The following is a sample resolution drawn up by the WSN's Factory Farm Committee . Please forward to your organization, with a recommendation that it be passed and that we be notified. This is the opening gun in a campaign that we hope will lead to strict regulation of factory farms, or to potential factory farm operators rethinking their plans.
Livestock is part of a diverse, sustainable family farm.
With proper management, livestock grazing and pasturage recycles animal wastes back into the soil as plant fertilizer and transforms vast amounts of coarse forages into usable protein. Livestock factories are industrial in scale, produce enormous quantities of animal waste and air and water pollution, and are high in energy use. Livestock factories are not humane to animals, limit consumer food choices that are free of anti-biotics, and do not return money to the local economy. Odor from factory farms is unhealthy and lowers neighbors' property values. Wisconsin's heritage of diverse, sustainable family farms is threatened by large confined animal livestock operations.