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Union of Concerned Scientists: The Hidden Costs of #IndustrialAgriculture

Published Jul 11, 2008 Updated Aug 24, 2008

Industrial farming is bad for the health of workers, eaters, and downstream neighbors. Here are some of its costly health impacts:

• #Pesticide toxicity. #Herbicides and #insecticides commonly used in agriculture have been associated with both acute poisoning and long-term chronic illness.

• Water #pollution from #fertilizer runoff contaminates downstream drinking water supplies, requiring costly cleanup measures with an annual price tag of nearly $2 billion.

• Loss of mid-sized #farms. Once the backbone of US agriculture, medium-sized farms are a dwindling breed, which means that fewer and fewer people make their living as farmers—a trend that has been bad for the economies of rural communities and farm states.

• Harm to neighboring and downstream economies. Industrial agriculture can pack an economic wallop hundreds of miles from its origin—just ask local governments and utility managers who must install expensive equipment to remove fertilizer by-products from public drinking water supplies. Or ask people who make their living from fisheries or tourism on the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, where "dead zones" and toxic #algae blooms caused by farm runoff do damage with an annual price tag in the billions. CAFOs, too, create pollution problems that reduce livability and depress property values in surrounding communities.

#ClimateCrisis #Pollutants #Pesticides #ClimateChange #RedTide #Sargassum #BigAg #Runoff #WaterIsLife #Biodiversity #RedTide #Sargassum #DeadZones