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E-Mers: My apologies if others have seen this
earlier -- The Toledo Blade, particularly reporter Tom Henry, has been
reporting over the last several months on the severe failure of the Vreba Hoff
Dairy CAFO operation in The Editorial page of the Toledo Blade ran
the below editorial on Sunday, highlighting the findings of an international
panel of scientists on this issue. The Blade’s conclusions : “Self-regulation does not work because it flies in
the face of the economic interests of large-scale agricultural operators. The
federal government and state governments must take a much stronger regulatory
role to protect the interests of the public.” The Toledo Blade deserves
a lot of credit, as do the Muskegon Chronicle and other news agencies that have
both reported on and spoken out about this issue, but the question has to be
raised: since this is so clear and the evidence is growing, why hasn’t
the issue been addressed? Our society has unwittingly been subjected
to a huge, uncontrolled experiment in which large livestock operations and the associated
fields that grow food for people and animals are being turned into massive
Petri dishes that cultivate a broad array of pathogens. Unlike true
“experiments”, there is no conclusion of this effort, the
‘Petri dishes’ never get cleaned, the pathogens can and do live in
the soils as well as in the muck in the waterways they contaminate and the
wells they pollute. This reality doesn’t even begin to address the
public health threat from air pollution from these facilities, or the other emerging
concerns the Blade editorial cites. During this past legislative session, in a
disconnect with reality on scale with the Don Rumsfeld and the Iraq war, the
Michigan Farm Bureau aggressively sought to pass legislation to drastically
weaken Michigan’s already insufficient capacity and authority to assure
that these livestock factories are conforming with society’s needs and
expectations. In Congress the same disconnect led to serious efforts to
exempt CAFOs from disclosure of the huge amounts of pollutants they emit.
The Bush EPA has fallen short and shown the deep imprint of the pro-CAFO lobby,
and the DEQ has been hamstrung in both authority and funding to address these
obvious problems. 2007 presents new opportunities. The
first and most critical step in protecting public health, our food supply, our
water and air and the future of Michigan’s agriculture will be to assure
that the fairy tales told in Lansing and Washington about CAFOs are put to bed,
and the real work of creating a real sustainable, healthy future begins. http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/OPINION02/612160303
Article published Sunday, December 17,
2006
Cattle feedlots dominate in some areas of
the country, and their presence can hardly be unnoticed. In SNIP The laissez-faire attitude of regulators
has made the Self-regulation does not work because it
flies in the face of the economic interests of large-scale agricultural operators.
The federal government and state governments must take a much stronger
regulatory role to protect the interests of the public. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anne M. Woiwode, State Director, Sierra Club 517-484-2372 fax 517-484-3108 -- anne.woiwode@sierraclub.org Sierra Club Michigan Chapter celebrating our 40th
Anniversary on September 9, 2007 Visit us at http://michigan.sierraclub.org/index.shtml "Conservation is never complete. To conserve is the act of preservation:
the very name implies an ongoing process." Dr. Edgar Wayburn, past president of Sierra Club |