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] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Make your voice heard! Find out how to get Take Action Alerts and other important Sierra Club messages by email at: http://www.sierraclub.org/email