Announcer script :
More than 550 million shelled eggs have been recalled in what the Centers for Disease Control are calling the largest salmonella outbreak since tracking began in the mid 1970s.
The outbreak is one of many public health and environmental problems linked to the practice of confining thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of animals in enclosed livestock and poultry facilities that critics say are unsanitary and inhumane.
The FDA has traced the current salmonella outbreak to two massive egg producing facilities in Iowa. But today we go to Ohio, where residents there are fighting to have a say over how factory farms there are regulated. Tom Over reports.
Reporter Script :
Located about 35 miles northwest of Columbus, the state’s capital, York Center Township is like other rural communities where many have broken away reluctantly from their families’ tradition of farming.
Some of the remaining small to medium-sized family farmers here work other jobs as their primary source of income, supplementing that by growing conventional monoculture crops which they sell to cartels that dominate consolidated agricultural markets. Others lease out parts of their farm properties to people who can afford the costs of farm machinery.
But among monoculture fields of soy and Bt corn are other signs of how much farming has changed over the years. Long white buildings the size of football fields confine hundreds of thousands of egg laying hens in cages so small they can barely move. York Center has a total of 3 million chickens in a 3 mile-radius. Factory farms here produce liquid eggs for the food processing and food service industries.
“On any day you can come outside and just have this horrible reek in the air that burns and makes you squeeze your eyes shut and tears roll down your face from the horrific stench.”
Local resident and activist Cheryl Johncox.
“Your nose will run. Your throat will prickle and burn and you cough and are driven back into your home. So, on any given day, we can be a prisoner in our own homes.”
The amount of animal waste from these massive egg facilities is about equal to the amount of human waste from a small city. http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp
Residents here say there is so much chicken manure spread and sprayed on local fields the soil cannot absorb it. Some of it runs off into creeks and streams which leads to algal blooms and a depletion of the aquatic ecosystem. They also say the manure generates toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, as well as airborne pathogens.
The state doesn’t regulate airborne pollution from these mega egg farms. Johncox said no one seems to be keeping track of what happens to the chicken manure once it leaves the large egg facilities.
She said Ohio doesn’t require factory farm owners and the third party contractors that transport the chicken manure to share that information with residents or even with the state department of agriculture.
“So, this big factory farm who is a corporation, and is not a member of our community—as soon as those thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of tons of manure leave their property, they’re no longer responsible for it… If they had to look their neighbors in the face everyday, maybe they’d feel some kind of guilt or responsibility to their community. But that’s not the case.”
Despite the stench and swarms of flies, many here are wary of speaking out, such as this resident who did not want to give his name.
“We’re a bit under the gun here in York Center and we’re afraid of lawsuits really–lawyers and fees– and that can add up for us little folks who don’t have deep pockets.”
Residents have good reason to fear retribution for speaking out. In November of 2008, New Day Farms filed a civil suit against York Center resident Pam Williams. The company claimed she and township officials violated the company’s constitutional right to engage in interstate commerce.
Lawyers for Williams say New Day’s action was a strategic lawsuit against public participation, known in the legal community by the acronym SLAPP. (**Delay airing in order to get phone or in-person audio from Shawn Organ, the lead SLAPP back lawyer ?**)
A federal court in Ohio dismissed New Day’s suit against Williams, but the company never expected to win say lawyers for Williams. They say the company’s strategy has been to use the costs of litigation to discourage residents from speaking out. The owner of New Day Farms has not responded to FSRN’s request for an interview.
Johncox says lawsuits are not the only challenges residents face here.
“ Ohio law has taken away local control so the township and the county can do nothing to keep these factory farms from being placed in our communities and they’ve also taken away authority from the local health commissioners to question or look at impacts to the community before these places are sited.”
This is not only happening in Ohio, says Patty Lovera of Food and Water Watch.
“This is a nasty trend across the country…So when people start to reign these things (factory farms) in at (the level of ) their local government, you can expect to see the industry go to the next level up, to the state legislature to try to change the rules of the game to suit them better.”
Lovera says residents in states other than Ohio, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, have lost local control over factory farms.
“There are groups in Missouri that, every year, have had to go to the state legislature to fight bills that would take away their local governments’ control in siting factory farms… This is sort of the standard procedure for this industry to try to make sure the most accountable level of government–the local government–doesn’t have a say.”
Some activists seeking tougher regulations on factory farms call for a better balance between local and state control. But as far as state regulations are concerned, Lovera says states should use their departments of environmental protection to address factory farming issues instead of shifting that responsibility to their departments of agriculture.
“Typically, agriculture departments are there to promote agriculture and they’ve tended in most parts of the country–and I don’t think Ohio’s any exception– to be places that are very tolerant of very large-scale production and they often even promote it in some places.”
In 2002, state legislators took permitting control over factory farms from the Ohio EPA and gave it to the Ohio Department of Agriculture. But that transfer did NOT apply to Clean Water Act POLLUTION PERMITS. (Caps are meant for my intonation while reading my script, not for you. )
The Ohio EPA currently has control over Clean Water Act POLLUTION PERMITS for factory farms. But in December of last year, the state approved handing that control over to its department of agriculture. What is pending right now is whether the US EPA will approve that.
If EPA does approve it, that could be a set-back for efforts to protect waterways from factory farm pollution, say environmentalists. Tarah Heinzen is with the Environmental Integrity Project, a not-for-profit that advocates for more effective enforcement of environmental laws.
“Some states have given some authority over to their agricultural departments but they haven’t gone as far as Ohio in that they haven’t tried to get the (US) EPA to officially transfer the program. I think if EPA approves this transfer, other states will follow suit and try to get authority to do the same thing.”
In June, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and the Humane Society of the United States agreed on a deal that, if implemented, will halt the permitting of any new chicken factory farms
in Ohio.
The deal came about as a way for HSUS and Ohio officials to avoid a contentious and costly ballot initiative that the state was heading toward this fall after York Center residents and many other Ohioans worked with HSUS to gather 400,000 signatures to call for measures to phase in improvements in living conditions for farm animals.
The agreement between Ohio and HSUS calls for a ban, starting Jan 1, on any new facilities that use battery cages. But implementation of the deal is uncertain as the Ohio governor faces a tough bid for re-election. And even if Ohio’s deal with HSUS holds, the agreement allows existing mega egg farms here in York Center Towship and other parts of the state to continue to operate.
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