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Hogs are jammed together in feeding facility at factory farm.

EPA AG GAG: Feds Support States Threatening Whistleblowers

June 15, 2013       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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The agriculture lobby is protecting animal cruelty advocates blowing whistles on factory farms, and now the EPA is piling on too.

The New York Times is in high dudgeon over the government's failure to enforce clean water regulations relating to factory farms.

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)is obliged under the Clean Water Act to monitor America's waterways and shield them from the toxic runoff from factory farms," editorialized the Times., noting it's not happening.

And so should we be incensed, because 250,000 cattle and hogs on factory farms in Huron and Tuscola counties are contributing to our fouled beaches, especially at the Bay City State Park.

Not only that, but the Border Patrol in the past few years has arrested illegal immigrants from Mexico and from Holland, some of the same individuals multiple times. The immigrants were working on factory farms in those rural counties. (See related story, "HIRING ANGLOS.")

"But the growth of that industry, and its courtroom tenacity, has far outstripped the E.P.A.'s efforts to restrict runoff from manure lagoons and feedlots," said The Times.

"Last year, the agency meekly withdrew two proposed rules. One would have gathered basic information from all factory farms. The other proposed rule would have expanded the number of such farms required to have a national pollution discharge permit. Fewer than 60 percent do now.

"Then, last week, in yet another retreat, the agency announced that promised new regulations governing feedlot discharges nationally would not be forthcoming."

Farm Aid reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data indicates a clear trajectory toward fewer and bigger farms that control a larger share of production across all livestock sectors in the United States.

This trend has pushed tens of thousands of independent family farms off the land. For example, between 1987 and 2007 the median hog farm size increased by 2,000 percent, while the number of farmers raising hogs fell by 69 percent.

"This loss of family farms hurts local economies, says Farm Aid. "Because factory farms are often part of a vertically integrated supply chain in which a company controls numerous stages of production from seed to table, transactions typically flow within a corporation and profits are siphoned off to its investors, rather than reinvested in the farm economy. By contrast, independent farmers invest in their local communities to purchase inputs and services needed on their farms, keeping these dollars circulating close to home."

Factory farms also compromise health. The emissions, waste and infectious agents produced when thousands of animals are confined with little sunlight, mobility or ventilation have devastating impacts on human, animal and environmental well-being. Air and water contamination, soil degradation, nutrient runoff, elevated hormone and antibiotic levels in the environment and illnesses in surrounding communities are all documented impacts of factory farms.

Agricultural runoff is the leading cause of impaired water quality, according to the EPA. The amount of manure produced by factory farms is staggering. The agency estimates that those operations create between 500 million and 1 billion tons of manure, three times as much waste as humans produce in the United States.

The task of keeping those hundreds of millions of tons of animal waste out of rivers, lakes and estuaries is enormous, clearly requiring a strong set of revised regulations for the handling of factory-farm waste, including provisions for tracking waste when it's been moved offsite.

Right now, the patchwork of regulations -- which assume a great deal of self-policing -- suits the factory-farm industry all too well. So does the E.P.A.'s inability to gather even the most basic information about those farms. The industry believes that the less consumers know, the better. President Obama's nominee to lead the E.P.A., Gina McCarthy, is still awaiting Senate confirmation. If and when she gets the job, she should make it an early priority to get the data she needs to shed light on -- and forcefully regulate -- an industry that thrives on ignorance.

As state legislatures begin their 2013 sessions, Think Progress.org reports a flurry of new 'ag gag' bills to protect factory farms from potential undercover whistleblowers have been introduced in 5 states.

The Indiana Senate is debating a proposal to criminalize taking photographs or videos inside an agricultural or industrial operation without permission.

Senate Bill 373 is the first of two ag gag bills introduced during Indiana's 2013 session. New Hampshire, Nebraska, Wyoming and Arkansas are also considering them.

Since trespassing is already illegal, ag gag laws can only have one clear motive: to punish whistleblowers, advocates, and investigative reporters who use undercover recordings to reveal the abysmal conditions in which our food is produced.

Undercover investigations have captured factory farms all over the country abusing livestock, passing off sick cattle as healthy, and discharging unregulated amounts of animal manure, which the US Geological Survey identified as the largest source of nitrogen pollution in the country.

The bill's author, Sen. Travis Holdman (R), added a provision exempting anyone who turns over their video or photos to law enforcement within 48 hours -- as long as they do not also share the footage with non-law enforcement, such as media or an animal rights group.

The Indianapolis Star points out many exposés are "undertaken precisely because the authorities failed to do their job. Sometimes, they have spotlighted conditions that were not illegal but were disturbing enough to inspire new laws."

Indeed, factory farms have largely escaped regulatory and legal scrutiny. Last year, the EPA abandoned an effort to require these operations to report even basic information like location, number of animals, and amount of manure discharged.

Meanwhile, the meat lobby's grip on lawmakers is so powerful that the USDA was pressured into apologizing for an internal 'Meatless Monday' last year by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who claimed the optional vegetarian day was a full-scale attack on agriculture.

One USDA inspector even had his job threatened after he tried to report egregious violations at a California slaughterhouse. He then tipped off the Humane Society, which released an infamous video of employees torturing and slaughtering downer cows (sick cows deemed 'unfit for human food' by the USDA). The video triggered the largest beef recall in U.S. history and resulted in an unprecedented $500 million penalty.

Iowa last March became the first state to pass an ag gag law in two decades. It is now illegal to seek employment at Iowan factory farms under false pretenses. The bill was proposed after a 2010 Humane Society undercover exposé of Iowa egg farms went viral. Cody Carlson, one of the egg farm investigators, took an entry-level job at four different farms and wore a pinhole camera to work every day. As he reported in the Atlantic:

"At each facility, I witnessed disturbing trends of extreme animal cruelty and dangerously unsanitary conditions. Millions of haggard, featherless hens languished in crowded, microwave-sized wire cages. Unable to even spread their wings, many were forced to pile atop their dead and rotting cage mates as they laid their eggs."

"Just a few months later, several Iowa egg farms were fingered in a massive salmonella outbreak that led to the biggest egg recall in U.S. history. Ag gag laws are already on the books in Iowa, Missouri, Utah, North Dakota, Montana, and Kansas. If Indiana and the 5 other states mulling these bills follow suit, the facilities producing 99 percent of American meat will be completely shielded from the public eye." ###

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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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