Industrial agriculture affects water, air, and topsoil. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are large-scale animal agriculture operations that cause tremendous environmental damage. They discharge manure and wastewater into either a human-made or natural ditch, stream, or other waterways. And the United States Department of Agriculture supports them with the food it purchases.
Friends of the Earth analyzed the $4.77 billion, a 3 percent increase from 2022, that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allocated to industrial agriculture. Nearly half of that amount went to 25 companies, receiving $2.1 billion (44.8 percent). The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) purchases domestically produced food for the USDA’s feeding programs, which support child nutrition programs, food banks, Native American reservations, foreign aid, and low-income seniors.
In 10 of the 13 categories analyzed, five companies per category received most of the contract spending. Just five companies accounted for 83 percent of pork spending, 76 percent of cheese spending, and 72 percent of poultry spending.
Industrial agriculture is not sustainable, and neither is the USDA’s support for it through its purchasing power. For that reason, the FOE includes policy recommendations in its report for the USDA “to better align with USDA food procurement.” Those recommendations include:
- Diversifying the vendor base by increasing opportunities for small and mid-sized farms.
- Aligning purchasing with public health and environmental goals.
- Strengthening vendor accountability.
- Increasing transparency in federal food purchasing
“USDA’s food purchasing decisions directly shape what ends up on the plates of millions of children, families, and seniors. By directing so much spending to just a few large corporations, USDA is missing opportunities to support healthier food and a more diverse, resilient agricultural system.” Chloë Waterman, Senior Program Manager, Friends of the Earth
Tyson Receives the Lion’s Share of USDA Contracts
Tyson, one of the world’s largest food companies, received the largest amount, with five percent ($240 million), despite its history of workplace safety and health violations, environmental concerns, and food safety issues. The company received 22 serious violations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) between 2021 and 2024 for workplace safety and health standards. The company is also being investigated by the Department of Labor and the Senate Judiciary Committee for child labor allegations.
Tyson recalled more than 8.9 million pounds of chicken in 2021 due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The following year, the food giant recalled over seven million pounds of ground beef contaminated with “hard mirror-like” substances. In 2023, 30,000 pounds of dinosaur chicken nuggets were potentially contaminated with metal pieces.
There are also environmental concerns with Tyson’s operations. From 2018 to 2022, the company discharged an estimated 372 million pounds of wastewater containing nitrates and phosphorus into U.S. rivers and lakes. That wastewater comes from its CAFOs, which need vast amounts of animal feed, between nine and 10 million acres of corn and soybeans, which is almost twice the size of New Jersey. That acreage is equivalent to more than five percent of all corn and soybean acres planted in 2020.
The corn and soybeans that are grown to feed Tyson’s CAFOs require manure, and considerable amounts of fertilizer and manure on those crops result in polluted drinking water. Excessive fertilizer and manure use can also lead to excessive algal growth in waterways, depleting oxygen and harming aquatic life.
Government agencies should support sustainable agriculture, to the benefit of all, not just large, reckless, and polluting industrial agricultural companies like Tyson Foods.
Photo by Waterkeeper Alliance courtesy of Flickr under a Creative Commons License
