"We recognize and encourage those who carry out and contribute to the work of agriculture in the United States and abroad: farmers and farmworkers, leaders of rural communities, and those who serve them in our Church.
"For all those who devote their lives to agriculture, we offer words of support and appreciation, as well as a plea to work together more cooperatively and constructively for the common good." USCCB, 2003, Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers, and Farmworkers
Catholic Rural Life has been doing its part to educate people about the harmful effects of factory farming. But while public awareness of industrial livestock production has grown, most people don't realize how many factory farms exist--or how they're distributed throughout the country. Our friends at Food & Water Watch created the Factory Farm Map to change this--and they've continued to update the map every five years when the USDA publishes its Census of Agriculture data.