Noah’s Task / 113mented for all animal products that enables consumers to make
purchases that are consistent with their moral commitments. In
addition to consumer support, sustainability requires that cer-
tain agricultural policy issues be addressed. Some of these involve
reforming the system that provides direct and indirect subsidies
to industrial livestock operations. Currently, these subsidies allow
corporations that run CAFOs to buy feed crops for 20 to 25 percent
under cost of production. Underpriced feed, subsidized by taxpay-
ers, has meant artifi cially low costs for CAFO operators and artifi -
cially low prices for meat raised in industrial conditions.^3 Subsidies
have pushed more small farmers out of diversifi ed production, in
which they raise both crops and livestock, and into the produc-
tion of commodity crops exclusively. Removing the subsidies could
make diversifi ed small farms profi table again.^4 At the very least, it
would make factory farming less profi table. Moreover, as Michael
Pollan writes, it would require developing “a new set of incentives
that would encourage farmers to grow real food and take good care
of their land.”^5
More directly related to disaster management, the federal gov-
ernment should establish stringent standards for the “carrying
capacity,” or permissible numbers of animals and amount of waste
relative to features such as geology and groundwater. The standards
should not permit operations to house large numbers of animals
in fl oodplains or otherwise fragile locations. Currently, the federal
government does not regulate CAFOs unless they have a record of
polluting, and even then, enforcement can take years. Consistent
federal standards are necessary to avoid loopholes at the state or
regional level. As the Pew Commission reports, many facilities are
situated in poor communities through a combination of the prom-
ise of job creation and the offer of tax incentives.^6 Thus, legislators
may hesitate to refuse to allow a potential primary employer to
operate in their jurisdiction. The agriculture lobby has also worked
to bypass local control over zoning. However, because taxpayers
bear the external costs of CAFOs, state and local legislators actu-
ally have a strong incentive to favor small-sized operations. For
example, large CAFOs produce overwhelming amounts of waste,