A Confined Animal Feeding Operation is a modern farming operation that is either voluntary regulated under this program or has more then 1,000 animal units. An animal unit as defined in this definition is 1,000 pounds or roughly the weight of a large Holstein cow. That's a lot of cows, or even more chickens or other animals raised in this massive animal raising operations. Being a CAFO not only means you have to follow tougher regulations for air and water pollution, but you also get certain tax and liability advantages.

The original intent of this definition was to better regulate large farms that could potentially be a major pollution source. It was to make such a farm not unlike a similar industrial source of pollution. Such an operation would likely not be controlled and ran entirely by a single family, but more like large company or organization. When you combine so many animals together in a small space, and create so much specialization it only makes sense to have greater regulation.

These farms do pollute more, and they certainly do have a far more pungent odor. In many cases, our regulatory scheme has failed to keep up with the changing reality of these farms. Yet, at the same time they are more efficient, saving both money and conserving resources. Countless acres of former farmland have now gone into woods or housing development. It has reduced the number of people that have to be employed in agriculture, and allowed such people to move into other sectors of the economy where they can be more productive. Most of all, it has greatly cut prices. We as consumers can buy milk today in 2005 for the same price as we could buy milk in 1980. These bigger farms can feed more people at lower prices.

Yet, that rational side has many downsides. The smell from these mega-farms far outweighs that of smaller farms. Rotting hay, manure, and grain from these farms is far more noticeable then smaller farms, despite the better attempts to control the odors. Run off is far greater from these farms as they have far more manure to dispose off and utilize. Pollution that would be spread out over many farms is now centered on one farm. Toxic sludges and wastes are produced in far greater quantities on big farms. People who once enjoyed farming can not subsist on income that has not increased with the cost of farm inputs like gasoline or fertilizer. The CAFO farm replaces 10 to 30 more conventional sized farms.

The ultimate question is dialectical: is the bigger farm or smaller farm better? For those of us who want to see farms along the road that are lush and green, and smaller one is better. When we want jobs we also need the smaller one. Government can do much to ensure that smaller and medium farms continue to exist, by subsidizing only a certain amount of livestock as done with the milk support program. It's difficult to regulate farm size for sure, as any regulation might ultimately hurt the small farm, along with the big one.