Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America’s Waterways The Role of Large Agribusiness Companies in Polluting our Rivers, Lakes and Coastal Waters RESEARCH & POLICY CENTER Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America’s Waterways The Role of Large Agribusiness Companies in Polluting our Rivers, Lakes and Coastal Waters RESEARCH & POLICY CENTER Written by: John Rumpler Environment America Research & Policy Center June 2016 Acknowledgements Environment Texas Research & Policy Center thanks Danielle Diamond, Executive Director of Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP), Mary Beth Gallagher, acting director of Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, Tom Pelton, Communications Director of Environmental Integrity Project, and Leslie Samuelrich, Executive Direc- tor of Green Century Funds, for their review of this report. Thanks also to Patrick Woodall of Food & Water Watch and Elizabeth Ridlington of Frontier Group for their assistance on research methodology. Environment Texas Research & Policy Center thanks the Sharpe Family Foundation for helping to make this report possible. The authors bear responsibility for any factual errors. The recommendations are those of Environment Texas Re- search & Policy Center. The views expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of our funders or those who provided review. © 2016 Environment Texas Research & Policy Center Environment Texas Research & Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organization. We are dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We investigate problems, craft solutions, educate the public and decision-makers, and help the public make their voices heard in local, state and national debates over the quality of our environment and our lives. For more information about Environment Texas Research & Policy Center or for additional copies of this report, please visit www.environmenttexascenter.org. Design: Alec Meltzer, meltzerdesign.net Cover photo: Waterkeeper Alliance, CC BY-SA 2.0 Table of Contents Executive Summary..................................................................1 Introduction...........................................................................5 Big Agribusiness: A Big Polluter of America’s Waterways....................7 Agribusiness Is Polluting America’s Waterways ...........................................7 Industrialized Practices Drive the Pollution Problem . .10 Corporate Profiles: The Water Pollution Footprints of Five Major Agribusiness Companies . .14 TYSON FOODS, INC. .14 SMITHFIELD FOODS . .17 CARGILL . .19 JBS . .20 PERDUE................................................................................21 Water Pollution By Other Major Agribusiness Companies . .22 The Role Of Retailers . .23 Policy Recommendations ..........................................................24 Methodology .........................................................................26 Appendix: Detailed Data on Direct Toxic Discharges from Agribusiness Facilities.......................................................28 Notes ...................................................................................41 Executive Summary ollution from agribusiness is responsible for for 500,000 people around Toledo with cyanotox- some of America’s most intractable water ins in 2014. In Iowa, nitrate pollution from agribusi- quality problems – including the “dead zones” ness operations have so badly polluted the Raccoon Pin the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and Lake River that Des Moines is now suing three counties Erie, and the pollution of countless streams and lakes for failing to stop contamination of its main drinking with nutrients, bacteria, sediment and pesticides. water source. And factory farms have contaminated drinking water wells from Washington to Wisconsin. Today’s agribusiness practices – from the concentration of thousands of animals and their waste in small feed- Top companies are producing staggering vol- lots to the massive planting of chemical-intensive crops umes of pollution. In this report, we assess the such as corn – make water pollution from agribusiness water pollution footprint of five major agribusinesses: both much more likely and much more dangerous. Tyson, Smithfield, Cargill, JBS, and Perdue. With each of these corporations, pollution in their supply chains The shift to such industrial practices is no accident. It is includes manure from livestock, runoff from vast largely the result of decisions made in the boardrooms of acres of grain, and direct dumping from processing some of the world’s largest corporations. Major agribusi- facilities into our rivers and streams. ness firms are responsible for the degradation of many American waterways, and they must change practices First, as the livestock industry concentrates its throughout their supply chains to clean up the mess. operations, more and more factory farms gener- ate massive volumes of manure with no place to Big agribusiness is a major polluter of America’s put it. All too often, excess manure winds up in our waterways. rivers and streams. We calculate the “manure foot- According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agen- print” of these five agribusiness companies as follows: cy (EPA), agriculture is the probable cause for mak- ing more than 145,000 miles of rivers and streams, 1 Table ES-1. Manure Footprint million acres of lakes and reservoirs, and 3,000 square miles of bays and estuaries too polluted for swimming, Company Tons of Manure fishing, drinking, and/or maintaining healthy wildlife. Tyson 55,289,069 This agribusiness pollution is a leading cause of the JBS 45,797,269 dead zones that plague waters from the Chesapeake Cargill 39,200,000 Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, this pollution is so Smithfield 18,935,217 severe that it is beginning to threaten our drinking water as well. In Toledo, Ohio, runoff from agribusi- Perdue 3,715,140 ness operations contributed to a toxic algae bloom in TOTAL 162,936,695 Lake Erie which contaminated the drinking water 1 Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America’s Waterways Second, runoff from vast acres of commodity Table ES-3. Direct Dumping of Toxic crops is a major pollution problem for our water- Pollutants by Major Companies in 2014 ways. A huge volume of corn and soybean produc- Pounds Released Parent Company Rank tion is driven by the need to feed livestock for these to Water five companies and other agribusiness giants. Mas- AK STEEL HOLDING CORP 22,623,451 1 sive production of chemical-intensive corn – driven TYSON FOODS INC 20,859,034 2 by public policies that subsidize corn production – is wreaking havoc on waterways, including the Gulf of US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 10,825,508 3 Mexico. CARGILL INC 8,131,465 4 Finally, these same five companies also directly BASF CORP 7,736,805 5 dump huge volumes of pollution into our rivers SMITHFIELD (incl. United 7,439,411 6 from their slaughterhouses and processing plants. Global Foods U.S. Holdings) Four of them were among the top ten parent compa- US STEEL CORP 7,213,877 7 nies – from all industries - with the highest volumes KOCH INDUSTRIES INC 7,115,649 8 of direct toxic discharges to our waterways in 2014, JBS USA (including Pilgrim’s 6,901,540 9 according to U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Pride) The fifth profiled company, Perdue Farms, ranked th11 MCCAIN FOODS USA INC 5,900,202 10 for direct dumping in the same year. These compa- nies had the same basic pattern of pollution from PERDUE FARMS INC 4,898,159 11 over 2010-2014 as well – all ranking among the top 15 DSM HOLDING CO USA INC 4,879,298 12 parent companies in America for direct dumping of PHILLIPS 66 CO 4,809,714 13 toxic substances into our waterways. E I DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO 4,353,681 14 Needless to say, agribusiness pollution is hardly lim- INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO 4,150,198 15 ited to these five companies. In 2014, more than 200 PBF ENERGY agribusiness facilities in more than 30 states reported 3,393,738 16 dumping toxic pollution into our rivers. EXXON MOBIL CORP 3,050,190 17 VALERO ENERGY CORP 3,008,002 18 Table ES-2. Direct Dumping of Toxic CF INDUSTRIES HOLDINGS INC 2,658,126 19 Pollutants 2010-2014 (from U.S. EPA’s EASTMAN CHEMICAL CO 2,497,831 20 Toxics Release Inventory) OUTOKUMPU STAINLESS USA LLC 2,401,752 21 Company Pounds Released to Waterways KOCH FOODS 2,025,777 22 Tyson 104,468,732 CHEVRON CORP 1,941,444 24 Cargill 50,405,770 CONTINENTAL GRAIN CO 1,877,768 25 JBS* 37,625,829 Smithfield TRI discharge figures are from all Smithfield discharg- Perdue 31,002,822 ing facilities – including those reported under the parent company United Global Foods US Holdings. Similarly, Pilgrim’s Pride is Smithfield** 27,301,782 owned by JBS and so TRI discharge volumes for these two sepa- rately reporting companies are combined herein. TOTAL 250,804,935 *includes Pilgrim’s Pride **includes United Global Foods US Holdings Executive Summary 2 Figure ES-1: Facilities of Five Agribusiness Companies that Dumped Toxic Pollution into Waterways in 2014 (from EPA's Toxics Release Inventory) Tyson Smithfi eld JBS (incl. Pilgrim’s Pride) Cargill Perdue The solutions to curb agribusiness pollution are fea- investors, major restaurant chains – and some of their sible and well-known to the industry. It is well-doc- agribusiness suppliers - have recently committed to umented that halting excess application of manure and end routine use of antibiotics on livestock. Yet as two other fertilizer is the most effective means to preventing top retailers