FOOD

Factory Farms in Minnesota

Fact Sheet • February 2011

O ver the last two decades, small- and medium-scale livestock farms have given
way to factory farms that confine thousands of cows, hogs and chickens in tightly
packed facilities. In Minnesota, there were 7.1 million hogs, 290,000 beef cattle,
91,200 dairy cows and 12.7 million chickens on the largest operations in 2007, ac-
cording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture. Minnesota ranks
third in the nation in factory-farmed hogs and ninth in factory-farmed egg-laying hens.

The silos and gentle meadows pic- big or get out.”1 The rise of factory
tured on the labels of the food most hog farms is noteworthy because it
Americans buy have little relation to happened recently and quickly. In
how that food is actually produced. 1992, less than a third of hogs were
The significant growth in industrial- raised on farms with more than 2,000
scale, factory-farmed livestock has animals;2 by 2007, it was 95 percent
contributed to a host of environmental, of hogs.3
public health, economic and food
safety problems. Tens of thousands of Minnesota added 3 million factory-
animals can generate millions of tons farmed hogs in 10 years, taking the
of manure annually, which pollutes state’s total from 4.2 million in 1997
water and air and can have health to 7.1 million in 2007. The average
repercussions on nearby communities. size of Minnesota hog factory farms
Consumers in distant markets also feel increased by more than a third, from
the impacts, either through foodborne 2,990 in 1997 to 4,050 in 2007.
illness outbreaks or other public health Concentration of factory farms in Minnesota, There are 40 percent more factory-
taken from www.factoryfarmmap.org. Dark
risks, or through the loss of regional farmed hogs (7.1 million) than there
red indicates the most severe density.
food systems. As consumers saw dur- are people (5.3 million) in Minnesota.
ing the 2010 egg recall, food safety
problems on even a few factory farms can end up in every- The tremendous amount of manure produced on hog
one’s refrigerators. Even the producers are not benefitting factory farms is stored in lagoons and applied — often
from this system of production because they are not getting over-applied — to cropland. Smaller hog operations can
paid much for the livestock they raise. safely apply all the manure to crops as fertilizer, but large
operations produce so much that some has to be shipped
The rise of factory farming was no accident. It resulted from off-site.4 When lagoons spill or leak, or manure is over-
policy choices driven by big agribusinesses, especially applied to farmland, it can run off into local waterways. In
meatpackers and processors that dominate the links in the the upper Midwest, where farmland freezes solid during the
food chain between livestock producers and consumers. winter, manure applied to frozen fields quickly runs off into
local waters.
Pork
Dairy
Hog farms have grown dramatically, with thousands of
hogs packed into confinement barns. In many regions, hog In recent decades, small and mid-sized dairy farms disap-
producers have few potential buyers for their hogs. This peared and were replaced by factory-farmed dairies that
economic pressure has led many hog producers to “get now dominate milk production. Between 1997 and 2007,

There are 40 percent more
factory-farmed hogs than there
are people in Minnesota.
the United States lost 52,000 dairy farms — about 5,000
farms every year. 5 The number of factory-farmed dairy
cows quadrupled in Minnesota, from more than 21,000
in 1997 to 91,000 in 2007. The average size of Minnesota
factory-farm dairies increased 40.7 percent, from 737 cows
in 1997 in 1997 to 1,037 in 2007.
Small dairies generate less manure than factory farms
and can either apply it to cropland or incorporate it into
pasture as fertilizer at rates the land can absorb. Big dairies
generate far more manure than they can use as fertilizer,
so it gets stored in lagoons or is over-applied to cropland
where it can run off into nearby waterways. In 2008, one
1,500-cow dairy in Minnesota released so much hydrogen
sulfide gas that the state evacuated nearby residents and the
Department of Health declared the dairy a public health
hazard.
Beef
Over the past decade, large-scale feedlots that fatten beef
cattle prior to slaughter came to dominate the entire cattle
industry. Until the mid-1960s, most feedlots were family-
owned operations with fewer than 1,000 head.6 Now, the
largest beef feedlots finish more than 16,000 cattle each,
on average, and supply nearly three-quarters of the nation’s
beef.7 The number of beef cattle on Minnesota feedlots
nearly doubled in five years, from more than 150,000 in
2002 to nearly 290,000 in 2007.
Eggs
Almost all eggs are produced on large-scale operations
with hundreds of thousands of layer hens in each facility.
A handful of egg companies produce a large proportion of
the eggs most Americans eat. In 2009, the four largest firms
owned 30.2 percent of the laying hens in production.8 The
number of egg-laying hens on factory farms in Minnesota
rose by 7.0 percent, from 9.1 million in 1997 to 9.7 million
in 2007. The average Minnesota layer operation contained
359,000 birds in 2007.
Factory farms cause extensive environmental damage and
leave communities with fewer independent family farms,
unsafe water, reduced air quality and depressed economies.
Instead of benefitting, consumers face foodborne illness
Total Factory Farm Animals in Minnesota
Beef Cattle Dairy Cows Pork Eggs
Source: USDA.
outbreaks and public health threats like antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, and they have fewer real choices about how their
food is produced.
Congress, regulatory agencies and state goverments need to
put a stop to the policies that have allowed these facilities
to proliferate. They must create and enforce farm and food
policies that allow farmers to make a living and do not
harm communities, the environment or public health.
Take action: Go to www.factoryfarmmap.org to learn more
about factory farms in Minnesota and to take action to stop
the spread of factory farms.
Endnotes
1 Carpenter, Dan. “The high price for Earl’s pearls.” Indianapolis Star.
February 10, 2008
2 Key, Nigel and William McBride. USDA ERS. “The changing eco-
nomics of U.S. hog production.” ERR-52. December 2007 at 5.
3 USDA NASS. 2007 Census of Agriculture. 2009 at Table 20.
4 MacDonald, et al. USDA ERS. “Manure Use for Fertilizer and En-
ergy.” Report to Congress. June 2009 at 13.
5 USDA NASS. Agricultural Statistics Database. Accessed August 5,
2008. Available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/QuickStats; MacDon-
ald, James M. and William D. McBride. USDA ERS. “The Transfor-
mation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency, and Risks.”
EIB-43. January 2009; Miller, James J. and Don P. Blayney. USDA,
ERS. “Dairy Backgrounder.” (LDP-M-145-01). July 2006 at 7.
6 MacDonald, James M. and William D. McBride. USDA ERS. “The
Transformation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency, and
Risks.” EIB-43. January 2009 at 12.
7 Ellis, Shane. Iowa State University. State of the Beef Industry 2008.
2009 at 11.
8 Dr. Shane, Simon. “2008 Egg Industry Survey.” Watt Egg Industry.
Vol. 114, No. 3. March 2009.
For more information:
web: www.foodandwaterwatch.org
email: info@fwwatch.org
phone: (202) 683-2500 (DC) • (415) 293-9900 (CA)
Copyright © February 2011 Food & Water Watch