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Solutions
to Health and Environmental Problems Caused by Factory Farms
Factory farms, called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), produce vast
quantities of manure -- more than they can manage without polluting our air and water and
threatening public health. Although a few states have dealt with factory farm pollution
aggressively by enacting moratoria on new facilities while they develop adequate water and
air protections, most states have not responded to the need to protect public health and
the environment. Nor has the federal government solved CAFOs' pollution problems.
Protecting health and the environment from factory farms requires the following steps:
Place a moratorium on new and expanding factory farms until adequate public health and
environmental standards are in place and existing facilities have effective permits.
Current Clean Water Act standards for factory farms are hopelessly out of date for dealing
with livestock operations on a scale that no one envisioned even a decade ago. EPA has
acknowledged that they have never issued permits to thousands of factory farms that the
Clean Water Act currently requires to have permits. No new or expanded factory farms should be allowed until effective new air and water
quality protection standards are in place and permitting systems have been established for
these operations. A number of states, including North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky,
Mississippi, and Oklahoma, among others, have taken this step. Local governments may also
enact a moratorium, as Frederick County, Maryland did. Recognize citizens' rights to be involved in decisions about factory farms in their
communities.
Typically, states issue CAFOs "general" Clean Water Act permits. General permits
fail to provide neighbors with prior notice when a factory farm proposes to move into the
community, fail to provide on-site inspection before issuance of a permit, and fail to
include site-specific conditions to ensure protection of local resources, such as drinking
water wells or wetlands. All factory farms should be required to obtain individual Clean Water Act permits, which
will give neighbors notice of applications for CAFO permits, provide opportunity to
comment on draft permits, and include site-specific environmental safeguards. In addition,
local governments should have authority to regulate CAFOs. Ban open-air lagoons, aerial spraying of wastes, and unfiltered barn emissions.
Air emissions, leaks, and spills from open-air manure lagoons and aerial spraying of
wastes onto the land are major sources of pollution. The lagoon/sprayfield technology should be banned and replaced with technologies that do
not rely on open-air storage of vast amounts of liquid manure.
In 1998 Colorado voters
passed a ballot initiative requiring tough new controls to reduce odors from waste
lagoons. Livestock operations in Europe and in the United States are successfully using
livestock production methods that do not rely on these failed technologies. Make corporations that own the livestock, not just individual livestock operators, take
responsibility for environmental pollution.
In an increasing number of livestock production systems, large corporations own the
animals and contract with individual growers to raise them. These contracts typically
relieve the corporations of responsibility for waste disposal and put the burden on the
growers, who have fewer resources to address the problem.
The large corporations must share responsibility for waste disposal problems at factory
farms. Maryland has announced that it plans to require the animal owners to take
responsibility. Require nutrient management plans to prevent manure runoff.
Animal waste is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus and can be a useful fertilizer when
applied to crops at appropriate rates, but when overapplied to land these nutrients can
enter groundwater, rivers and lakes, killing fish and other aquatic life and contaminating
drinking water supplies. Although many states have some regulations dealing with manure
application, few have standards for phosphorus, an important cause of water pollution.
CAFOs should be required to develop and implement plans that will ensure that the proper
amount of nutrients are applied in a way that does not harm the environment or public
health. These plans should include land application limits for phosphorus as well as
nitrogen. Ban the use of antibiotics to promote faster livestock growth.
Use of antibiotics to promote livestock growth threatens human health by increasing
resistance of bacteria to drugs that humans rely upon to protect public health.
The World Health Organization called for a ban on using antibiotics for this purpose in
1997. Since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Public
Health Association, and other health organizations have taken similar positions. The
European Union heeded these concerns last year when it banned adding human-use antibiotics
to animal feed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should immediately ban the use of
antibiotics to promote livestock growth when those antibiotics are used to treat humans.
For more information about the Sierra Club's opposition to factory livestock
production, contact your local Sierra Club Chapter.
Photo courtesty USDA
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