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Meat-Industrial Complex How Factory Farms Undercut Public Health by Mark Winne Center, the Number Has Swollen to More Than One Million

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Meat-Industrial Complex How Factory Farms Undercut Public Health by Mark Winne Center, the Number Has Swollen to More Than One Million Non-profit USPostage PAID No. 178 EarthSaveEarthSaveNEWS Pasadena, CA Vol. 17 No. 2 EarthSave promotes a shift toward a healthy plant-based diet. June 2006 U.S.U.S. ateate 777777 madmad cowscows (so(so far)far) by Jeff Nelson since U.S. testing began. To arrive at this number is simply a mat- The United States has lagged far behind ter of mathematics. the rest of the world when it comes to test- According to USDA figures, since U.S. ing for mad cow disease. This is primarily began testing for mad cow 8 years ago, we because the USDA is run by people looking have tested about 773,000 cows. out for meat industry interests, rather than Only in the most recent few years did the public's interests. Like most U.S. gov- the U.S. begin testing using the more sensi- ernment agencies these days, the USDA is tive tests which have long been widely used run by officials from the industries they are in the rest of the world. supposed to be regulating, in this case the Since that time, the more sensitive test- meat, dairy and processed food industry. ing has discovered at least three mad cows Despite USDA best efforts to test as few in the U.S. herd. (The term "at least" applies cows as possible, mad cow has been discov- here because there are many cases of sus- ered repeatedly in the U.S. herd. (For years pect U.S. mad cows where after getting pos- the U.S. tested only only one out of every itive results, samples from the cows in ques- 18,000 cows slaughtered, while European tion were "lost" or "compromised" by countries were testing one out of every USDA labs, and so without proper samples three cows, or in many cases -- every cow.) for additional tests by independent labs, the The USDA says it isn't testing for mad USDA simply ruled them "negative." There cow as a protective measure to the popula- have also been multiple cases of cows sus- tion, they are testing simply to "surveil" pected of having mad cow being destroyed how widespread the problem may be. In or "lost" by USDA representatives before other words, they're not testing to prevent required USDA testing could be per- infected cows from entering the food chain formed.) the eight years of the sketchy U.S. test- herd during the past 8 years. Subtracting as many other countries do, they just want Based on three known mad cows out of ing program, approximately 200 million the three cows actually identified by the to get an estimate of how many mad cows the approximately 773,000 cows tested to cattle have been slaughtered. testing, this means that there were 777 are likely in the U.S. food chain. date in the U.S., we know that 0.0000039% Applying the known mad cow rate in other mad cows which were slaughtered The answer, from their own testing, is of cows tested in the U.S. herd are infected the tested sample of 0.0000039% to the in the U.S. since testing began, but now available: statistically, there have been with mad cow disease. total of 200 million US cattle slaugh- which were not tested for and therefore at least 777 cows with mad cow disease An estimated 25 million cattle are tered in eight years -- reveals that there not detected. were probably 780 mad cows in the U.S. which have probably entered the food chain slaughtered in the U.S. each year, so during MAD COW/PAGE 4 Meat-industrial complex How factory farms undercut public health By Mark Winne Center, the number has swollen to more than one million. For a region that was in economic decline, Drive through Don Oppliger's Feed Yard in Clovis, New the offer by Seaboard Farms to locate an industrial- Mexico, and you'll see 35,000 head of beef cattle confined style hog operation held out the promise of reinvigo- to pens that stretch across the flat, barren landscape. rating the flagging economy, creating desperately The constant shuffling of hooves raises a bacteria-laden needed jobs and re-filling the empty school desks. dust cloud that's carried by the prevailing winds into west But it came with a price. Seaboard demanded and Texas, where it joins the plumes of hundreds of other feed- received $60 million in local and state government lots. At one end of the complex sits a giant lagoon that assistance. This worked out to $27,552 per new job, catches the operation's chemicals, urine, antibiotics and a tolerable sum if the jobs paid $20 per hour, but the other effluvia. In the narrow strip of land that separates the average hourly Seaboard wage was less than $8. In fencing from the road lie the carcasses of dead cows (a.k.a. spite of the low wages, the deal might have been jus - "downers"), eyes bugged out, tongues dangling and bellies tified if the community received a commensurate bloated in the summer heat. growth in tax revenues. But by the time the county Moving from bovine to porcine, factory hog farms gen- completed the financing deal with Seaboard, they erate an odor so intense it would knock a buzzard off a shit- had agreed to taxes of $9,700 per year until 2017 on wagon. In cramped warehouse structures, as many as a business site valued at $100 million. Even after 20,000 hogs are confined for their entire lives. After five Seaboard agreed to pay $175,000 annually to the dis- months, the mature hogs are sent off to the slaughterhouse trict's school board for the next 25 years, this still to have their throats slit and carcasses dipped in chemical amounted to the county forgoing $120,000 per year. vats to loosen their skins. According to Anita Poole, legal Factory hog operations not only pay a meager counsel for the Oklahoma-based Kerr Center, which has return on a community's investment, they also fought that state's takeover by the hog industry, "The aver - extract a high price from the surrounding region. age Joe Blow who might stumble into a hog facility would With Seaboard's influx of jobs came an increase in The sorry gaze of a factory farm commodity. never want to eat pork again." population, which in turn brought about a sharp rise in farms, both groundwater and surface water quality have U.S. shoppers spend less on food as a percentage of their crime. From 1990 to 1997, crime in Texas County increased declined. Even worse, the Ogallala Aquifer upon which the total annual expenditures than anyone else in the world. But by 74 percent compared to a 12 percent decline in other region depends for its water is being depleted at a rapid rate. this is because factory livestock farms-labeled "concentrat- rural Oklahoma counties. And factory farm workers in the The Oklahoma Water Resource Board reported that water ed animal feeding operations" (CAFOs) by government West and Midwest are increasingly Mexican immigrants, levels in many Texas County wells have dropped 50 to 100 agencies-don't pay for the natural resources they have only about half of whom are legally documented. They feet over the last 30 years, due in large part to the high water squandered, the farm labor they have maltreated, the declin- bring with them a host of needs that these rural communi- demand of factory hog operations and the irrigated farm- ing health of residents who live near their operations, or the ties are unequipped to handle. land that supports them. animals that have been exploited far beyond their biological But the worst problems are created by the ungodly Across the nation, factory farms of all types are wreak- capabilities. amount of manure-an estimated 15 million pounds per day ing environmental havoc. A 1995 North Carolina manure Texas County is in Oklahoma's Panhandle region. In in Texas County. Because of 1990 it had 11,000 hogs. Today, according to the Kerr water run-off from factory MEAT INDUSTRY/PAGE 5 INSIDE How Biofuel -- Supersize Hold foul Not all your Your is it’s cracked casket! Water! fowl? up to be P. 3 P. 6 P. 7 P. 12 2 June 2006 Perspectives EarthSave News Letters Raising Veg Kids Dear Jo Stepaniak: I appreciate so much your com- Jo Stepaniak Responds: Thank you for your beauti- I just received your newspaper and was struck by the passionate and informative responses in your "Ask Jo" ful letter and the confirmation that everyone can make letter from the vegan parents who have non-vegan chil- feature in EarthSave News. One question/answer in the positive changes regardless of age, conditioning, family, dren and by your response (Ask Jo, March 2006). (I December, 2005 issue was especially interesting to me. I or past. Your compassionate choices and approach surely agreed with everything you said except the allowance am also sixty-one years old as is the reader, and I too have a beneficial effect on all who come in contact with restrictions.) I've been a vegetarian for more years than I made my "life-altering transformation immediately after you. You are an inspiration! can remember and a vegan for almost 18 years. I didn't being confronted with graphic evidence about animal know how to teach my then toddler daughter to respect abuse in the food industry..." all life if we ate it. Both my children decided as teens that For me, it happened overnight in 1989 when I read they wanted to try non vegetarian foods.
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