June/July 2002
Community
Consciousness
Eric Sirotkin
Peace
and Nuclear Disarmament: A Call to Action
Congressman Dennis Kucinich
We
Are Not An Isolated Fringe
Kayla M. Starr, MPH
Rejecting
Neo-Liberal Globalization Will Diminish Causes of War and Conflict
Gerald Cavanaugh
War,
Inc.
Mike Ferner
Hell
to Pay: The Proving Ground
William Rivers Pitt
Liberation
Psychology and The Power Elite
Royal E. Alsup, Ph.D.
The
Age of Inequality
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Industrial
Agriculture Poisoning Our Water and our Home
PR
Firms Help Corporations "Infect the World"
George Monbiot
Book
Reviews:
The Democracy Owners Manual and The Global Activists Manual
Green
Beings: Plant Mind, Planetary Mind
Jesse Wolf Hardin
The
Yearly Round
Richard Moeschl
Keep
Your Tubes Outta Me … It's a Good Day to Die
John Darling
The
Movie Mystic: Waking Life
Stephen Simon
Soy
to Enjoy and Soy to Avoid
Rebecca Wood
Cosmic
Calendar
Salina Rain
Industrial
Agriculture
Poisioning Our Waters and Our Homes
American food production is under-going the most dramatic consolidation in our history. Industrial meat factories and corporate controlled farms are replacing family, “hands-on” farms. These facilities are owned by or indentured to a handful of giant corporations with little or no interest in socially responsible agriculture. Their livestock factories contaminate water bodies across the nation with nutrients, pesticides, antibiotic residues and other pollutants.
One of the nation’s largest environ-mental problems stems from the vast amounts of waste generated at Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). These facilities shoehorn thousands of animals into barns full of small pens, where they are fed nutrient rich imported feed, laced with antibiotics and growth stimulants. Waste from these facilities is often piped into open pits, euphemistically called “lagoons,” and then applied to adjacent fields. Nutrient and pesticide laden animal waste contaminates streams, lakes and rivers, local groundwater, and ultimately, has created a New Jersey-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Waterkeeper Alliance, comprised of more than 85 Waterkeeper programs located throughout North and Central America and beyond, is among the fastest growing grass-roots environmental movements and quickly is becoming a unique force for environmental change. An environmental “neighborhood watch” program, a citizen’s patrol to protect communities and the waters they depend on, their philosophy is based on the notion that the protection and enjoyment of a community’s natural resources requires the daily vigilance of its citizens. Waterkeeper Alliance’s campaign against the threat of Confined Animal Feeding Operations began in 1993 with Rick Dove. When Rick retired from the United States Marine Corps, he picked up his childhood dream of becoming a commercial fisherman on North Carolina’s Neuse River. Rick’s dream was soon crushed as pollution from industrial hog production contaminated his beloved river, rendering the fish he caught unfit for market. Even worse, the nutrient rich waters spawned an outbreak of Pfiesteria piscicidia, a micro-organism that causes lesions in infected fish, and poisons humans as well. Pfiesteria kills fish, and brings disabling illness to fishermen, bridge workers and people enjoying the state’s rivers.
Over the past two years, Waterkeeper Alliance has initiated a series of lawsuits targeting waste disposal at large hog facilities. In February 2001, the Alliance filed a lawsuit in federal district court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. This suit claims that Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest hog producer, has polluted local waterways in violation of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), two of the nation’s primary environmental laws. In September 2001, District Court Judge Malcolm Howard rejected Smithfield’s attempt to have the case dismissed; the case will proceed to trial late in 2002.
In the months and years since that initial commitment, the Alliance has launched a national campaign designed to reform this industry, to restore healthy landscapes and waterways, and to return good stewardship, prosperity and democracy to America’s rural communities. Waterkeeper Alliance partners with family farm advocates, environmental groups, animal welfare advocates and private citizens who are concerned about rural life in America.
Consumers have the real power to solve this environmental and social crisis. As you buy meat, milk, cheese, and produce take the extra step to learn more about it. Where did it come from? Were pesticides, chemical fertilizers, hormones or antibiotics used? Your choices at the market can make a big difference in the struggle to keep agriculture healthy and sustainable. Hands-on farmers, using proven techniques that reduce chemical use and animal cruelty, are the strongest link between healthy food and a secure environment. Please, think twice before buying corporate pork and other factory grown food!
For information about how you can start a Waterkeeper group in your community visit www.keeper.org; call (914) 422-4410; or write to Waterkeeper Alliance, 78 North Broadway, BLDG E, White Plains, NY 10603; info@waterkeeper.org.
