- Remember the salmonella outbreak earlier this year caused by Jack DeCoster and his dirty Wright County Egg operation in Iowa? USDA had found all sorts of violations at the Galt, Iowa, facility prior to the outbreak but failed to report them, because "the conditions at the egg plant packing facilities were routine." Filthy, disease-ridden eggs—perfectly normal. Move along.
- Purple water came pouring from the A. J. Bos mega-dairy near Nora, Illinois, in October. Brown I can explain. But purple? An attorney for Bos says EPA has no authority to intervene.
- Bos is also opposing further testing of a site for a proposed dairy site near Galena, Illinois.
- Meanwhile, the Illinois Livestock Development Group thinks it shouldn't have to follow any regulations: "If I'm operating the way I'm supposed to, what do I need a permit for and why do you need to know who I am?" says ILDG spokesman Nic Anderson. Gee, I don't know, maybe because a single confined animal feeding operation can generate as much sewage as a small city?
--------------------------------
Related: The Independent Local reports that Senators Tester and Hagan are advancing an amendment to the Food Safety Modernization Act to protect small farms and folks who market directly to consumers in farmers markets from legislation that would check the abuses of the ag-industrial complex. Groups who back local food, like the Western Organization of Resource Councils and Dakota Rural Action, as well as the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, are backing the Tester-Hagan amendment.
I think the whole law should be tossed, no matter what amendments are there, history shows us that the gov't will look the other way for big ag and squeeze the small producers still further, mark my words.
ReplyDeletejoelie