"Air pollution from factory farms and growing feed crops kills an estimated 12,700 people in the U.S. a year."

"A coalition of environmental and animal rights groups petitioned the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday to abandon a "sweetheart" deal with factory farm owners—and start enforcing air pollution regulations.

The 24 organizations, which include the Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch, and the Southern Environmental Law Center, say in the petition that a 2005 deal signed by the EPA with owners of 13,900 animal feeding operations—so-called "factory farms" where animals are raised in confined settings instead of in pastures—has put many rural communities in a "purgatory of legalized air pollution."

A recent study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) estimated that air pollution from U.S. meat production, including raising feed crops for livestock, kills 12,700 people a year. Animal manure gives off acrid-smelling gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and releases volatile organic compounds, while livestock kicking up dust and farmers tilling fields release fine particles into the air."

Elizabeth Gribkoff reports for Environmental Health News October 28, 2021. [2]