ChatGPT's former default image generator, DALL·E 3, drew dairy farms as green pasture in 94% of pictures, even when asked to show what most farms look like. Pig farms appeared outdoors in 91% of cases. An automatic prompt-rewriting step largely erased indoor farming from the pictures, a study of 4,800 images found. In rich countries, most livestock live indoors, on so-called factory farms. Fewer than 3% of US lactating cows are primarily kept on pasture, the authors note. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data from 2012 found that more than 99% of nursery and grower/finisher pigs were housed in facilities with no outdoor access. When researchers inhibited prompt revision, 96% of pig farm images showed animals indoors. How a Hidden Rewrite Changed the Pictures GPT-4 rewrote short requests and passed the fuller prompts to DALL·E 3 for image generation. For a plain request such as 'A dairy farm', that rewrite produced cows grazing on pasture every time. Pig farm requests became outdoor scenes in 99% of cases. One rewritten prompt began 'Picture a vast field of lush, green grass under a clear blue sky'. The authors say ChatGPT users were not told about this step. The team then added a...

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Environmental Protection Agency late last week announced it would end a 20-plus-year effort to develop methods to monitor air pollution from factory farms, effectively shuttering the agency’s stop-and-start attempts to regulate the potentially pollutant-spewing facilities under the Clean Air Act. The announcement came just days before the midterm elections and was characterized by the agency as a long-awaited reprieve for farmers, a historically important constituency for Trump and the Republican Party. When tens of thousands of animals are packed into one place, pollution from their waste is blown from ventilation fans or emanates from giant lagoons of liquid effluent. Livestock facilities emit fine particulate matter, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds, all contributing to a toxic mix. Research has shown that emissions from these operations are a major cause of air pollution, causing nearly 12,700 deaths in the United States a year. Strictly speaking, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are required to get permits under the Clean Air Act and report emissions of these pollutants under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and the...

The Environmental Protection Agency late last week announced it would end a 20-plus-year effort to develop methods to monitor air pollution from factory farms, effectively shuttering the agency’s stop-and-start attempts to regulate the potentially pollutant-spewing facilities under the Clean Air Act. The announcement came just days before the midterm elections and was characterized by the agency as a long-awaited reprieve for farmers, a historically important constituency for Trump and the Republican Party. When tens of thousands of animals are packed into one place, pollution from their waste is blown from ventilation fans or emanates from giant lagoons of liquid effluent. Livestock facilities emit fine particulate matter, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds, all contributing to a toxic mix. Research has shown that emissions from these operations are a major cause of air pollution, causing nearly 12,700 deaths in the United States a year. Strictly speaking, concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, are required to get permits under the Clean Air Act and report emissions of these pollutants under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability and Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. But through a deal crafted in tandem with the EPA and the...

The sequence is part of the latest Blue Planet series from Sir David Attenborough.

People living near factory farms are more likely to have drug-resistant bacteria in their homes, raising their risk of resistant infections, according to new research. While antibiotics and other drugs are essential for treating infections in farm animals, poor welfare and unhealthy living conditions can increase transmission and drive overuse. In 2024, antibiotic drug use in meat production rose 16%. Excessive use of these drugs encourages drug resistance, putting animals and nearby residents at risk. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers collected dust from inside the homes of crop and livestock farmers near factory farms in Iowa and used sequencing to identify antimicrobial-resistant genes in the microbial community within the dust. Previous studies looked for pathogens resistant to drugs, such as strains of E. coli, and found they can spread from animal feeding operations to the surrounding environment, including water and soil and may even contaminate crops, leading to food poisoning. This new study looks at drug-resistant genes, giving a more complete picture of what people are exposed to, Meghan Davis, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, tells Sentient. The researchers found that 26% of all samples had at least one...

Feeding the Beast: Third in a series about lax regulation, corporate influence and the heavily polluting, yet nearly untouchable American meat industry. ESTHERVILLE, Iowa—By the time rainwater rolled down the hillside and reached the stream near the edge of Gordon Garrison’s property, it had turned a foul, murky red. Gravity had acted predictably, Garrison knew. In 2015, New Fashion Pork, a Minnesota-based company with facilities in seven states, built a 4,400-head hog confinement half a mile from his home. Between the confinement, and Garrison’s 300 acres of restored prairie, oak savanna and wetlands, lay sloping fields owned by a New Fashion Pork subsidiary. When the manure storage pit beneath their facility filled, the company hired contractors to spread the waste on the fields as fertilizer. Twice in the facility’s first few years of operation, Garrison alleged, the contractors applied manure on already saturated ground, causing the animal waste to flow downhill into a tributary of the Des Moines River. In 2018, the facility was fined $4,800 for failing to “properly ensure” that manure spread on the field stayed out of that stream. Some 150 miles downstream, where the Des Moines River winds through Iowa’s state capital, the river provides drinking...

Across Brittany, tractors can be seen trundling onto beaches to remove truckloads of foul-smelling algae ahead of the tourist rush. Situated below steep cliffs and ancient forests, these once pristine beaches have been devastated by algal blooms – the rapid growth of toxic seaweed which kills off fish and plant life. This sea lettuce algae can also release a toxic gas that can cause humans dizziness, chest pain, breathing problems, and even cardiac arrest. The French peninsula is not alone. Fed by harmful pollution from agriculture, and fuelled by seas warmed by climate change, lurid green blooms are increasingly appearing on beaches and lakes across Europe – prompting hundreds of swimming bans across the continent this summer. Scientists are clear on the cause: for decades, chemicals including nitrogen and phosphorus have leached into waterways from human sewage, as well as fertilisers and excess manure fuelled by the rapid growth of Europe’s factory farms. These ‘nutrients’ are vital for plant growth – but in large quantities they destroy the delicate balance of ecosystems, allowing certain plants, including algae, to multiply at the expense of animals and other species. DeSmog visited some of the worst impacted spots in Europe, speaking to fishers,...

An estimated 99% of farm animals in the United States are raised in confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Often called factory farms, these facilities raise livestock in densely packed, enclosed spaces, with some housing tens of thousands of animals at one time. Yet when Kehan (Sky) Sheng, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia, used generative AI to create animal-farming visuals for her presentations, she received idyllic scenes: cows roaming on pasture, pigs rooting in mud, red barns and windmills. Sheng found an explanation deep within the technical documentation for DALL-E 3, OpenAI’s text-to-image AI model for ChatGPT: An internal language model rewrites or expands user prompts to add more details before images are generated. “The moment that I found out it is actually a prompt revision that is erasing all the reality, I was absolutely shocked,” says Sheng. “That’s insane.” In a new Technology in Society paper, Sheng and co-authors analyzed 4,800 independently generated images and found that ChatGPT defaulted to pastoral imagery when prompted to depict dairy and pig farms, even when they requested more realistic images. However, when researchers disabled the underlying prompt revision, the generated images depicted more intensive livestock farming. The results...

"While it remains unclear exactly how Meta was able to reduce its federal tax liability by over $6.6 billion in the last three years using federal research credits, it appears from published reports that a substantial share is by claiming the research credit related to its massive AI data center build out," wrote the group of lawmakers led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. Last month, The New York Times reported that Meta claims in its federal tax filings that the company's AI data centers are "a giant experiment that could fail," allowing it to "tap into a tax credit intended for research and experimentation." Meta specifically characterizes its expensive, resource-devouring data centers as "pilot models." "Meta’s own accountants recognize that the strategy is on shaky legal ground," the Times reported. "In disclosures buried in securities filings, the tech giant warns that billions in tax savings are vulnerable to being overturned by the IRS, in large part because of 'uncertainties with our research tax credits.'" In their letter to Zuckerberg, the Democratic senators wrote that the research tax credit "can be a useful and necessary tool to support our nation’s innovation economy and...

Amsterdam, Netherlands – 12 Greenpeace activists have scaled three barns at a controversial megafarm development in northeast Croatia, painting a 500m2 slogan reading ‘Stop This Shit’ onto the roofs in protest at the threat that animal waste from the facility poses to a nearby biosphere reserve. Dániel Nyitray, Campaigner at Greenpeace International, said: “Industrial meat giants like MHP are expanding aggressively all over the world, fattening the pockets of billionaires, while poisoning rivers and drinking water with toxic animal waste. Communities everywhere are fed up – and these activists have taken action today to send a clear message: stop this shit! We deserve clean air, drinkable water, and a food system that nourishes people, not corporate greed.” As the protest took place, activists from Zelena akcija (Friends of the Earth Croatia) and Prijatelji životinja (Animal Friends Croatia) dressed in business suits installed a 3.5m high inflatable chicken outside the gates of the facility. One activist sat on a makeshift toilet atop the gates, representing both corporate indifference to local concerns and the enormous amount of animal waste the megafarm will produce. The protest targeted a project on the Croatian border with Hungary by poultry giant MHP, Europe’s largest chicken producer,...

Denver – Today, attorneys from Food & Water Watch and the Center for Biological Diversity appeared in the Denver based Colorado Court of Appeals to deliver oral arguments in their case against the state over its failure to protect Colorado waters and public health from factory farm pollution. The lawsuit, filed in May 2024 but stemming from advocacy dating back to 2021, demands that the state finally bring its permit for factory farms, also called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act by including pollution monitoring, improving water pollution regulation at the state’s one hundred largest CAFOs. “State regulators have the responsibility to ensure Coloradans have access to safe, clean water. But by refusing to require that factory farms monitor for pollution discharges, not only are regulators making it impossible to hold polluters accountable when they contaminate our water, they’re also breaking the law,” said Food & Water Watch Staff Attorney Emily Miller. “The court must compel the State to stop shielding the industry and regulate factory farms’ water pollution as the Clean Water Act requires.” “Factory farms shouldn’t get a free pass to pollute and we hope the court recognizes that clean water...

The human body is roughly 71% water. If you look at my arm, you will see a tattoo of the Drava River. A map from the 19th-century, when it was still an interconnected network of channels weaving across the whole region. The tattoo wraps around my arm at a point marking 71% of the way up my body. For me, it is a reminder that water is the foundation of all human life, and a symbol of my deep, unbreakable connection to this river. I am an artist based in Northern Croatia, next to the Drava river. I grew up here and became an eco-artist, exploring creativity and sustainability, emerging from the deep connection I have to nature here. But unfortunately, this unique ecological paradise could soon be transformed into an industrial zone, as vast factory farms have started popping up across the region. The “Amazon of Europe” is under threat from Big Ag For me “The Amazon of Europe” is not just a catchy slogan. This stretch of the Drava River is part of a cross-border UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, spanning multiple countries. It is a truly extraordinary, vibrant, and biologically diverse ecosystem. At the point where the Drava meets...

“EPA has never taken factory farm pollution seriously — under Trump, it has stopped even pretending.” Washington, D.C. — Today, the national advocacy organization Food & Water Watch sued the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), demanding the agency release records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) related to its abandonment of an Animal Agriculture and Water Quality (AAWQ) Federal Advisory Subcommittee. EPA formed the Subcommittee in 2024 in response to a Food & Water Watch petition demanding EPA strengthen its rules to adequately regulate factory farm pollution under the Clean Water Act. To justify its petition denial, EPA claimed it lacked adequate information about factory farm pollution and committed to studying the problem via the Subcommittee. It then repeated this excuse before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in defending the legality of its petition denial. The Subcommittee met three times in 2024, but has not met since Trump took office in January 2025. Trump’s EPA has, with no communication or explanation, rendered the Subcommittee “inactive.” After more than a year of radio silence, on February 18, 2026, Food & Water Watch requested records about the status of the Subcommittee and what led EPA to abandon it. Requested...

NEW YORK (September 22, 2026) — With 10,830 factory farms statewide, industrial agriculture is a defining feature of Iowa’s landscape. Across the state, factory farms outnumber gas stations by roughly five to one, and grocery stores and public school buildings by roughly eight to one. Yet residents often lack access to vital, localized information about the facilities operating near their homes, schools, farms, and waterways. Sentient Media today released aninteractive map that provides Iowans with detailed information about factory farms in their communities, along with insights from a statewide survey of Iowa residents’ attitudes and concerns about factory farming. Released at Climate Week NYC, these resources equip residents, journalists, policymakers, and community organizations with critical information about industrial livestock operations as water quality, rural health, and government accountability shape debate in Iowa ahead of the November election, with potential national consequences. Highlights A survey of 1,051 Iowa residents found that 49% say they do not consider themselves knowledgeable about industrial-scale livestock operations or have never heard of them, while more than half said local media coverage of nitrate pollution (54%) and industrial livestock impacts (53%) is inadequate. Built using Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) data and other publicly available...

Iowa is the U.S. state with the most factory farms: 10,830 of them, to be exact. The massive scale of animal agriculture in Iowa produces staggering amounts of manure, more than its fields of corn, soy and other crops can absorb. This has a devastating effect on the state’s water. When too much manure is spread on fields, nitrates run off into the groundwater and nearby streams and lakes. Small towns in Iowa can face months-long stretches when their water is undrinkable. Des Moines, the state capitol and largest city, operates a massive system to remove nitrate pollution from its water to the tune of $10,000 a day, the largest such system in the world when it was built. More than half of Iowa’s rivers and streams, and more than 60% of its lakes and reservoirs, failed water quality standards in 2024. This water crisis is linked to an unfolding public health threat. Iowa has the fastest-growing cancer rate in the nation, and drinking water high in nitrates is linked to a higher risk of colorectal, kidney, thyroid, prostate and breast cancer. Iowa’s rates of all of these cancers are higher than the national average. Though nitrate pollution and its...

This has a devastating effect on the state’s water. When too much manure is spread on fields, nitrates run off into the groundwater and nearby streams and lakes. Small towns in Iowa can face months-long stretches when their water is undrinkable. Des Moines, the state capitol and largest city, operates a massive system to remove nitrate pollution from its water to the tune of $10,000 a day, the largest such system in the world when it was built. More than half of Iowa’s rivers and streams, and more than 60% of its lakes and reservoirs, failed water quality standards in 2024. This water crisis is linked to an unfolding public health threat. Iowa has the fastest-growing cancer rate in the nation, and drinking water high in nitrates is linked to a higher risk of colorectal, kidney, thyroid, prostate and breast cancer. Iowa’s rates of all of these cancers are higher than the national average. Though nitrate pollution and its link to cancer risk is perhaps most evident in Iowa, similar dynamics are at play in agricultural states all over the country, such as North Carolina, Minnesota and Georgia, which each have thousands of large livestock farms generating manure. Almost 20%...

The livestock industry is a major driver of Iowa’s economy. Animal agriculture is embedded in the history and culture of the state, from rural towns in the Driftless to the pork belt in the Northwest. But the waste produced by these operations has created an ongoing water crisis in the state. This crisis has reached a fever pitch in recent years as the state grapples with a growing cancer crisis linked to excessive manure runoff into the state’s drinking water and groundwater. Iowa is covered in farms of all sizes. The state produces the most hogs in the country and leads in the number of egg-laying hens. However, knowing an operation’s impact can be difficult. Even if you know where a nearby operation is, it’s hard to know exactly how many animals are found inside the facility, let alone the amount of waste being produced. Using Iowa Department of Natural Resources data, Sentient Media was able to map nearly 11,000 livestock operations in the state. This interactive GIS map allows you to type in an address, zipcode, county or facility name to see just how many factory farms are in your backyard, as well as an estimation of the amount...

Animal Rising is publishing previously unseen footage filmed inside British factory farms, as part of a legal challenge against the UK Government on the animal factories issue.