Benefitting multibillion-dollar corporations, this food system based on the mass farming of animals not only puts us at risk of our next pandemic but jeopardizes our health in many ways daily.

To mark World Health Day (April 7), as bird flu outbreaks continue to spread through the poultry industry, here is a look at the dangers of factory farms for surrounding communities and far beyond.

A 2021 study linked the air pollution caused by the U.S. food system to 15,900 early deaths per year and blamed over 80 percent (12,700) of those deaths on animal agriculture specifically. Yet, reporting of the industry’s emissions is shockingly underregulated.

Antibiotic resistance is considered a major public health threat, linked annually to the deaths of more than 35,000 Americans and over one million people globally. Meanwhile, animal agribusiness uses antibiotics in an attempt to prevent disease on factory farms—which proliferate disease. In 2022, antibiotics considered medically important to humans accounted for 56 percent of the industry’s usage.

Heart disease is the top cause of death nationwide, and cardiovascular disease claims the life of one person every 33 seconds, according to the CDC. Consuming animal products has been widely tied to an increased risk of heart disease (as well as obesity and diabetes), while a plant-based diet has been linked to a lower risk.

U.S. factory farms produce 940 billion pounds of manure every year. Some of this massive amount of animal waste is sprayed on crop fields, potentially harming surrounding communities or leading to foodborne illnesses often attributed only to the produce consumed—despite this direct tie to animal agriculture.

For communities surrounding factory farms, the industry’s harms are a grueling reality of daily life. Research shows that living within 3-4 miles of factory farms is linked to diminished lung function and asthma. One study even found that living about one mile from a pig farm is associated with mortality from chronic respiratory conditions.

Our mass exploitation of farmed and wild animals alike creates an ever-growing risk of pandemics. Around 50 percent of zoonotic diseases since 1940 are tied to the intensification of agriculture. Plus, 75 percent of newly emerging diseases are zoonotic, or transmittable between humans and animals. Not only do the crowded and unsanitary factory farms spread disease, but clearing forests for animal agriculture (including grazing and growing crops for feed) puts humans and wildlife in closer contact and at greater risk of zoonotic pathogens.