- In South Carolina, the Department of Health and Environmental
Control Board voted to ban open waste lagoons and manure spray
fields for new farms with more than 3,500 pigs and to require
that all new farms that size or larger be more than 25 miles apart;
- In Audobon County, Iowa, farmers are working to establish guidelines for air and water quality that would apply to all new hog operations and would give existing operations 10 years to comply; and
Corporate hog farms, referred to as "CAFOs" - confined animal feeding operations, dominate domestic pork production, pollute rural communities, as well as their down stream neighbors, and are edging family farmers out of existence. As many as 1 million sows, or more, will pass through a CAFO in a year, leaving behind millions of pounds of waste and quickly filling the meat lockers of retail food giants such as Kroger, Albertsons and Walmart. In the U.S., six firms control 75% of the retail pork market. These same firms are responsible for thousands of toxic animal waste spills a year and escape any responsibility for cleaning them up. Consumers, producers, rural communities and some members of Congress are working against these factory farms, but corporate agribusiness is fighting hard to protect their interests.
An average CAFO will slaughter as many as 1 million or more hogs a year. One "plant" in Sioux Falls, SD, owned by Smithfield Foods, killed nearly 17,000 hogs a day in 2001. That's more than 6 million a year! With the average adult hog excreting almost 3 gallons of waste in a day, many of these factories will generate hundreds of tons of waste every day. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources reported that one plant in Northern Missouri generated nearly five times more waste than the entire population of Kansas City.
Animal waste, called slurry, is discarded in huge uncapped lagoons or spread over farmland. This manure contains significant levels of heavy metals, such as copper, nickel and manganese, contained in growth supplements that are given to the hogs. These metals cannot be fully digested and are heavily concentrated in the animals waste.
One waste lagoon can be as large as four to five acres and hold as many as 25 million gallons of slurry. The ¹Control Agency estimates the average rate of leakage to be as much as 500 gallons per lagoon acre per day. Lagoon spills are far too common, numbering in the hundreds each year, and are responsible for poisoning thousands of water ways and killing hundreds of millions of fish and other wild life each year. Fines to the companies that own these factory farms rarely cover the full cost of these spills.
Typically, slurry that is spread over farmland far exceeds the holding capacity of the land. Plants and the soil cannot absorb the level of nutrients that are found in factory farm waste at the rates in which they apply their industrial manure. As a result excess nutrients and heavy metal contaminates run off to contaminate surface and well water, and cause permanent soil damage.
While cities and many home and land owners are required to treat their waste, factory farms are not. Untreated animal excrement is freely discarded on the land and in lagoons and carries with it all the health and environmental hazards as other waste. "Hog wastes contain parasites, bacteria and viruses, including salmonella, campylobacter, e. coli, cryptosporidium, giardia, cholera, streptococcus and chlamydia."
Untreated waste that is disposed of in pits or over farmland easily contaminate water and air and leads to severe illness among the unfortunate neighbors of factory farms and many others who live down stream and or down wind. Home and land owners who use streams and wells for irrigations, watering animals and home water use find their water to be strong smelling, foul tasting and frequently undrinkable. Likewise, odor from factory farms and their lagoons can be intense many miles from their site. People living in the path of these fumes and toxic gases suffer from numerous physical and psychological symptoms such as nausea and frequent vomiting, headaches, blackouts, allergies and asthma and depression.
The hazardous effects of CAFOs and factory hog production extend to consumers who live far from factory sites as well. Factory hogs are separated from their mothers at just a few days old. They never see sunlight or lay in hay beds. Instead they are raised in small cages with steal or concrete bottoms and fed growth hormones until they are slaughtered. The pollution and confinement of these industrial animal farms breed persistent bacteria, viruses and disease. It is impossible to treat animals for individual illnesses in this environment, and instead they are given constant doses of antibiotics to keep them alive and growing. The antibiotics are passed along to consumers in the meat that they buy, and lead to antibiotic resistance that can cause disease in humans.
THE JUICY TRUTH
Despite the market control and political power that agribusiness and factory farm operators yield, consumers, independent producers, rural citizens and even Congress are fighting back. Many states are beginning to pass laws restricting the development of new plants.
When the Senate takes up the Farm Bill again this February Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) will offer an amendment that would limit the use of Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funds by giant confinement livestock operations to clean up animal waste. EQIP offers incentive payments and cost share to farmers and ranchers who need assistance addressing critical environmental problems. Other Senators want to to change the program and make it available to mega farms owned or controlled by agribusiness. The Wellstone amendment would keep taxpayers dollars out of factory farms and make agribusiness responsible for cleaning up their own "crap".
The producers for Patchwork Family Farms are fighting back too, by creating a sustainable and responsible solution for independent pork producers. The 20 farmers who participate in the project on average have about 20 sows on their farm and raise them as part of their larger operation which frequently includes growing hay, corn and other crops. Patchwork pigs are not confined and receive adequate amounts of sunshine, fresh air and quality feed necessary to maintain good health. Their pork is raised free of growth hormones or synthetic growth promoters. Patchwork producers hope to show by example that pork production doesn't have to be environmentally disastrous and can be done in sustainably and humanely.
THE FEBRUARY SQUEEZE
Tell Corporate Pork to Mind Their Own Dirty Business
We are asking the Senate to:
- Keep tax dollars out of corporate pockets. Agribusiness needs to
pay to clean up after themselves. Pass Senator Wellstone's amendment
limiting the use of EQIP funds by agribusiness.
- Give people the right to keep unwanted "crap" out of their communities.
What you can do:
- Contact your members and asks them to support the Wellstone
amendment and others that limit corporate power over agriculture
and the environment.
- Join the Rural Coalition Food n' Justice list serve by visiting www.Ruralco.org and receive updates and action alerts as the Senate Farm Bill is completed.
Be Part of Our Campaign for Food n’ Justice,
visit www.ruralco.org.
Questions on food and farm policy?
Contact Heather Fenney at (202) 628-7160.
To join or support our work:
Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural
1012 14th Street, NW Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 628-7160
Visit www.Ruralco.org or
www.SuperMarketCoop.com.