These notes are from parts of the last two talks given at this conference.
When I arrived, Rick Dove, former Riverkeeper of the Neuse River in North
Carolina was talking about the work in North Carolina. He showed manure
being sprayed so that it ran directly into a river, pointed out that the
money generated by these facilities leaves the community immediately rather
than circulating there for awhile, talked about the inhumane treatment
these animals receive. Corporations don't have a conscience, he said,
family farmers do. Profit is important to them, but not the only
consideration.
Over the long run, he said, we cannot sacrifice the environment for the
economy. Eventually mother nature will step in and will not discriminate
between who did things right and who did them wrong.
One of the lies being perpetrated by industrial agriculture is that this
system works and promotes farming. In 1915 there were 60 million hogs
being raised in the U.S. In 1999 there were 59 million, and now we have
antibiotics and hormones in the manure that is generated.
Hope is coming from responsible organizations such as McDonald's and
Wendy's, which have begun to take notice and develop policies about the
type of meat they are willing to use.
Although a moratorium on new CAFO construction in N.C. has been enacted
since Floyd devastated the state, none of the existing CAFOs in the
floodplain have been shut down. Right after the flood there was talk about
taking them out, then it was decided that they had to be damaged up to a
certain percent in order to be removed and that none of them had been
damaged to that extent.
The next speaker was Nicolette Hahn, the senior attorney for Waterkeepers
Alliance
She said CAFOs are allowed to continue because most of the wealth and power
are located in cities and most people in cities don't know what is going
on. People in rural communities are not unified enough and lack the
political capital and wealth to take action. There are pockets of concern
around the country but they are not connected.
A deliberate lie is being told again and again by corporations. They say
agriculture is going in the direction of industrialization and if farmers
don't get on the train they will be run over by it.
She told about the beginnings of waterkeepers back in the days when a
person could die from eating too much fish. People got together and
decided that the water belonged to them, a concept that has roots in
Justinian law and the Magna Carta. They took on polluters using the Rivers
and Harbors Act of 1899 and won suit after suit. This group became the
Hudson River Waterkeepers.
Today there are a number of waterkeeper groups. All are local groups
organized to protect a particular waterway. Waterkeepers are building
connections between farmers and farm organizations, animal rights
activists, environmentalists and others who are concerned about the problem
of CAFOs.
Historically industry has used waterways as dumping grounds. They locate
factories on streams for that purpose. Western law systems maintains that
entities cannot use waters in such a way that it will diminish them.
During the Nixon administration the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts were
passed and the EPA established. Because the lawmakers understood that
nothing would be done if it were left up to governmental agencies alone and
gave the citizens the right to sue under the law if the government is
failing to enforce the law. If they win, the polluter pays for the litigation.
Nationwide there are only five enforcement cases in the US. She believes
there could be five in each county. We have the right and also the
obligation to enforce these laws.
Waterkeepers has successfullly sued Smithfield, the largest industrial meat
supplier, whose their practices are driving the whole industry. They tried
to have cases dismissed by maintaining that they are just the parent
corporation, the resource conservation act doesn't apply to farming, using
sprayfields for dumping is waste disposal, they are not a CAFO and don't
need an NPDES permit. The judge ruled against them.
They have a RICO lawsuit based on laws passed to counteract organized
crime, in which they can go after the money that funds this industry.
These facilities are also breaking the clean air act but Waterkeepers has
not been pursuing cases based on the Clean Air Act because they do not have
good enough evidence.
The law gives state agencies a great deal of discretion about what they do
and how to do it, so the best strategy is to go directly after the polluter.
The threat of a TMDL lawsuit got the state hopping to do something about
feedlots.
Another important issue is the abandonment and liability for abandonment of
these facilities
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