11 Facts About How Factory Farms Affect the Environment

About 10 billion land animals in the United States are raised for dairy, meat and eggs each year.
By 2050, meat and milk production is expected to approximately double from 2000 levels, with most of those increases in the developing world.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that confined animals generate three times more raw waste than humans in the United States.
According to a 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, including 37% of methane emissions and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions.
The use of fossil fuels on farms to grow feed and to intensively raise land animals for food emits 90 million tons of CO2 worldwide every year.
Globally, deforestation for animal grazing and feed crops is estimated to emit 2.4 billion tons of CO2 every year.
Growing corn requires more nitrogen fertilizer than any other crop, and more than half the corn in the world is fed to animals.
In the United States, methane emissions from pig and dairy cow manure increased by 45% and 94% respectively between 1990 and 2009.
Extra nutrients from livestock manure can end up in waterways and threaten marine life.
Factory farms contribute to air pollution by releasing compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane.
According to a study done by the Environmental Integrity Project, some factory farm test sites in the U.S. registered pollution emission levels well above Clean Air Act health-based limits.