The mass production of pork and chicken in America is fast becoming one of our nation’s biggest health and environmental problems. Dangerous behavior by reckless corporations has resulted in giant animal “factories” where pigs and chickens produce enormous amounts of manure and other waste that poison our air and water, make people sick, and confine them to their homes or drive them out for good.
Many of these giant factories go out of their way to avoid, bend, and even break the law to maximize their profits. From refusing to get permits, to violating Clean Air and Clean Water statutes, to illegally disposing manure, animal factory giants are willfully making a bad problem much worse.
And these factories are getting bigger and more concentrated. The can house as many as 100,000 animals. Factories are increasingly being located near each other, meaning that the air and water pollution, and the disease and the toxins are having a more powerful impact on local populations.
The impacts are frightening. Infant mortality is significantly higher near animal factories than away from them. Groundwater is contaminated. Manure produces unhealthy levels of nitrogen in the air. Thousands of animals die and are disposed of improperly. Rivers are polluted with tons of manure. Animals are injected with growth hormones and antibiotics that make people sick when the meat is eaten. The odor is so bad that thousands of people don’t leave their houses, and home prices have dropped directly as a result of the health and environmental dangers.
Worst of all, it doesn’t have to be this way. The technologies and systems needed to clean up the mess are available to meat and poultry producers … they just refuse to use them. Odor could be greatly reduced, manure could be treated to be less harmful, and used and stored much more safely. Animal factory owners know that most of the dangerous health and environmental consequences could be avoided, but simply don’t care.
Let’s not forget what it’s like inside the factories. The animal cruelty is horrific. Pigs and chickens, immobilized, turned into eating machines. They never go outside. The mothers are bred far more often than is healthy. Animals live in their own excrement. Sick animals are routinely mistreated and “poor eaters” are disposed of.
Workers have it bad as well. They are subjected to horribly powerful odors, and frequently get sick as a result of the polluted air and filthy working conditions. Their pay is lousy and most leave their jobs pretty quickly.
People have had enough. For years, neighbors of the animal factories sought every means possible to get them under control. They tried to talk with company officials, called Odor Hotlines, pleaded with state, county, and local governments, wrote letters, and tried to prevent new factories from being built. After being rebuffed at each step, they finally turned to the legal system for justice.
Since 1999, more than 30 lawsuits have been filed in eight states against major animal factory producers. One series of cases settled fairly for the plaintiffs, providing appropriate levels of compensation. But the others have been fought at every turn. Corporate lawyers pour millions of dollars into scare tactics, stalling, bogus science, and dubious legal techniques. Plaintiffs continue to fight on, determined to win basic fairness. As a reflection of the growing problem, the pace of lawsuits being filed is increasing.
But the battle doesn’t end in the courtroom. Plaintiffs have banded with concerned citizens from every walk of life – economists, clergy, ranchers, public officials, public health advocates, researchers, and community members – to launch a comprehensive campaign to reform, or, if they won’t change, end animal factory production. Using policy development, public education, viral marketing, corporate pressure, community forums, and advocacy partnerships, they are determined to end the sickening practice of animal factory production and return America to safe, sensible, and sustainable farming and ranching.
Related Links
- Smithfield Settlement Memo
This memorandum summarizes issues related to a recently $75,000,000 settlement demand from attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the Missouri nuisance litigation.
- Top 20 Pork Producers
View a list of the 20 largest pork producers in the U.S.
