Industrial Animal Agriculture - Waterkeeper

Industrial Animal Agriculture

Waterkeeper Alliance Takes to the Hill to Advocate for Biogas Awareness


Last month, Patience Burke of Waterkeeper Alliance and Tonya Bonitatibus of Savannah Riverkeeper traveled to Washington, D.C. for a week to educate decision...

Catawba College and Waterkeeper Alliance Partner Again on Advocacy Boot Camp 2024


The Catawba College Center for the Environment-Waterkeeper Alliance Clean Water Advocacy Boot Camp recently concluded. This unique and immersive ten day-course...

Waterkeeper Alliance Senior Attorney to Advise EPA on Clean Water Act Improvements for Animal Feeding Operations 


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has invited Waterkeeper Alliance’s Senior Attorney Kelly Hunter Foster to serve on its new Animal Agriculture...

Coalition of Groups Submits Comments Urging EPA to Require Industrial Animal Feeding Operations to Report their Dangerous Air Pollution


A coalition of environmental, animal welfare, and community advocacy groups, including Waterkeeper Alliance, submitted comments in response to a request...

Tell EPA to Stop Exempting Factory Farms From Reporting Hazardous Air Pollution!

  • By: Thomas Hynes
  • News

Once again, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is walking back its commitment to revise or eliminate an illegal rule exempting factory farms...

Tell EPA to Protect American Waterways From Slaughterhouse and Rendering Plant Pollution!


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced a proposed rule to establish new water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses...

EPA Proposes to Exclude Most Slaughterhouses and Rendering Plants from Updated Water Pollution Control Rules


Waterkeeper Alliance and other Clean Water Experts Urge EPA to Require Slaughterhouses and Rendering Plants to Comply with Modern Technology Standards...

EPA Proposes Improved Water Pollution Control Standards for Slaughterhouses and Rendering Facilities



Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses and rendering facilities in response...

Tell the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to Stop Enabling the Chaos That CAFOs Create


Farming in North Carolina is not what it used to be. Profit-driven industrial giants have eradicated the traditional “family farm” model of agriculture....

Help Fully Restore the National Environmental Policy Act


The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), passed in 1970, requires federal agencies to assess any significant environmental impacts a federal action,...

Waterkeeper Alliance Responds to EPA’s Denial of Petition to Better Regulate Pollution From Animal Factories


The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week denied a petition from Waterkeeper Alliance and dozens of environmental and community...

Waterkeeper Alliance Calls on NCDEQ To Listen to Public Input, Protect Communities During 2024 General Permitting Process


Waterkeeper Alliance & Partners Will Host the “People’s Hearing” to Increase Access to Public Participation & Ensure that the Final General...

Catawba College and Waterkeeper Alliance Partner on Advocacy Boot Camp


A Profound Learning Experience in Environmental Advocacy Recently, six Catawba College undergraduate students traveled to New Bern, NC to participate in...

Tell EPA to Reestablish CAFOs as a National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative


Every four years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets national enforcement and compliance priorities to focus its resources on the nation’s...

In Response to Lawsuit, EPA Announces Timeline for First Revisions to Slaughterhouse Water Pollution Standards in Nearly Twenty Years


In a victory for clean water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced its intent to publish updated water pollution control standards...

Waterkeeper Alliance Fly -In

Waterkeeper Alliance Holds “Fly-Over” in North Carolina to Get Better Look at CAFO Crisis


Recently, Waterkeeper Alliance held a “Fly-Over” in North Carolina. With the help of South Wings, and accompanied by a half dozen other local...

Dive Into Democracy: 2022 Year In Review


Through our Dive Into Democracy blog and email series, we informed and engaged our U.S. audience on the most pressing clean water issues of the day. In...

EPA Must Use the Clean Water Act to Regulate Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

  • By: Thomas Hynes
  • News

America’s food systems are today dominated by a handful of multinational corporations that employ industrialized methods to produce most of the meat...

Hogs in a CAFO by the Federal District Court for Eastern NC.

Op-Ed: We Must Shut Down Factory Farms to Protect Clean Water and Environmental Justice


by Gloria Reuben For years, Americans have been served an image of an idyllic family farmer who is responsible for the food that makes its way to our homes....

North Carolina’s Biogas Permits Are Woefully Inadequate


More Stringent Monitoring and Compliance Protocols Are Needed  Waterkeeper Alliance and Waterkeepers Carolina are severely disappointed with the North...

New Book From Corban Addison Highlights the CAFO Crisis in North Carolina


Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial, the latest book from Corban Addison, documents the horrendous, unjust, and often untold story of how...

Waterkeeper Alliance Responds to the Congressional Spending Bill’s Extension of Polluter Loopholes for Industrial Animal Agriculture


Daniel E. Estrin, General Counsel and Advocacy Director of Waterkeeper Alliance, released the following statement: The omnibus spending bill recently signed...

Mexican Court Urged to Rule for Indigenous Mayan Youth in Constitutional Challenge to Massive Industrial Hog Operation on Yucatán Peninsula


Mexico City, Mexico — Conservation groups, scientists, doctors and public-health experts filed a legal brief today supporting constitutional claims...

Week of Action: Transition to a More Sustainable and Equitable Food System


This action notice is updated from a notice originally shared in September 2020. We require farms and food systems that are resilient, healthy, and fair...

Jeff Currie the Lumber Riverkeeper is pointing his finger. He is wearing a red shirt and there are green trees behind him.

Who is Waterkeeper: Jefferson Currie II, Lumber Riverkeeper

  • By: Thomas Hynes
  • News

Jeff Currie had only been on the job as Lumber Riverkeeper for a few weeks in 2018 when Hurricane Florence came barreling through North Carolina. The devastating...

International Coalition Petitions Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Investigate Factory-Farm Abuses


The coalition includes advocates in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, United States, and the request is supported by 127 organizations and 151 academics,...

methane flame

Waterkeeper Alliance Responds to Dire IPCC Report on Climate Crisis


The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released earlier today brings a dire warning: climate change is accelerating and aggressive...

Clean Water Act Victory in the Washington State Court of Appeals


Originally published by Puget Soundkeeper, reposted with permission. Soundkeeper and Partners Successful in their Challenge of a Statewide Agricultural...

Washington Appellate Court Rejects State’s Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation Permits, Finds State Failed to Protect Water Quality and Account for Climate Change


Yesterday, as record-setting heat threatened the sustainability of Washington’s water resources, a three-judge panel of the Washington Court of Appeals...

Public Health Experts, Conservationists Ask Mexico’s Highest Court to Uphold Suspension of 49,000-Hog Industrial Animal Operation in Yucatán Peninsula


Efforts Support Constitutional Claims Raised by Mayan Children MEXICO CITY, Mexico— Conservation groups, scientists, doctors, and public-health experts...