Sustainability is a Strategy for our Economic Future
Saving money, lowering costs, capturing new market opportunities, lowering risk, higher employee wages, and increasing profits are the goals of business leaders. These are the goals that a well planned sustainability program can realize for companies that go “Green”, and become more environmentally sustainable.
What is “sustainability”?
Don’t assume that “sustainability” is just the latest buzz word for going “green”. Here are some commonly used approaches to defining and understanding sustainability.
- Sustainable use is use that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- Triple Bottom Line, or 3BL, is based on the three pillars of people, planet, and profit. In triple bottom line accounting, businesses expand their conventional financial reporting to include reporting on ecological and social performance. (See the diagram at the top of the page)
- Four System Conditions required to support the proper functioning of our Earth’s systems. For an organization to be sustainable it must :
- Decrease and eventually eliminate the use of nonrenewable resources in the long term.
- Not produce waste faster than it can be broken down and rendered harmless to nature.
- Not use natural resources at a rate faster than they can be replaced by natural ecosystems.
- An organization’s business practices should not undermine the ability of others to meet their basic human needs.
- Corporate Social Responsibility is the way companies integrate social, environmental, and economic concerns into their values and operations in a transparent and accountable manner. This approach benefits business by being legally proactive, manage risk reputation, enhance organizational effectiveness, improve stakeholder relationships, and elevate an organization’s social bond within their customer base, and community. If you want to see how corporations can be a good corporate citizen of our planet, please see what Unilever is doing by clicking here.
Sustainability Frameworks for Business
“Don’t waste your positive company brand!”
Waste and energy reduction programs, diversity training, charitable giving, community outreach, local economic support, and the transference of wealth through the supply chain, are all examples of how a business may already be supporting sustainability elements.
The Kloucek Challenge (Editorial)
Frank Kloucek is a Sierr Club member and past state legislator.
This past Memorial weekend a group of SDSU alumni had the opportunity to visit the new SDSU swine facility one and one half mile from Coughlin Alumni Stadium. Dean of Animal Science, Dr. Joe Cassady gave us a great tour and explanation of the totally enclosed facility with bio filters and tree wind breaks. This type of facility should be the model for mandating construction for all swine facilities in South Dakota. Bio filters work and do the job removing much of the harmful particulates from the air. Also the mile and a half setback should be the industry minimum standard for locations away from people that do not work in such a facility. The recent bird flu epidemic, nationwide research on animal agriculture health and safety issues, National Center for Disease Control reports on mutations of pathogens in swine and chickens should be a wakeup call for all of us. The new age animal agriculture production is about volume. It is called industrialized agriculture and with it comes huge issues concerning public health and safety. The sheer volumes of animal waste [fertilizer] and its level of concentration must be addressed. Just because a facility does not stink does not mean there is not harmful particulates in the air. Modern science has addressed safety issues concerning other industries. Now it is agriculture’s turn.
1. Currently in operation in Bon Homme County are 2400 head swine finishing units that produce 4800 head of finished hogs per year. That 4800 head generates 600,000 to 900,000 lbs. of liquid manure fertilizer per year. Using the lower figure 600,000 lbs. @8#per gallon equals 75,000 gallons per year. [Dr Dick Nicolai retired SDSU prof recommends 8 lbs. per gal figure.] That is a lot of waste from a relatively small cafo by today’s standards.
2. Odor and particulates
Dr Dick Nicolai did give a good presentation in Tyndall on bio filters and their effectiveness in swine barns. His study used large flake wood chips outside the barns at the Southeast experiment farm near Beresford. The documentation showed 80 to 95 percent reduction in odor, particulates and airborne disease transmission was presented. Reductions in purrs, staph, strep, mursa and other diseases by the use of these filters were explained. There are types of water filtration units that are having good success in turkey and chicken barns as well. The bio filters do not work in curtain type finishing barns. Producers need to utilize this effective tool to be good neighbors. Finishing barns should be constructed to be able to utilize bio filters and curtain type barn construction halted until better methods developed to control odor and drift are implemented.
3 Shelter belts
Shelter belts on all sides of a cafo should be planted consisting primarily of eastern red cedars on higher ground and willows, dogwoods, and cottonwoods in low lying areas. The eastern red cedars do an excellent job of absorbing dust and odor from the cafos. Drift has been detected over three miles from cafos. Although the smell may be gone the particulates dust and other issues still exist.
4 Feed additives
Yeasts and other additives appear to have a positive effect on reducing odors from cafos. Soybean and corn oil added in the feed reduce the dust in and around the building. There appears to be less coughing, better gain, and more content pigs with the use of these products. Once again reducing odor does not mean harmful dust and bacteria are still not in the air.
5 Three mile rule.
At a Hutchinson county zoning meeting a young man brought out the fact he could not build his cafo within three miles of another entity's pig operation. The reason given was disease prevention. Why is it OK to build these type of facilities right next to your neighbor with no rules of regulation if they are under the 2500 swine head cafo limit? This rule equals 1000 animal units for beef cattle 700 for dairy cattle 2500 swine and approximately 30,000 for broilers or laying hens for liquid manure. Dry manure systems are 125,000 birds non egg laying chickens, 82,000 for laying hens, turkeys are 55,000 head. Geese are 30,000 head before cafo state DENR permit requirements kick in.
Why is there an unofficial 3 mile rule between pig factories but no rules on far they can be from neighbors homes if they are under the animal unit requirement. Does this mean pigs are more important than people? It appears so.
This issue is real. Diseases are mutating in chicken and swine industry. The concern by the Center for Disease Control and many others is that these diseases may mutate into a human form to negatively affect human health. This is real. This is happening.
6. Setbacks
One mile setback from a rural residence is a must. The current ½ mile in Bon Homme and ¼ mile setback in Yankton county is not addressing the issue adequately. Values of homes have dropped 10 percent to 60 percent around the nation when cafos are built next to them. A two mile setback from rural towns is a must also for new cafos. Some municipalities in our great country require a three mile setbacks for cafo's. Concerns for the health and welfare of our city, county and state residents should trump the need for so called “cheap food” which really is not that cheap.
7. Require bonding of buildings for cleanup in case of business failure and termination of building and cement pit. This is an important protection for our aquifers, lakes, streams, and wells.
8. Require bonding for loss of property values. Property values have plummeted 10 to 60 percent for residences and property nationwide when cafos were built near them. This would also be a protection for the county and cafo owner/operator from what are call nuisance lawsuits.
9. Require tougher county road agreements and road hauler agreements for times when the feed trucks or semi trailers tear up the roads during wet or blizzard conditions.
10. The Kloucek Challenge
I ask that each of you take a cot or air mattress and sleep four hours in a hog chicken or turkey unit [that is under the cafo limit] in the alleyway right next to the animal, not in the air conditioned office or other areas. Then take the cot or mattress outside and sleep within 100 feet of an active running exhaust fan. Then tell me if they do not need some fair common sense oversight.
11. MRSA & Swine facilities University of Iowa Research
Maryn Mckenna Science Magazine Jan 22, 2014 article entitled “Almost Three Times the Risk of Carrying MRSA from living near a Mega Farm” the evidence is overwhelming: Her article based on University of Iowa research of VA patients living near Cafos should send a strong message. 1036 patients living in rural Iowa were tested in the Iowa City VA facility in 2010 and 2011. “Overall among those patients, 6.8 percent were carrying MRSA, drug resistant staph in their nostrils. But the patients' likelihood of carrying MRSA was 2.76 times higher if they lived within one mile of a farm housing 2500 or more pigs.
As the new pork plant comes on line in Sioux City the need for common sense in siting new farrowing, nursery and finishing facilities are needed. Location, bio filters, shelterbelts and other measures must be implemented. Public health and safety must be the priority. There is an old saying used by proponents of these outdated cafos “not in my backyard”. It may be better to say “not in anyone’s backyard” if swine cafos do not adopt the latest proven technology developed by SDSU with quantitative research done at our SDSU Experiment Farm near Beresford.
We need modern day livestock production decisions based on sound science and common sense including safer buildings and manure management that does provide adequate protection for the general public.
Sincerely,
Frank Kloucek, Scotland South Dakota
Feel free to contact me at 583 4468 or fkloucek@hotmail.com
Sierra Club Fights for Sensible Regulation of Animal Feeding Operations
Report submitted by Jerrry Wilson
When the Clay County Planning and Zoning Commission proposed major deregulation of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the county, the Living River Group of the Sierra Club went into action. Members studied the county’s CAFO Ordinance and those of neighboring counties, analyzed proposed changes to the ordinance, and began an education campaign through social media and local newspapers. As a result, the Courthouse meeting room was packed for the April 13 hearing, and at every commission meeting since. More than a dozen Sierra Club members were among those who testified against the proposal.
Clay County’s CAFO Ordinance has served the county well for more than a decade. In those years, no Clay County producer has requested a permit to confine more than forty percent of the county’s 5,000 animal unit limit, and the county has seen balanced, diversified growth. In contrast, the proposal pushed by one county commissioner was to remove all limits on the size of animal confinements, reduce some setback requirements and even permit confinements of unlimited size to be built in Aquifer Protection Zones. The apparent goal, backed by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, is to lure out-of-state and out-of-country money to build industrial dairies that would be operated primarily by poorly-paid immigrant workers.
Continuing opposition in subsequent meetings forced commissioners to back away from the push for complete deregulation of size; the modified draft now envisions increasing allowable size for dairies by sixty percent to 8,000 animal units, or 5,600 dairy cows. Applied to other species, 8,000 animal units translates to 8,000 beef cows, 20,000 hogs and one million chickens. In spite of testimony from officials of the Clay Rural Water System and the regional Lewis and Clark water system that serves Sioux Falls and numerous other communities, proponents are still arguing for placement of giant confinements over currently protected aquifer zones.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a dairy cow produces 21.9 tons of manure each year. Under the proposed changes, the untreated waste from 5,600 dairy cows—the equivalent of the human waste produced by the city of Sioux Falls—could be stored in an open lagoon above an aquifer zone.
Proponents of industrial dairies argue that restrictions in the Clay County Ordinance are unnecessary. They claim that rules of the SD Department of Environment and Natural Resources already protect water resources, and in fact, DENR regulations do require protecting “waters of the state,” meaning all waters of the state, including wetlands, ponds and tributary streams. Yet the proposed revision would throw out protection for all but fisheries and navigable streams. Incidentally, DENR also states that “Wastewater or manure containment facilities should not be located over shallow aquifers.”
The concerns of Clay County residents are not limited to potential odor, water pollution, loss of property values and threats to family farms. A new National Institutes of Health study by Texas Tech University molecular biologists demonstrates that “DNA from antibiotic-resistant bacteria in cattle feedlots is airborne.” Researchers found that “prevalent resistant sequences” downwind from large feedlots were up to 4,000 percent higher than upwind from the facilities. “We believe that this bacteria could remain active for a long period of time, and… it could be traveling for long distances,” the researchers said. They noted that “the well-known MRSA bacteria [Methicillin-resistant streptococcus aureus], which jumped from humans to cattle, where it grew resistant to antibiotics, now kills more than 11,200 people each year.” A Vermillion family physician who is already treating Clay County patients who have developed antibiotic-resistant infections expressed similar concerns at the hearing.
A primary purpose of zoning ordinances is to reduce conflicts among competing land uses. Clay County zoning combines agricultural, residential, second-home, commercial, and recreational uses. The current ordinance encourages normal-size animal operations, while working to reduce conflict. The Sierra Club supports sensible, regulated and balanced growth, and will continue to lead the fight against the imposition of big money from out of state that would exploit our clean water, air and health for their financial gain.
The public is encouraged to attend meetings, and to send letters or emails to the Planning and Zoning Commission (to Cindy Aden, zoning administrator) and to the Clay County Commission (to Carri Crum, Auditor).