Sustainable Agriculature

Sustainable agriculture is a system of growing food or raising animals that respects the land, its biodiversity, people and animals used in food production. In today’s system of intensified farming, most practices are far from sustainable. For example, forests are cleared for cattle ranching or to grow soy crops for export as cattle feed in affluent countries; factory pig farms pollute the surrounding air of rural communities as well as their local waterways with liquid manure; and livestock agriculture treats animals more like production units than living beings.

CCFA recognizes the importance of a broad approach when advocating for improved farm animal welfare, and that systems that care more for animals are also more likely to care for local communities and the surrounding land, ecosystem and water supply on which we depend upon.
For more information on the public health, environmental and human rights impacts of factory farming, please visit:

Report of the Pew Commission of Industrial Farm Animal Production, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s report, Livestock’s Long Shadow

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), Environment and Sustainability reports