and public health preparedness: factory farming creates perfect petri dishes for endemic and emergent zoonotic diseases. Deintensifying existing poultry and pig farming—while placing a moratorium on new factory farm construction—is the public health measure that would most dramatically reduce the risk of the next pandemic virus. 

The high price of eggs is just one outcome of bird flu. Far more worrying is the possibility that the disease could adapt to human bodies and lead to the next global pandemic. Though eating chicken or eggs is unlikely to lead to illness, experts agree that the pandemic risk of avian flu is real, stemming largely from the way birds are raised on factory farms and the particular breeds of birds that have come to dominate the supply chain.

Bird flu is making global headlines. As an H5N1 outbreak ravages the U.S. poultry industry and egg prices reach record highs, scientists are ringing alarm bells that the virus could soon enter a new, more dangerous phase of its evolution.

Farm Forward welcomed the World Health Organization (WHO) Intergovernmental Negotiating Body’s recent request for public guidance on the question, “What substantive elements do you think should be included in a new international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response?” 

While COVID-19 may have emerged from a wet market, the greater pandemic risk is our insatiable appetite for cheap, factory farmed meat.

Brandon Keim, a freelance journalist writing a speculative fiction piece for Anthropocene magazine about how to prevent zoonoses, asked Farm Forward how to create a future free of pandemics and factory farms. 

Industrial poultry farms are infamous for the commonly known “bird flu”, yet agribusiness continues being the breeding ground for pandemics.

This week in response to the Trump Administration’s April 28th announcement that it would invoke the Defense Production Act to compel meatpacking companies to stay open during the pandemic, Farm Forward joined nearly 100 food, labor, and environmental allies to show broad support for frontline foodworkers.  

USDA proposed harmful inspection rules that we have a chance to stop! Learn more about the rules and how you can make a difference here.

An interview with industry insiders exposing the dangers of the ineffective CAFO management on the floodplains of North Carolina. See images..

Global conference to address climate crises chose a meat-heavy menu equivalent of burning more than 500,000 gallons of gasoline. Learn more.

Large factory farm and polluter conducting illegal activities making citizens sick continues business as usual. Learn more.

The factory farming industry harms human workers as well as the living animal products they must process at breakneck speed. Learn more here.

Farm Forward believes that a sustainable and just food system treats animals and humans with dignity. We’re facing a new administration whose agricultural advisory committee will include outspoken opponents of wage reform and animal welfare policies.

Factory farming wreaks havoc on the animals being farmed, the workers processing them, the air we breath and earth we live on. Let’s change.

A California law that has protected the public from consuming meat from animals that are too sick or injured to even stand was overturned. Learn more of the implications here.

With hen housing debates in full swing and the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of birds at stake, Farm Forward wants you to have the facts about how America’s egg supply is produced.