Modern food production is under the public spotlight—and rightly so. Although the drive to maximize farm productivity over the last 50 years has resulted in an abundance of so-called “cheap” food—especially meat—we now know industrial agriculture takes a costly toll on our health, the environment, biodiversity, animal welfare, rural economies and farming families.
Millions of people are discovering that their food choices really do matter—and it looks like you’re one of them!
HEALTH AND NUTRITION
Pasture-raised meats, dairy and eggs have nutritional benefits for people. For example, pastured eggs have more vitamin D than industrial eggs. Healthy farms = healthy food!
POLLUTION
Industrial livestock farms produce up to 1.37 billion tons of manure each year—20 times more fecal waste than the entire U.S. human population.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Well-managed, pasture-based farms help fix climate change by locking carbon in healthy soils, producing food from land that can’t feed humans.
WATER
Recent research shows that industrially farmed livestock consume and pollute more water resources than pasture-raised or grassfed systems.
ANIMAL WELFARE
Most eggs come from hens raised in battery cages, each with less than the area of a sheet of letter paper to live. Even “cage-free” birds aren’t guaranteed outdoor access.
FARMERS AND WORKERS
Most U.S. livestock farmers operate under ‘captive contracts’ and have very little choice or control over how they run their farming business.
SOIL
We’re losing over 1.7 billion tons of fertile soil every single year in the U.S. as a result of unsustainable farming and soil management practices.
MISLEADING LABELS
Food label claims like “all natural” or “humane” might sound positive, but mean nothing in terms of animal welfare or the environment.
Take Positive Action
At AGW, our goal is to provide you with simple, straightforward solutions so you can choose foods that count when you’re shopping or dining out. Each of our farm certification programs—Certified Animal Welfare Approved by AGW, Certified Grassfed by AGW, Certified Organic by AGW and Certified Non-GMO by AGW—are designed to have positive and measurable impacts that encourage truly sustainable farming practices.
Find out more about the challenges we all face by selecting one of the issues above—or find out how YOU can be part of the solution here!
