In July, Food & Water Watch and Oregon Rural Action partnered up with a local pilot from the organization LightHawk to get a bird’s eye view of Eastern Oregon — a region with a high concentration of factory farms. What we saw has strengthened my dedication to fight against factory farming, an industry defined by cruel and unethical practices and propped up on the exploitation of the environment and workers.
My name is Aimee Travis and I am the Oregon Organizer for Food & Water Watch. After many years of being an outspoken advocate against factory farming, seeing the sheer size of these operations from up above — everything from the manure lagoons to the individual cows — pushed me even further to work toward finally ending this industry.
Smoke in the Gorge
When we planned our initial flight path with Jane, the Lighthawk Pilot, we didn’t expect to be able to fly over the state’s largest factory farm, Threemile Canyon Farms. It’s conveniently located smack dab in a military no-fly zone.
This did not come as a surprise to us. Factory farms across the U.S. are often shrouded in secrecy, ensuring that the industrial methods of animal agriculture are hidden from the general public. Corporate agribusiness thrives on the absence of transparency and proper oversight, which shields them from public scrutiny and impedes efforts to reveal their environmental and ethical harms.
As we approached the Boardman airport, Jane informed us that the military airspace was inactive that day, probably to allow firefighters to reach nearby wildfires. I couldn’t believe the very fires scorching the Eastern part of the state were the reason we were able to fly over one of the factory farms contributing to the climate crisis and fueling worse fires in the first place.
It’s an eerie feeling to acknowledge that we were only able to fly over these factory farms and provide these photographs to the general public because our state happened to be engulfed in wildfire.
Our flight path to Boardman, Oregon followed the curves of the Columbia River. I watched the green, lush landscape of the Cascades transition into the sagebrush-speckled grasslands of Eastern Oregon. As we flew into the most arid part of the state, I also started to see columns of smoke rising from several of the active fires blazing in the Gorge. These fires were a sobering reminder of why we organize to shut down factory farms.
Oregon’s Largest Mega-Dairy
As we began to circle Threemile Canyon Farms, the first thing that hit me was the sickening smell. Even at 1,000 feet in the air, the odor was unmistakable — a toxic mix of feces, urine, and decay.
The stench was coming from waste stored in massive open-pit manure lagoons. To put it in perspective, one of these lagoons can hold about 320,963,235 gallons of waste, which is the equivalent of submerging 746 football fields in one foot of liquefied manure.
These lagoons pose major risks of dangerous nitrate contamination. When lagoons leak or when liquified manure is sprayed onto nearby croplands — often at levels far greater than what plants can absorb — nitrates can leach into the ground and contaminate nearby water sources. Prolonged exposure to high levels of nitrates can lead to a myriad of health problems, including reproductive issues, blue-baby syndrome, and certain types of cancers.
This part of the state suffers from persistent nitrate contamination, and well data at Threemile Canyon Farm shows some wells on the property are testing 11 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe limit.
This is also an environmental justice issue, as Latinx communities are disproportionately exposed to the harms of these factory farms. Two-thirds of Boardman residents are Latinx, and the proportion of Latinx residents in Morrow County is about three times that of the rest of the state.
The EPA states that nitrate levels in public water systems must remain below 10 parts per million. Yet, some residents have wells testing two to four times that amount. Access to clean water is a basic human right, and after over three decades of wells testing far above what the EPA deems safe, justice is long overdue.
The Mega-Dairy Industry From Up Above
As we continued to fly over the massive, sprawling factory farm, we saw the reality of what happens when corporations take over our food system, putting profits over our climate, air, water, and local communities. We watched Jane go from asking about what she thought were all the trees, to horror and disgust as we informed her that those little dark specks were actually tens of thousands of cows raised for either their meat or dairy.
In addition to the massive feedlots, we saw tiny white dots — rows upon rows of calf hutches, small confinements where newborn calves are put into immediate isolation for their first eight weeks to prevent disease in crowded, unsanitary conditions, but also to reduce product loss by preventing the calf from nursing.
When we got back from the flight, I tried to count just how many were in this image, and I estimated there are about 6,000 calf hutches at this facility alone. Despite industry talking points, it’s hard to say that there is anything remotely natural about factory farms. In these operations, every aspect of our environment and the life of the animal has been mechanized for corporate profit.
Factory Farm Gas: Greenwashing in the Gorge
Looking at Threemile Canyon Farms from the air, it’s blatantly obvious that this operation is unsustainable. But that doesn’t prevent Threemile Canyon from greenwashing its operation with false climate solutions like factory farm “biogas.”
You can see the white cylindrical facility and a building with a green roof in the center of this photo — this is an anaerobic biogas digester. It takes the methane from nearby manure lagoons and turns it into so-called “renewable natural gas.” From there, it can be piped through fracked gas pipelines, lining the pockets of the fossil fuel and factory farm industries alike.
Worse yet, Threemile Canyon Farms has repeatedly violated its air permit due to its digester. From 2019 to 2020, it racked up five violations when the digester spewed dangerous levels of fine particulate matter into the air.
By turning to factory farm biogas as a “sustainable” alternative to fossil fuels and a solution to the exorbitant waste produced by our state’s factory farms, companies and governments are only incentivizing the demise of our environment. Factory farms will expand herd sizes to increase the production of manure because, as Threemile Canyon’s former manager once put it, “the most valuable product that we have out there is natural gas.”
This Is Why We Fight Against Mega-Dairies
Amid all the anger and heartache welling up in my chest, I also felt a renewed sense of purpose. This is why we organize; why we build community. This is why we fight. Because we recognize that this system is not broken — it is working exactly the way corporations intend it to, and it’s up to us to stop it.
Big Ag has historically pushed against environmental regulations for even the largest factory farms, while perversely trying to increase regulation over small and medium-sized farms, claiming they have a “competitive advantage.” Meanwhile, 620 family-scale Oregon dairies went out of business between 2002 and 2022 while the average mega-dairy grew by 50%, forcing even more people to “get big or get out.”
We cannot stand idly by as Big Ag looms over every piece of legislation to ensure its right to harm. We can’t allow it to continue poisoning our air and water for profit. Our elected officials must pass legislation prioritizing the health and dignity of our communities. We must demand better, not just for ourselves, but for future generations.
Check out opportunities to join our fight against factory farms in Oregon!
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