{"id":762472,"date":"2020-12-19T08:37:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T13:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=762472"},"modified":"2020-12-19T08:40:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T13:40:36","slug":"see-no-evil-factory-farms-getting-bigger-but-government-regulators-dont-know-where-they-all-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=762472","title":{"rendered":"SEE NO EVIL: Factory farms getting bigger, but government ‘regulators’ don\u2019t know where they all are"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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National Pork Association: We don\u2019t want a big database of where all these farms are, because you\u2019re going to give a roadmap to animal activists. The USDA and the FBI are behind us. <\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

GEORGINA GUSTIN:<\/strong> Thousands of industrial farms across the country release contaminants into the nation\u2019s water and airways, but in many states like North Carolina, the public has limited access to information about them. Federal authorities can\u2019t gauge the scope of the pollution, either, because in some states they have very little idea of the number and location of farms. This makes regulatory oversight weak and in some cases, nonexistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get this information on coal plants or any other polluter,\u201d said Tarah Heinzen, an attorney with Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group that has called for the agency to submit information about CAFOs to the public. \u201cBut you can\u2019t for this industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

These massive farms, or CAFOs\u2014Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations\u2014can house hundreds of thousands of animals in confined spaces, creating potent volumes of nutrient pollution that have fouled rivers, lakes and oceans. Decomposing manure releases toxic chemicals, mostly ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, into the air. Manure stored in lagoons releases methane and nitrous oxide, global warming gases more powerful than carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that about 11 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from agriculture, and about 12 percent of total methane emissions comes from manure management, a rise of about 65 percent since 1990…<\/p>\n

The EPA, which regulates CAFOs under the Clean Water Act, puts the number of CAFOs at about 19,200, up from about 3,600 three decades ago. But environmental groups say that number is probably higher, largely because the agency has been unable to get reliable and comprehensive information, thanks to patchy state regulation and years of legal pushback from the livestock industry to keep the information from the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EPA doesn\u2019t really know where the CAFOs are,\u201d Heinzen said. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge problem. And this is 40 years after the Clean Water Act, and this industry has exploded”… In North Carolina, state regulators exempt poultry CAFOs from public records disclosure, but earlier this year, environmental groups revealed there are about 3,900…<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want them to have a big database of where all these farms are,\u201d said Michael Formica, an attorney for the National Pork Producers Association. \u201cThere\u2019s on-farm security, national security, implications. So we stopped the rule. The USDA, the FBI were behind us. They said: You can\u2019t do this rule. You can\u2019t create this database, because you\u2019re going to give a roadmap to terrorists, to animal activists”.<\/p>\n

Instead, EPA made an arrangement with states to collect the information, because those details \u2014 like location and number of animals \u2014 are needed to determine which operators need permits and which CAFOs were violating the law. The agency has estimated that as many as 75 percent of CAFOs needed permits because they discharge as a result of their standard operational profile, but that only 40 percent actually have them.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups, skeptical that the EPA was collecting information from the states, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to see if the EPA was holding up its end of the agreement… The environmental community now finds itself in a familiar position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court found there was a privacy interest. What about the public interest?\u201d Heinzen said. \u201cThe public interest is that this information sheds light on the agency. We need to know what it\u2019s doing. We need to watchdog EPA\u2019s efforts, and the court didn\u2019t buy that.\u201d … The livestock groups say they\u2019ll continue to press for privacy. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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