Group: Animal farms still a major, repeat

"Aquathin OP-ED Commentary"

     This quick read concerning once again, this issue that "someone always lives downstream from someone else" as I have described before in earlier NewsBulletins, is not just a U.S. problem. European countries such as Holland have dealt with this type of disgraceful pollution. Canada, Taiwan and China are understanding this all too well.

Note especially the paragraph concerning the recall of 67,000 tons of meat. This is a crying shame that so many animals (think about this...that's 45 million chickens or 130,000 cows, or 268,000 pigs), with so many starving people in the world, that the premier country in the world is capable of this kind of waste.  There are 50,000 names on the Viet Nam wall. Had the loss of these animals be compared to loss of human life resulting from war, this country would be speaking another language now.

 

Group: Animal farms still a major, repeat water polluter

 

     ST. LOUIS — Large corporate animal farms in Missouri and Illinois have repeatedly violated state and federal environmental laws, resulting in extensive water pollution, an environmental group said in a report Tuesday.

The Sierra Club's "Rap Sheets on Animal Factories" alleged violations at 24 farms in Missouri and six farms in Illinois, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.  They ranged from nitrogen runoff at chicken farms to dead baby pigs floating in streams, the newspaper said.  "Missouri is one of the states that has a very significant problem and has had for the last decade," said Scott Dye, who directs a volunteer water-quality testing program for the Sierra Club in Missouri, the newspaper reported.

But Joe Engeln, assistant director for science and technology at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said the farms are under control, the article said.  The Sierra Club has long been critical of what it calls "factory farms" and said it documented violations at 630 farms in 44 states.  The newspaper said that includes 60 misdemeanor or felony charges against companies or their managers and 43 public health recalls involving approximately 67,000 tons of meat.

The Sierra Club named 10 corporate farming companies that it deemed "America's Least Wanted" in terms of environmental compliance and five of the companies operate in Missouri, said the article.

One of them, Premium Standard Farms, Kansas City, MO, reached a consent judgment in 1999 with the state that requires the company to invest from $12.5 million to $25 million in developing technologies to reduce air and water pollution.  The Post-Dispatch reported that a spokesman for Premium Standard Farms, said the company had made "terrific progress" on the tests, but the Sierra Club's contends the farm's statement is "nothing more than repackaging old news."

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Edited from Tech Bank 8/16/02