Definitions
- Animal Unit
- An animal unit is not simply one animal, but rather a measuring unit for livestock production that varies from province to province. In most cases one animal unit is calculated based on the amount of feed consumed, or the amount of manure produced, by one 1,000 lb cow. For example, in Alberta one animal unit may be equivalent to 1 dry dairy cow, 2 feeder steers, 5 feeder pigs, 18.2 weaners or 500 broiler chickens. Check your province for the applicable definition in your area.
- CAFO
- Confined Animal Feeding Operation
- CFO
- Confined Feeding Operation
- Factory farm
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A large-scale industrial site where many animals (generally chickens, turkeys, cattle, or pigs) are confined, fed, and treated with pharmaceuticals to maximize growth and prevent disease. The animals produce much more waste than the surrounding land can handle. These operations are associated with various environmental hazards as well as cruelty to animals (from the Sustainable Table website).
The term Factory Farm was first used by Ruth Harrison in her 1964 book “Animal Machines”—an exposé of the intensive housing of veal calves, chickens and pigs.
- ILO
- Intensive livestock operation (or industrial livestock operation)
- Proponent
- The person or company that is proposing to build the ILO
- Socially responsible livestock production
- Socially responsible activities are those in which the individual(s) profiting from the activity pay(s) all the costs the activity generates and shifts none of those costs to others who will not profit from the activity. So, socially responsible farming would be farming where all the costs of the farm (air and water pollution, etc.) are contained within the farm’s boundaries and are not shifted off the farm.
- Value chain
- A term used to describe the series of commercial transactions between primary production (on farms) to sale to the final consumer.
- Vertical Integration
- When a corporation owns or controls two or more steps (primary production, secondary processing, bulk distribution, retail marketing) in the production-distribution system of a given product.