Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) is an industrial process that concentrates large numbers of animals in confined spaces for the purposes of the mass production of livestock. These operations utilize technology for managing nutrition and waste removal. They are formally assigned the “Concentrated” label by government agencies if they confine more than 1,000 “animal units” (1,000 animal units is equal to 2,500 swine; 100,000 broilers; 700 dairy cows; or 1,000 beef steers).
Definition