Community | June 14, 2010 | 59 comments

Why Factory Farms May Finally Be Held Responsible for Their Polluting Waste

source: http://www.alternet.org/food/147093/why_factory_farms_may_finally_be_held_responsible_for_th...

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EthicalVegan
In a groundbreaking legal settlement, the EPA has agreed to identify and investigate thousands of factory farms that have been avoiding government regulation for water pollution.
June 3, 2010

Photo Credit: Farm Sanctuary

In a legal settlement that could affect the entire U.S. meat industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to identify and investigate thousands of factory farms that have been avoiding government regulation for water pollution with animal waste.

The settlement requires the agency to propose a rule on greater information gathering on factory farms within the next 12 months. It will require the approximately 20,000 domestic factory farms to report such information as how they dispose of manure and other animal waste.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Waterkeeper Alliance filed the suit in 2009 over a rule that exempted thousands of factory farms from taking steps to minimize water pollution from the animal waste they generate.

"Thousands of factory farm polluters threaten America's water with animal waste, bacteria, viruses and parasites that can make people sick," said Jon Devine, an attorney with the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council.

"Many of these massive facilities are flying completely under the radar. EPA doesn't even know where they are," said Devine.

More than 30 years ago, Congress identified factory farms as water pollution sources to be regulated under the Clean Water Act's permit program.

But under a Bush administration regulation challenged by the environmental groups in this lawsuit, large facilities were able to escape government regulation by claiming, without government verification, that they do not discharge into waterways protected by the Clean Water Act.

Under the settlement reached May 26, the EPA will initiate a new national effort to track down factory farms operating without permits and determine if they must be regulated.

The specific information that EPA will require from individual facilities will be determined after a period of public comment. But the results of that investigation will enable the agency and the public to create stronger pollution controls in the future and make sure facilities are complying with current rules.

"The EPA's rules have failed to protect our rivers and lakes from polluting factory farms," said Ed Hopkins, director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program. "Gathering more information to document factory farms' pollution will lay the groundwork for better protection of our waters."

The National Pork Producers Council expressed "deep frustration and anger" over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's continuing efforts "to develop costly agricultural regulations that provide few if any additional environmental benefits."

"With this one-sided settlement, EPA yanked the rug out from under America's livestock farmers," said Michael Formica, NPPC's chief environmental counsel. "NPPC is looking at all appropriate legal responses to EPA's disappointing course of action."

Factory farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations, CAFOs, confine animals on an industrial scale and produce massive amounts of manure and other waste that can pollute waterways with dangerous contaminants.

These CAFOs apply liquid animal waste on land, which runs off into waterways, killing fish, spreading disease, and contaminating drinking water. The plaintiff groups cite EPA estimates that pathogens, such as E. coli, are responsible for 35 percent of the nation's impaired river and stream miles, and factory farms are one of the most common pathogen sources.

"This agreement sets the stage for new Clean Water Act permitting measures that will add to producers' costs, drive more farmers out of business, increase concentration in livestock production to comply and hurt rural economies," said Randy Spronk, a Minnesota pork producer who heads NPPC's environmental committee. "And the measures will do nothing really to improve water quality.

"Additionally," said Spronk, "the settlement was negotiated in private and without consultation or input from the regulated farming community. This flies in the face of the Obama administration's pledges to operate government more transparently. And, in this economy, the administration should be enacting measures that create jobs, not implementing regulations that put American farmers out of business."

Today there are more than 67,000 pork operations compared with nearly three million in the 1950s. Farms have grown in size; 53 percent of them now produce 5,000 or more pigs per year.

"The record is clear -- large CAFO operations, and many medium and small operations, commonly discharge pollutants into the surrounding environment," said Waterkeeper Alliance attorney Hannah Connor. "What is also clear is that if we want to continue to drink, fish and enjoy water that is not contaminated with raw animal excrement, these discharges must be stopped."

"We believe that the terms of this settlement will help reverse this industry's history of bad behavior by improving implementation and enforcement of the law," Connor said.

Litigation brought by these three groups has forced the EPA to revise its CAFO rules twice within the past decade to tighten the pollution control requirements on these facilities.
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59 comments // Why Factory Farms May Finally Be Held Responsible for Their Polluting Waste

  • haydemon
    • +1
      haydemon  

    • Humans, when left to their own devices, will SELDOM do the right thing. This is why we have laws. Enforcement is the problem. People who cry against "too much government regulation, blah, blah, blah," don't help either.

    • 1 year ago
  • Elligirl
    • 0
      Elligirl  

    • "Under the settlement reached May 26, the EPA will initiate a new national effort to track down factory farms operating without permits and determine if they must be regulated."

      That doesn't sound very powerful or scary to me at all.

    • 1 year ago
  • NadiaBadia
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • Jeremy_Benson
  • QuestionGeek
    • +1
      QuestionGeek  

    • The EPA won't do anything. There is too much profit involved in having these types of farms exist. Government officials can be paid off (lobbying). The only way to stop this nonsense is to buy organic and buy local, which is too difficult to do for most people because of economic constraints

    • 1 year ago
  • Omnomynous
  • iseelondoniseefrance
  • freecrack
  • captainplanet71
  • adveritas
    • 0
      adveritas  

    • The sooner they re-amp regulation and follow up in checking up on these places
      in an unbiased strategy, the sooner we'll weed out these fowl practices. It's a really bitter sweet day when we have to admit that we cannot keep allowing disasters, like BP Horizon spill, to learn from our mistakes and begin action. But this is what it is.

    • 1 year ago
  • Andrew_Douglas
    • +1
      Andrew_Douglas  

    • Somehow- and I'm not as into this sort of thing as, say, JanforGore- I can't see them really doing anything more than SAY they're tightening regulations and investigating. It's a nice thought, but...eh.

    • 1 year ago
  • Andrew_Douglas
  • bailey78
    • +5
      bailey78  

    • Every shop and garage I have ever worked in had to have a waste disposal system in place for all oil and any other chemical that we had lots of. So is animal waste not a chemical that can bring harm to folks or not? if so it needs to be treated as such. Time for each and every Factory Farm to have there own waste treatment plant on site that must meet the same standards as any other waste water treatment plant.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • EthicalVegan
  • freecrack
  • bailey78
  • freecrack
  • JanforGore
    • +6
      JanforGore  

    • I'll believe it when I see it. Let's see how they get around it like they always do. It's one thing to say they have to draft rules, quite another to actually see what those rules state. Personally I think CAFOS should be shut down. They are a threat to our health, environment,and the planet's climate balance and the waste they create regardless of how it is disposed of will eventually cause a problem because of its scale. Perhaps if people weren't so voracious in their greed and consumerism we might be able to go back somewhat to a way of life that actually provided for our needs while respecting this planet. Corporate agriculture is killing it.

    • 1 year ago
  • Andrew_Douglas
  • Elligirl
    • +1
      Elligirl  
    • JanforGore:

      I agree that CAFOs are awful places. But reality tells me there aren't 50-100 people in my good sized town here that would be willing to become pig farmers again. And on what land? Who wouldn't mind being their neighbours?

    • 1 year ago
  • Drach
    • +2
      Drach  

    • This sounds good.. How about we also go back to having the USDA go to all the meat producers and fine them like the old days? I'm really tired of people acting like we don't know how to properly handle and raise meat. I usually buy my meat from a local farm... I've not gotten a food born illness from their meat... fast food? Completely different story!

      Yeah the good old days when the feds would check your processing plant for health hazards... From what I understand, this doesn't happen too much anymore.

    • 1 year ago
  • adveritas
    • +3
      adveritas  
    • Drach:

      I agree for the most part, but it's a different monster these days because it looks to me as though fines are calculated into the "cost of production" which only means they don't care about them and see that the profits of such cheap work (because lets be honest, if they start becoming environmentally conscious and humane, they will never make money and they will fail) are worth such fines. I'd like to see them all fail so that organic and smaller, local places could stay in business and become the norm.

    • 1 year ago
  • freecrack
    • 0
      freecrack  
    • Drach:

      and some how its not the fault of the fda cuz they are under staffed.
      wich is a reasonable explanation, if we didnt see fit to spend a billion dollars a day in iraq.
      i mean one days worth of military conquest, could pay for the resources the fda needs, for years.

    • 1 year ago
  • Drach
    • 0
      Drach  
    • adveritas:

      I'm all for that. That is what put the US on the map. I remember not TOO long ago... When they actually SHUT THE PLACE DOWN for producing tainted meat... The owner was ashamed, the workers were ashamed, EVERYONE made an effort to improve the situation. These days? We get a "durrrrr..." smile and a simpleton shrug. No one loses their job. No one is held responsible. The "factory" stays. The owner stays. No one sees jail time for the dead that unwittingly ate the tainted meat. I think that a fine isn't enough.

      Mom tells me that the pet food poisoning recently was dealt with by an execution in China?

      I wonder how clean our food industry would get if DEATH was the punishment for serving someone poisonous food?

      I'm not for execution yet... However, if it keeps happening I see no other solution. Proper food handling is not difficult.

    • 1 year ago
  • Samuel_Hildreth
    • +3
      Samuel_Hildreth  

    • The slaughter houses are just as bad as the farms. I've been to one of those killing factories - apparently electrocution is the most humane way to end a pigs life with the least amount of effort. When I asked what happened to all of to all of the blood the representative said "We have tanks that house all of the blood." When I asked what happened to all the water they used he said "Umm... I'm not really sure."

    • 1 year ago
  • Drach
    • 0
      Drach  
    • Samuel_Hildreth:

      Dude. When I was in High School I took food service at the Vocational school. We were REQUIRED to go to a Chicken processing plant, and a slaughterhouse. The chicken plant (Park Farms) was almost all automated, and they not only slit the chickens throat, but electrocuted them while hanging by their feet. A little morbid, yes. But as a child I realized that in order for me to survive and live, other things must perish. This includes PLANTS.

      The slaughterhouse I was brought to as a High School Senior was a small one. It was not a factory. They used the little extendo to kill the beef and pork. there were two men who handled the meat, and they did it in the most sanitary way possible. The cow was brought in from pasture, put into a small pen, a small gunshot like noise was made by the instrument, and it was dead. Trust me. The cow didn't suffer much. I barely heard a peep from it. The cow was hung upside down and the blood was drained (not kept in a tank, it went into a grating integrated into the floor) as they began butchering the animal for food.

      Part of being ALIVE is eating other living things. this includes plants. Please don't go all Vegiterrorist on me. I've been a Diabetic for a very long time, and I really can't tolerate someone else coming after me for my dietary choices. Not only did a few dogs die to discover that insulin keeps diabetics alive, but when I was young I had to use beef and pork insulin. There's more to the meat industry than just steak and bacon!

      there I go ranting again!

    • 1 year ago
  • Mark701
    • +3
      Mark701  

    • "Additionally," said Spronk, "the settlement was negotiated in private and without consultation or input from the regulated farming community. " Well, boo-hoo. When the Bushies passed the law that allowed these farms to report how they disposed of their waste voluntarily, I doubt they consulted with environmentalists.

    • 1 year ago
  • freecrack
    • +8
      freecrack  

    • we are so fucked up.
      we cant look at an animal and just see life as precious, but when our abuse of that life threatens our ability to survive then the babarism needs to be halted.
      why we do shit is just as important as the fact that we do it.
      at this rate in 100 years we will have created a waste free method of factory farming still in fear of mad cow, cuz we just dont fucking learn the simplest of all lessons, dont shit where you eat.

    • 1 year ago
  • bailey78
  • Omnomynous
  • freecrack
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • bailey78:

      At the farmed animals sanctuary where I volunteer, the pigs are pretty much free-roaming (at night, they go into their freshly-cleaned, roomy stalls). As a result, they have one location where they poop and pee. They're remarkably clean. They also love taking showers! And the volunteer who gets to hold that water hose has so much fun providing them that additional pleasure. Of course, they also love,love,love taking mud baths, which is always enjoyable to watch.

    • 1 year ago
  • bailey78
  • Drach
    • 0
      Drach  
    • freecrack:

      Thank you! It's common sense to DISREGARD FECES. You DON'T EAT IT. and you KEEP IT AWAY FROM YOUR FOOD!

      Isn't e. coli the bacteria that liquefies your organs?

      I get back into the issue of no one is being held responsible. Make an example of the people fucking up and there will be less fucking up!

      Somehow people aren't being held responsible for their actions anymore.

    • 1 year ago
  • freecrack
    • 0
      freecrack  
    • Drach:

      but america is perfect havent you heard.
      its indicitive of our value system.we can create a dildo that forces and orgasm but cant cure cancer, we can manipulate genetics to make our food yield higher, but dont see reason to spend money on the very life we eat to survive.
      its like we deserve the results for not only defying nature, but for knowing better and still doing it

    • 1 year ago
  • Jennifer_James
    • +4
      Jennifer_James  

    • Does this look humane to you? UNACCEPTABLE! Take away the demand, by not eating meat, and there will be no more need to "manufacture" these smart, sentient, beings!

    • 1 year ago
  • Einsam_Data_Old
  • Reeseismyname
    • 0
      Reeseismyname  
    • Einsam_Data_Old:

      I am also in the same belief... that it is not necessarily important that we cut out all meat, but then again, I don't see why not also. I don't even like really calling myself vegetarian or vegan but i have been one or the other for about 5 years now, and have really no problems with it... I obviously don't think people should not eat it it will be detrimental to their health, but for most people it isn't. I just want to know though why people still think we should still even eat it at all though. ?

    • 1 year ago
  • Einsam_Data_Old
  • Reeseismyname
    • +2
      Reeseismyname  
    • Einsam_Data_Old:

      Yeah i actually find it quite funny when people think that I am limited because I dont eat meat... when in actuality I probably know about more kinds of food than most people because I actually have to look for them.

    • 1 year ago
  • Jennifer_James
    • +1
      Jennifer_James  
    • Einsam_Data_Old:

      I can understand people wanting to eat meat - However, raising them in these disease ridden cell blocks doesn't do ANYONE good - If the live stock were raised in a natural setting, with "steroid & antibiotic free" food, for them to eat, room to roam and sunshine on their backs - then what would happen is that the prices of meat would go way up and that would mean the consumption would go way down --- What also would go down is everyone's cholesterol level!

      Either way you cut it, it would be more humane and environmental friendly for everyone -

      However, I have actually seen a gorgeous animal being slaughtered and, from that moment on, I have never touched another animal "by-product" again!

      It is too horrifying to watch, let alone what these precious, sentient, beings have to go through when being electrically prodded, tortured & fighting for their lives each step of the way -

      So, I am with "omnomynous", up there - where if you can't stomach seeing one of these animals being slaughtered and only want it when it is pink packaged in the supermarket - then that is allowing ignorance to over ride reality - and, there is no winner in that way of life - EVER!

    • 1 year ago
  • Armageddon_Now
  • CarlosIsDown
  • Mark701
  • Jennifer_James
  • CalgarC
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • Jennifer_James
  • Jennifer_James
  • EthicalVegan
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