For Immediate Release:
Monday, May 17

New Documents Show How Bush Administration Gave Meat Industry Control Over
Factory Farm Pollution Policy

Iowans Voice Outrage Over Special Protections for Major Polluters


Des Moines, Iowa - Iowans suffering from the pollution from livestock
factories voiced their outrage today, as new documents revealed the extent
of meat industry control over the Bush administration’s proposed amnesty
deal for animal factory polluters. The evidence, exposed by the Chicago
Tribune on Sunday, shows that the pollution deal borrowed heavily from
industry proposals and that polluters had extraordinary access to the Bush
administration officials writing the agreement.

“Here in Iowa we can hardly breathe because the pollution from these animal
factories has gotten so bad-and the Bush administration’s idea of a solution
is to let polluters write their own rules,” said James Berge, a fourth
generation family farmer from Worth County, Iowa.  "These new documents show
how much the Bush administration caters to the meat industry while ordinary
folks like us pay the price for pollution.”

Smithfield Foods, owner of Murphy Family Farms, and other industry groups
approached Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2001 asking the agency
to shield them from Clean Air Act violations, the documents reveal.  Bush
administration officials then corresponded in secret with industry lobbyists
to craft a deal that would exempt factory farms from air pollution
requirements.  Internal emails even show that industry lobbyists prepared
power-point presentations on the proposed deal for Bush administration
officials to deliver.

"I am not sure what makes me more sick, the toxic air coming from these hog
factories, or the fact that the Bush administration is too cozy with the
meat industry to care about our health and safety," added Berge.

Air pollution from massive animal factories is a huge problem in Iowa.
Communities suffering from animal factory pollution have been forced to
resort to citizen lawsuits against polluters, and the state Department of
Natural Resources is in the process of creating a public health standard for
hydrogen sulfide emissions from Iowa’s largest livestock facilities. If
those factory farms enter the EPA’s safe harbor agreement, they will likely
be shielded from state and citizen lawsuits as well as federal enforcement,
essentially nullifying many of the efforts underway in Iowa.

Industry groups who were revealed as being given special access to the
administration include: Smithfield Foods, ConAgra foods, Seaboard Farms,
Tyson Foods, Kraft Foods, Cargill, IBP, and Premium Standard Farms.
Additionally, the National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation,
United Egg Producers, National Pork Producers Council, National Milk
Producers Federation, and the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association were also
members of the industry coalition involved in the backroom deal.

Supporting documents are available on the Sierra Club website at:
<http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/cafo_papers/>

###

Tarah Heinzen
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
(515) 251-3995
[log in to unmask]

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