EXPERTS: FACTORY FARMING MUST GO

This is almost as big a bombshell as the Humane Society video, though it won't hit with the same force, because, why? No pictures. But it's still big.

Factory farming takes a big toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural America's economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock, concludes an independent, 2 1/2-year analysis that calls for major changes in the way corporate agriculture produces meat, milk and eggs.

The report, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and released Tuesday, finds that the "economies of scale" long used to justify factory-farming practices are largely an illusion, perpetuated by a failure to account for associated costs.

Among those costs are human illnesses caused by drug-resistant bacteria associated with the rampant use of antibiotics on feedlots and the degradation of land, water and air quality caused by animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes.

Read the whole story - while the 10-year "phaseout" is predictably wussy, there are still some pretty breathtaking recommendations, considering the (very staid, mainstream) source. They even call for an end to forced feeding of poultry to produce foie gras, which should have repercussions in cities across North America where activists are pressing that fight.