Acronym for "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation." CAFOs are large scale operations where thousands of animals are raised for food in confined and crowded facilities. CAFOs raise animals in high concentrations where animals do not have adequate access to pasture or the outdoors. Besides being humanely cruel, CAFOs also cause massive environmental problems and contribute to global warming because of excessive animal manure that produce methane and leaks into waterways, reliance on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and intensive energy usage.