Smithfield Foods, Inc., Premium Standard Farms and their predecessor entities have emitted massive volumes of air and water pollutants from their corporate hog production facilities.1
Many nitrogen-, sulphur- and carbon-containing compounds, including ammonia, nitrogen oxides, nitrous oxide, hydrogen sulfide, methane, carbon dioxide, endotoxins, and volatile organic compounds, are emitted through large corporate hog factories.2
Many of these compounds undergo atmospheric reactions and are transported by winds before they return to the surface through precipitation and dry deposition. Alternatively, in the case of greenhouse gases, they can accumulate in the Earth’s atmosphere.3
Ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, toxic organic compounds, pesticides, insecticides, and particulate matter, among other airborne pollutants can affect human health as well as the comfort, health and production efficiency of animals.4
Hydrogen sulfide, a gas produced by the anaerobic decomposition of manure, can cause unconsciousness or death in humans after merely a brief exposure to high concentrations of the gas.5 Ecosystems can undergo eutrophication and acidification as a result of the deposition of reactive nitrogen.6 In addition, chemical reactions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emitted by agricultural operations can lead to the formation of tropospheric ozone, which may adversely impact plant growth in natural and agricultural systems and affect human health and climate.7
Aerosols consisting of fine particulate matter, directly emitted by large hog factories, or created through the interaction of various chemical compounds emitted by the factories, affect the Earth’s radiation budget and climate through their effects on cloud formation and precipitation.8 Moreover, fine particulate matter has been associated with adverse health effects, suggesting that reductions in particulate matter and precursor gases will have measurable health benefits.9
The hog factories pollute the Nation’s waterways and underground aquifers with antibiotics, nitrates, nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals, hormones, pharmaceuticals, and infectious agents.10 The swine waste that is applied is 500 times more concentrated than the treated human waste discharged by municipal waste water treatment plants.11
Untreated swine manure is spread on the ground in quantities that exceed the ability of the ground and plants to absorb the land-applied “nutrients.”12 Excessive nutrient loading contaminates surface waters, and stimulates bacteria and algal growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters (eutrophication) which results in massive die-off of animal life in the water system.13 Some of the contaminants deteriorate rapidly when exposed to the open air, but, persist when they are discharged into surface waters.14
CAFOs built in areas of extreme weather or flooding have experienced catastrophic failures of their sewage lagoons resulting in hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated animal sewage pouring into the local streams, rivers and then flowing downstream into places such as Chesapeake Bay,15 again, resulting in the massive loss of aquatic lifeforms.
Finally, many of the hog CAFOs are built in semi-arid regions, so as to increase the rate of evaporation of the hog waste.16 However, the CAFOs are huge consumers of fresh water, causing significant depletion of aquifers already threatened by demands from commercial irrigation systems.17
1 Tietz, Jeff. Boss Hog. Rolling Stone, 14 Dec 2006 (Accessed December 14, 2006 at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_secret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters).
Marks, Robbin. Cesspools of Shame: How Factory Farm Lagoons and Sprayfields Threaten Environmental and Public Health. Natural Resources Defense Council and the Clean Water Network, 7-10 (July 2001).
2 Aneja, V., Schlesinger, W., et al., Farming Pollution. Nature Geoscience 1:409 (July 2008)
3 Id.
4 Id.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Aneja, at 410
8 Aneja, at 410
9 Aneja, at 410
10 Gurian-Sherman, Doug. CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Union of Concerned Scientists 51-52 (April 2008)
Burkholder, J., Libra, B. , et al., Impacts of Waste from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations on Water Quality. 115: 2 Env. Health Persp. 308 (2 Feb 2007)
11 Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America. 2:25 (2008)
12 Gurian-Sherman, Doug. CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Union of Concerned Scientists, at 9 (April 2008)
13 Id. at 52-53.
Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America. 2:23 (2008)
14 Burkholder, J., Libra, B., et al., Impacts of Waste from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations on Water Quality. 115: 2 Env. Health Persp. 308 (2 Feb 2007)
15 Gurian-Sherman, Doug. CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Union of Concerned Scientists, 4 (April 2008)
16 Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America. 2:27 (2008)
17 Id.
