February, 13 2024, 03:02pm EDT
New USDA Data Shows Nearly 50% Increase In U.S. Factory Farmed Animals In 20 Years
Today’s factory farms produce twice the sewage of the entire U.S. population
A Food & Water Watch analysis of USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture data, released today, shows that America’s industrial animal agriculture industry is raising more animals on factory farms than ever before, producing unprecedented amounts of waste. Key findings include:
- More confined animals: There are currently 1.7 billion animals raised on U.S. factory farms every year; an increase of 6% since 2017, 47% more than roughly twenty years ago in 2002.
- More waste: The U.S. is home to 24 thousand factory farms, together producing 940 billion pounds of manure each year — twice as much as the sewage produced by the entire U.S. population. This is 52 billion pounds more than in 2017, equivalent to creating a new city of 39 million people (or nearly two New York Cities) in the past five years.
- Fewer family-scale dairy farms: As factory farms take over, the number of small dairies raising animals outside the factory farm system plummeted, with barely one-third as many today compared to twenty years ago. Meanwhile, the average number of cows on a mega-dairy operation now exceeds 2,000 head.
Food & Water Watch research details how this rapid industrialization, underpinned by federal and state policy incentives and the failure to regulate factory farm pollution, comes at the direct expense of smaller family farms, public health, the environment and climate.
Food & Water Watch Research Director Amanda Starbuck issued the following statement:
“America today is truly a factory farming nation. Status quo legislating in Washington is enabling a corporate feeding frenzy in rural America. As industrial confinements drive family-scale farmers off their land, we are left with skyrocketing numbers of animals on factory farms producing enormous amounts of waste. The benefits flow to private coffers while our communities and environment are left holding the bag. Enough is enough — Congress must pass the Farm System Reform Act to ban factory farming now.”
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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Israel 'Has Gone to War Against the Entire Palestinian People': Sanders
"Any objective observer knows Israel has broken international law, it has broken American law, and, in my view, Israel should not be receiving another nickle in U.S. military aid," Sanders said.
May 12, 2024
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders repeated his calls on Sunday for the U.S. to cut off military aid to the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it continues its devastating war on Gaza.
Sanders spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press" in response to a U.S. State Department report released Friday, which found that it was "reasonable to assess" that Israel had used U.S. weapons to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza but that the U.S. was "not able to reach definitive conclusions" as to whether U.S. weapons had been used in any specific incidents.
"Any objective observer knows Israel has broken international law, it has broken American law, and, in my view, Israel should not be receiving another nickle in U.S. military aid," Sanders said.
Friday's report came in response to National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), in which President Joe Biden tasked Secretary of State Antony Blinken with obtaining "certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments" that they use U.S. arms in line with international humanitarian law and will not "arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance."
The report, made to Congress, was criticized by human rights organizations who said it mischaracterized both the law and the facts in order to avoid imposing consequences on Israel for waging a war on Gaza that the International Court of Justice has determined could plausibly amount to genocide.
"The people of our country do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children."
Amanda Klasing, Amnesty International USA's national director of government relations and advocacy, called it the "international version of 'thoughts and prayers.'" Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called it "woefully inadequate" and told reporters, "If this conduct complies with international standards, God help us all."
Speaking before Sanders on "Meet the Press," Blinken denied that the report was an attempt to get out of holding Israel accountable.
"What the report concludes is that, based on the totality of the harm that's been done to children, to women, to men who are caught in this crossfire of Hamas' making, it's reasonable to conclude that there are instances where Israel has acted in ways that are not consistent with international humanitarian law," Blinken said.
He added that both Israel and the U.S. would continue to investigate those incidents.
"When we can reach definitive conclusions, we will," Blinken said, "but it's very difficult to do that in the midst of a war."
In response to Blinken's remarks, Sanders countered that "the facts are quite clear."
He said that Hamas was a "terrible, disgusting terrorist organization" and blamed it for starting the war. But he argued that Israel's response had been beyond disproportionate.
"What Israel has done over the last seven months is not just gone to war against Hamas—it has gone to war against the entire Palestinian people, and the results have been absolutely catastrophic," the senator told NBC.
Sanders went on to outline some of that catastrophe: a death toll that surpassed 35,000 on Sunday, with two-thirds of the dead women and children; the destruction of around 60% of all housing; the devastation of infrastructure such a as water and sewage as well as the healthcare and education systems; and the fact that hundreds of thousands of children are now at risk of starvation.
Sanders referred to Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act: "Any country that blocks U.S. humanitarian aid is in violation of law and should not continue to receive military aid from the United States," Sanders explained. "That is precisely what Israel has done."
Sanders' remarks came as Israel escalated its assault on Gaza over the weekend, issuing new evacuation orders in both Rafah and areas in the north. Biden has said that a major ground invasion into Rafah would be a "red line" and threatened to withhold certain kinds of weapons if Netanyahu ordered such an invasion, but Palestinian and human rights advocates say that Israel's current actions in Rafah should already count as a major ground operation.
Speaking on "Meet the Press," Blinken acknowledged that the U.S. had not seen a "credible plan" from Israel to safely evacuate the more than 1.4 million civilians sheltering in Rafah ahead of an invasion.
Sanders told NBC that he thought many Republicans and also some Democrats wanted Israel to invade Rafah, but that this was not an opinion shared by the majority of people in the U.S.
"Poll after poll suggests that the American people want an immediate cease-fire. They want massive humanitarian aid to get in," Sanders said. "The people of our country do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children."
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As Gaza Assault Intensifies, Egypt Joins ICJ Case Accusing Israel of Genocide
"It's a real diplomatic punch," a former Israeli diplomat said. "Israel would have to take it very seriously."
May 12, 2024
Egypt announced on Sunday that it would join South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice causing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
The announcement from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs came nearly a week after Israel seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the day after the Israel Defense Forces issued new evacuation orders for Rafah and the north of Gaza. It also comes as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that around 300,000 people had fled Rafah in the last week and the death toll reported by the Gaza Health Ministry surpassed 35,000.
"The submission… comes in light of the worsening severity and scope of Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and the continued perpetration of systematic practices against the Palestinian people, including direct targeting of civilians and the destruction of infrastructure in the strip, and pushing Palestinians to flee,” the Egyptian ministry said in the statement explaining its decision.
South Africa filed its case against Israel in late December 2023, accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention as it waged its war on Gaza.
In a preliminary ruling in January, the ICJ determined that it was plausible that Israel was conducting a genocide in Gaza and ordered it to "take all measures within its power" to avoid doing so.
In its statement, Egypt's foreign ministry called on Israel "to comply with its obligations as the occupying power and to implement the provisional measures issued by the ICJ, which require ensuring access to humanitarian and relief aid in a manner that meets the needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
Israel cut off aid when it seized the Rafah border crossing, making it even harder for Gazans to access essential goods like food and fuel, though Israel said on Sunday it had opened a new crossing for aid in the north.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also repeated a call for the U.N. Security Council and the international community to take action to stop violations in Gaza and Israel's attack on Rafah.
"Tel Aviv is forcing Palestinians to be contestants in its murderous game show as it flouts international law and basic human decency."
Egypt is the third country after Colombia and Turkey to request to join South Africa's case. However, it's request is especially significant for Israel, Alon Liel, former director of Israel's Foreign Ministry, told Al Jazeera. Liel said that Egypt was the "cornerstone" of Israel's standing in the Middle East since the two countries signed a treaty in 1979.
"With Egypt joining South Africa now in The Hague, it's a real diplomatic punch. Israel would have to take it very seriously," Liel said. "Israel has to… listen to the world—not only to the Israeli public opinion asking now for revenge."
Israel's devastating assault on Gaza began October 7 in response to a Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed around 1,100 people and captured around 250 hostages. Before that attack, Israel had blockaded Gaza for 16 years.
Egypt's action on Sunday accompanied warnings and expressions of alarm from humanitarian workers, diplomats, and journalists as Israel escalated its campaign in Gaza over the weekend.
"Over the past 48 hours, Israel has intensified its attacks in Gaza as it orders Palestinians in the south to move north and the north to move south," journalist and Intercept co-founderJeremy Scahill wrote on social media Sunday. "Tel Aviv is forcing Palestinians to be contestants in its murderous game show as it flouts international law and basic human decency."
UNRWA on Saturday posted photos of bomb-damaged schools in Khan Younis to which displaced families were now returning following the new evacuation orders.
"The classrooms are torched. Walls are blown out. There is rubble everywhere," UNRWA said. "This situation is unfolding under the world's watch. Enough is enough."
Responding to the images, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote, "Since the war began, most people in Gaza have moved multiple times: on average once a month. They desperately sought safety that they never found. Some have no choice but to stay in bombed-out UNRWA shelters."
"The claim of 'safe zones' is false and misleading," Lazzarini continued. "No place is safe in Gaza. Period."
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement Sunday, "A full-scale offensive on Rafah cannot take place."
"I can see no way that the latest evacuation orders, much less a full assault, in an area with an extremely dense presence of civilians, can be reconciled with the binding requirements of international humanitarian law and with the two sets of binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice," Turk said.
However, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) argued on social media Sunday that Israel's actions in Rafah already comprised "a large-scale military attack, and not a limited operation as described by Israel."
The group said that Israel had killed at least 116 people—among them 22 women and 38 children—since IDF forces entered Rafah one week ago.
In addition to stepping up its campaign in Rafah, the IDF has increased its attacks on parts of northern Gaza, including Jabalaya, the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
"We have been hearing from eyewitnesses on the ground, in that very densely populated area, that military tanks are surrounding evacuation centers and residential buildings," Al Jazeera journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum reported.
PCHR concluded: "In sum, Israel is continuing its genocidal military campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza unabated. We reiterate our call for an immediate cease-fire. This genocide must end now."
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Trump-Appointed Judge Halts Biden Rule Capping Credit Card Fees
"The U.S. Chamber got its way for now—ensuring families get price-gouged a little longer with credit card late fees as high as $41," one advocate said of the ruling.
May 12, 2024
A Trump-appointed judge on Friday delivered a win for big banks when he granted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce a temporary injunction halting a Biden administration rule that would cap credit card fees at $8.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule, which would have gone into effect May 14, could save U.S. consumers more than $10 billion each year. The decision to pause its implementation, issued by U.S. District of the Northern District of Texas Judge Mark Pittman, will cost ordinary Americans around $27 million each day it is in effect.
"In their latest in a stack of lawsuits designed to pad record corporate profits at the expense of everyone else, the U.S. Chamber got its way for now—ensuring families get price-gouged a little longer with credit card late fees as high as $41," Liz Zelnick, the director of the Economic Security and Corporate Power Program at Accountable.US, said in a statement.
"It's time the U.S. Chamber stops clogging the courts with baseless lawsuits designed to enrich corporate CEOs on the backs of working families—and it's time the judiciary stops legitimizing venue shopping from big industry."
The CFPB issued the rule on March 5 as part of the Biden administration's commitment to crack down on "junk fees." However, the Chamber of Commerce and other banking trade associations—including the American Bankers Association and the Consumer Bankers Association—quickly sued to block it. The executives of Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, and JPMorgan Chase sit on the boards of the groups behind the suit, according toThe Washington Post.
"Banks make billions in profits charging excessive late fees," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on social media Saturday in response to the ruling. "Now a single Trump-appointed judge sided with bank lobbyists to block the Biden administration's new rule capping these junk fees."
Accountable.US also criticized the fact that the suit was before Pittman at all, arguing that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed the suit in Texas federal court so that it would end up under the jurisdiction of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has 19 Republican-appointed justices out of a total of 26. The chamber has filed nearly two-thirds of its lawsuits since 2017 with courts covered by the 5th Circuit.
"The U.S. Chamber and the big banks they represent have corrupted our judicial system by venue shopping in courtrooms of least resistance, going out of their way to avoid having their lawsuit heard by a fair and neutral federal judge," Zelnick said. "It's time the U.S. Chamber stops clogging the courts with baseless lawsuits designed to enrich corporate CEOs on the backs of working families—and it's time the judiciary stops legitimizing venue shopping from big industry."
The 5th Circuit's treatment of the case has also come under fire, as Trump-appointed Judge Don Willett has not recused himself despite the fact that he owns tens of thousands of dollars in Citigroup shares. While Willett has argued that Citigroup is not a party to the case, it belongs to trade groups that are, and any ruling on credit card fees would significantly impact the bank. Collectively, all the judges on the 5th Circuit have invested as much as $745,000 in credit card or credit issuing companies, according to the most recent publicly available information.
Donald Sherman, Gabe Lezra, and Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel of Citizens for Ethics in Washington wrote: "Judge Willett's refusal to recuse, and the lack of transparency about the rationale, reinforces the need for more judicial ethics reform to ensure that everyday Americans and government agencies have a level playing field when they go into court against corporate interests."
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