What price a chicken in every pot?

[EspressoBuzz]

Tyson’s Pollution Pathways: from Factory Farms to Fouled Waters

 

With the passing of July 4th, summer is officially in high gear in America. Perhaps more than any other time of year, this is when we enjoy clean water — swimming at the beach, fishing in a creek, kayaking down a river, or sailing on a lake or bay. 

Unfortunately, corporate agribusiness is imposing a heavy - and growing - toll on America’s waterways. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,agriculture is the probable cause of polluting more than 145,000 miles of rivers and streams, along with over 1 million acres of lakes, bays, and more. 

Last year, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico was the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined—the largest since 2002. And now, agribusiness is even threatening our drinking water - with incidents from Toledo to Des Moines, fromWisconsin to Washington State.

How did we get to the point where companies selling us food are polluting our water?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-rumpler/tysons-pollution-pathways_b_10822108.html

 

[EspressoBuzz]

And in a related story:

 

How Microbes and Wood Chips Could Reduce Water Pollution

 

Beneath fields of corn and soybeans across the U.S. Midwest lies an unseen network of underground pipes. These systems, which are known as tile drainage networks, channel excess water out of soil and carry it to lakes, streams and rivers. There are over 38 million acres of tile drainage in the Corn Belt states.

These networks play a vital role in farm production. They allow farmers to drive tractors into fields that would otherwise be too wet and make it possible to plant early in spring. And they boost crop growth and yield by preventing fields from becoming waterlogged.

But drainage systems are also major contributors to water pollution. The water they remove from fields contains nitrogen, which comes both from organic matter in rich Midwestern soil and from fertilizer. This nitrogen over-fertilizes downstream water bodies, causing blooms of algae. When the algae die, bacteria decompose them, using oxygen in the water as fuel.

http://time.com/4394619/water-pollution-microbes-wood/

[jjb4900]

your from Long Island right? I'm sure you must have heard of the duck farm out east that completely polluted the one waterway, don't recall exactly which one........I remember bowfishing one of the ponds it led to, absolutely disgusting.

[growalot]

first year the land leased next door to local dairy...our well was contaminated,,,then because we put up such a stink they brought up a dozer and blocked off the run off to the natural occurring gully (runs past our well ) put in a drain tile system across the field and the end of pipe sticks out into the culvert ditch that drains down the hill. This washed out the road and the town had to spend 10,000 dollars repairing and bringing in those big stones to fill ditch with to cut the force of the fields spring and storm run off..Tax payers money....No permits just doing what they want because of the right to farm and DEC saying the planner they are require to have says it's all OK..the planner the FARMER HIRED by law....A totally rigged system....

[EspressoBuzz]

your from Long Island right? I'm sure you must have heard of the duck farm out east that completely polluted the one waterway, don't recall exactly which one........I remember bowfishing one of the ponds it led to, absolutely disgusting.

 

No, actually I'm from Red Hook Brooklyn, I only live on Long Island, my sentence so far has been 16 years hard labor in Suffolk.

 

But I know the Duck farm you're speaking of, long before I moved to Long Island it was a recreation destination for me and my family, Through fishing and hunting (mostly rabbit) my family loved and cherished L.I. for it's bounty.

 

Sadly it is often cheaper to prevent such pollution than to clean it up.

[Uptown Redneck]

As long as big business and their GOP cronies exist such actions will continue because a company's bottom line is far more important then the health of the environment

[EspressoBuzz]

Stomach turning report: The astounding quantities of water pollution coming from Smithfield Foods

 

Let your lunch digest before reading the latest report from the folks at Environment North Carolina and Environment America: “Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America’s Waterways.” Here’s one of the many revolting facts contained therein: According to the report, Smithfield Foods discharged 3.6 million tons of toxic pollutants from its hog slaughtering operation at Tar Heel, North Carolina into state waters in 2014. That’s more than 92 times (by weight) the amount of coal ash discharged in Duke Energy’s disastrous Dan River spill of February 2014. You read that right: 92 Dan River spills worth of animal-related waste in one year!

 

See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2016/07/07/stomach-turning-report-the-astounding-quantities-of-water-pollution-coming-from-smithfield-foods/#sthash.mpHmkOhI.dpuf

[tuckersdaddy]

As long as big business and their GOP cronies exist such actions will continue because a company's bottom line is far more important then the health of the environment

do you drink so much coolaid that you believe that the democrate have nothing to do with profiting from big ag? the ethenol push is a clean air dem. prodject. careful where you throw stones...

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[EspressoBuzz]

To everything (spin, spin, spin)
There is a season (spin, spin, spin)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

 

http://blogs.reuters.com/reihan-salam/2013/07/12/republicans-back-agribusiness-with-the-farm-bill/

 

Except for the one thing you mentioned (ethanol) Republicans take more money from big farm corporations, and they don't want you to know whats in your food because the big food companies don't want to tell you, but if it's any consolation Dems take more money from Wall St.

[growalot]

I have to say here in NYS the conservation DEC is pretty much Democratic controlled...the farmers are over seen by DEC and I was told that in NYS ,We have no water rights if we are on a well.. The right to farm protects the farmers. Also this whole, they have to have planners and submit reports...Let me tell you when they get to choose the planner and they pay the planner...it's just a joke when it comes to some farms...not saying all...but some...The Farm next to us...has bought /leased up 2 & 3 towns over...Why because the government gave them grants and tax breaks to build not one but 3 additional barns for more head to milk...tripling there manure output...Then add the mnt. of silage they put up..Silage has run off...The corn they are converting fallow and now some wooded areas to, with the impact of that...between the manure and insect applications...

So in short Democrats are no better than Republicans when it comes to environment vs $$$$...they are just sneakier.

Edited July 8, 2016 by growalot

[EspressoBuzz]

Democrats like everyone else are not perfect, and you made my point. Democrats are generally for small family farms and agri-businesses. Republicans generally are for larger (agri) corporations, In fact Republicans who HATE regulation have passed more regulations in the name of safety that thwart small farm growth or force small farms to deal through larger corporations to get product to market. At least this is what I am told by many small farms in Columbia county where I hunt,

[Dom]

I understand the questions posed by pollution, but this thread has gotta be moved to the politics thread.