August 13, 2002
Feedlot Perils Outpace Regulation, Sierra Club Says
By ELIZABETH BECKER
The rapid
growth of huge animal feedlots and slaughterhouses in the 1990's has
outpaced the power of state and federal regulators to keep them operating
safely and cleanly, leading to polluted rivers and lakes, meat recalls and
workplace injuries, a Sierra Club report says.
In its first effort to catalog the environmental, health and safety
records of the feedlots and packing plants owned by corporations, the
Sierra Club reported these findings from a study of state and federal
records for the 1980's and 90's:
¶The slaughterhouses produced 134 million pounds of contaminated or
possibly contaminated meat.
¶Millions of gallons of animal feces and urine that seeped from manure
pits of the big feedlots polluted 35,000 miles of rivers.
¶More than $48 million in fines were paid for health and environmental
violations that included slaughtering diseased cows; polluting water with
animal carcasses, urine and feces; and selling rodent-tainted meat.
¶Labor and worker-safety violations led to 13 deaths and more than $35
million in fines for the corporations.
The study found that most violations occurred in the 1990's, when the meat
industry began building large feedlots in rural America from North
Carolina to California. The 630 meat factories in 44 states covered by the
study included the largest feedlots, which raise millions of hogs,
chickens or cattle.
The report, "The Rap Sheet on Animal Factories," is to be released on
Tuesday by the Sierra Club, which has argued for more regulation. The
report also identified 10 companies as having the worst health, safety and
pollution records.
The meat industry criticized the report, saying it failed to reflect the
improvements in response to early problems or innovations to improve meat
safety. Instead, industry spokesmen said, the report focused on old
problems already uncovered by federal and local regulators.
One spokesman, J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute,
said, "In compiling a laundry list of information about large food, feed
and agribusinesses on issues ranging from food safety to animal welfare to
the environment, the Sierra Club seeks to sling as much mud as it can at
the U.S. meat and poultry industry and see what sticks."
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have argued that the
regulations were written to cover small family farms, not the huge modern
feedlots.
The Environmental Protection Agency is under court order to come up with
new federal regulations for feedlots. Stephanie Bell, a spokeswoman, said
the agency would complete them by December.
Worried that new regulations would impose new expenses, the large
corporations lobbied for and won eligibility for money from the new farm
bill to clean up animal wastewater.
Ed Hopkins, author of the Sierra Club's study, said, "That's why we
opposed the new farm bill, because it makes the American taxpayer
subsidize these huge animal factories and clean up their mess."
In the last five years, several rural communities have fought to keep out
new feedlots, citing the smell, the threat to the environment and
dangerous, low-paying jobs.
Ann Thorne, a professor at Missouri Western State College and the wife of
a small cattle farmer, led a successful drive two years ago to prevent a
hog operation from locating near St. Joseph.
"They wanted to slaughter 16,000 hogs a day," Mrs. Thorne said. "Do you
have any idea what that would do to our lovely rural community? I'd never
been in politics before ? it was a total anomaly for me ? but I didn't
want my life ruined by those hogs."
The major poultry and meat producers, however, said they stood by their
records and the fact that their big feedlots and packing houses translated
into uniform quality and lower prices for consumers.
"We're proud that we help support ranchers from all over the United States
who grow the cattle we buy, and farmers who grow the grain to feed the
animals grown for us," said Ed Nicholson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods
Inc., which was cited as one of the companies with the worst records.
Most of the environmental problems stem from the waste from the feedlots.
The country's cattle, hog and chicken feedlots produce 291 billion pounds
of manure a day. That waste is held in open pits, known as manure lagoons.
Leaks and spills from these lagoons have caused most of the water
pollution and fish kills documented in the report.
One example cited was the illegal discharge of hog waste by Cargill Pork
Inc., which pleaded guilty in February to violating the Clean Water Act
after manure spilled into the Loutre River in Missouri, killing more than
50,000 fish.
Mark Klein, a Cargill spokesman, said that incident was not characteristic
of the company, and he called it "an accident that should not have
happened."
"What the report doesn't say," Mr. Klein said, "is we cooperated with
officials in this spill. We cleaned up the creek and closed down the
operation. We are committed to protecting the environment and being good
neighbors in our communities."
Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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