Center for a Livable Future

Ezra Klein’s thoughtful New York Times piece about agricultural efficiency and the Save Our Bacon Act cites CLF research. Multiple surveys by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future have found that most Americans want stronger oversight of confined animal feeding operations and many support a ban on new ones.

Opinion | What the Cult of Efficiency Costs Us The Save Our Bacon Act is bad for pigs and bad for us.

Residents of a Pennsylvania town raised concerns after waste from a meat-processing facility was found to have affected their wells. According to CLF’s Chris Heaney, meat-processing waste can contain contaminants such as pathogens and chemicals that may pose health risks.

Blood in the well: One town’s fight against the slaughterhouse polluting it Residents of a Pennsylvania town took on a beef processor after its waste polluted their wells. They won — but little may change.

Retailers are ramping up fresh foods and protein-focused products, but CLF’s Daphene Altema-Johnson reminds us that not all protein is equal. Different sources come with different nutrient profiles and long-term health impacts.

The Supply Side: Grocery business responds to GLP-1 use - Talk Business & Politics The rising use of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is reshaping consumer spending, which impacts food retailers and suppliers. About 1 in 8 U.S. consumers use drugs that reduce appetites and curb...

New Unconfined episode! Host Tom Philpott and the managing attorney of the Antimonopoly Counsel, Basel Musharbash, talk about the power of big companies behind our food system and why that should matter to all of us. https://clf.jhsph.edu/unconfined-podcast/behemoths-lurking-grocery-aisles

From the latest issue of Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine: the 85-mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is home to 200 oil, gas, and petrochemical operations, known as Cancer Alley. In 2023, EHE/CLF’s Keeve Nachman and EHE’s Peter DeCarlo studied air pollution in fenceline communities there, finding that health risks had been seriously underestimated.

The Poison Next Door: Measuring Risk in Cancer Alley | Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine Louisiana’s Cancer Alley has a long history of lax environmental regulation of petrochemical industries. Can better data make communities safer?

Our CLF Spring Newsletter is out now! For CLF this year, renewal has meant homecoming. We have moved our offices back to the School’s Wolfe Street Building. Explore our recent projects and media mentions. https://mailchi.mp/jhu/the-clf-quarterly-spring2026?e=8f7504384e

New research links living near pig farms to higher risk of antibiotic-resistant infections. Liberal antimicrobial use in agriculture can drive hard-to-treat infections among farmworkers and beyond, raising serious public health and labor concerns. “The use of antimicrobial drugs, in the quantities used in food animal production, poses a risk to human health,” says CLF’s Chris Heaney. Learn more:

Why farm workers need protection from antimicrobial resistance Antibiotic use in agriculture threatens the health of workers and their communities, but there are potential solutions.

Professor Roni Neff led her Baltimore Food Systems class on a field trip to Albright Farms and Prigel Family Creamery. Students gained firsthand insights into sustainable farming practices, animal care, and the business of food.

In early May, CLF’s Philip McNab and Roni Neff supported Master of Public Health students during the annual MPH Capstone presentations.

A former federal meat inspector warns that a Trump-era USDA proposal to speed up slaughterhouses could mean more worker injuries, more contamination, and heavier pollution in already-burdened communities. CLF’s Patti Truant Anderson estimates the increase in poultry production alone would need an extra 114 billion liters of water each year and generate about 2 billion kg of CO2. Read more:

'A matter of life and death': USDA proposal draws concern from former inspectors "We need advocates and real laws that have teeth."