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A farm advocacy group is seeking a moratorium on new Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in New Mexico.

The large operations confine 500 or more animals in a small area, which the group Food and Water Watch argued causes harm to air, land and water quality. New Mexico has some of the largest mega-dairies, including the country's highest average herd size.

The trend has forced out family-scale dairy farms, with half disappearing over the past 20 years.

Sonja Trom Eayrs, a rural advocate, wrote a book to make others aware of the issue after her small Minnesota family farm was quickly surrounded by large 12 swine operations.

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"I tell people, 'This is not my story, this is our story,' because there are so many people out there in rural America who feel victimized by Big Ag," Trom Eayrs explained.

Trom Eayrs noted her book, "Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America," documents how Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and their corporate sponsors divide communities, harass people who speak out against them and drive independent farmers out of business. She has seen encouraging signs concerned residents who oppose new or additional operations are organizing in their communities and speaking out at local zoning and board meetings.

When it comes to beef processing, four companies control 80 percent to 85 percent of the U.S. market. While the Trump administration has announced a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice to promote competitive pricing on inputs for farmers, including feed, synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, it has withdrawn from a Biden-era agreement with more than 30 state attorneys general to combat consolidation across the supply chain.

Trom Eayrs argued it is not an encouraging sign.

"There's a real effort on the part of Big Ag to try and stomp out small and medium-sized farmers," Trom Eayrs contended. "This is a great opportunity for them to throw their weight around."

Mega-dairies produce extraordinary amounts of manure waste. Farm and Water Watch said manure is typically not treated before being dumped into the environment, where it fouls rivers and streams, pollutes drinking water, and fuels climate change. In 2022, New Mexico had 280,000 dairy cows living on mega-dairies which produced more than 11 billion pounds of manure annually, four times as much as the state’s human population.