Our food system is harming Hoosiers and our environment.
Within the last few decades, the United States went from raising livestock on traditional farms owned by farm families, to “producing” livestock in highly mechanized, industrial operations controlled by a handful of giant corporations. Indiana is home to nearly 2,000 of these industrial-scale animal factories known as concentrated animal feeding operations (“CAFOs,”) or factory farms. A CAFO warehouses at least 1,000 cattle, 2,500 swine, or 100,000 fowl in a confined space. Today, more than 85% of all livestock “produced” in Indiana come from factory farms.
Take Action on Factory Farms Now!
Factory Farm Waste
Our Position
Simply put, Indiana law does not adequately protect public health and the environment from factory farm waste. This is why HEC places education, citizen advocacy, and testifying in defense of rural communities as one of our top priorities! To that end, we have worked with a broad coalition of stakeholders in recent years to defeat dangerous bills that would have: further weakened Indiana’s regulation of factory farms; stripped local governments of their “Home Rule” authority to regulate factory farms; and given unprecedented special legal protections to factory farm operators to shield them from liability when they cause harm. Currently, we are working to pass the Farm System Reform Act, which would address the serious gaps in the regulation of factory farms and restore balance and fairness to farm policy.
HEC Factory Farm Cases
When education and advocacy fail, legal action is sometimes necessary to address the serious environmental threats caused by factory farms. Below is a list of our recent factory farm cases.
Current Regulation Failures
Simply put, Indiana’s regulation of factory farms fails to protect our health and environment. This is why HEC places education, citizen advocacy, and pursuing legal strategies in support of rural communities and independent family farmers as our top priority! To that end, we have worked with a variety of stakeholders in recent years to defeat dangerous bills that would have: further weakened Indiana’s regulation of confined feeding operations (CFOs); stripped local governments of their “Home Rule” authority to regulate CFOs; and given unprecedented special legal protections to CFO operators to shield them from liability when they cause harm. We have also introduced first-ever legislation with bipartisan support that would address the many regulatory gaps that leave our rural communities unprotected from factory farm waste.
Right to Farm Reform
Currently, we are working to pass reform legislation that would address the serious gaps in Indiana’s oversight of factory farms and restore balance and fairness to Indiana’s unjust “Right to Farm” laws so that Hoosiers’ quality of life and property rights are protected.
