Mr. Connor: That’s the allegory.
Keith Schneider, a former national correspondent for the New York Times, is a senior editor at Circle of Blue. He has reported from six continents on the struggle for energy, food and water in the age of climate change. It was first published in new lady and circle of blue.
EDON, Ohio – For 60 years, this one traffic light in Ohio has been known as a place where time seems to have stopped. There are over 400 Amish residents. settled in and around In the rural areas that straddle the state lines of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, large families were often seen traveling in black horse-drawn wagons to and from farms where they milked cows and grew corn.
Adhering to strict religious doctrines that resist new technology, Amish farmers here have spent decades largely avoiding the industrial farming practices that have become common throughout the United States.
But the pastoral landscape of plains people diligently tilling their rich soil has been disrupted by an industrial farm partnership between one of the region’s leading Amish farmers and JBS Foods, the world’s largest beef producer. is being eroded. Over the past two years, the partnership has established a large vertically integrated cattle central feeding operation. The operation confines more than 100,000 male calves and steers to large feed sheds lined with concrete, steel and vinyl, each producing thousands of tons of solid fertilizer. day.
The work led to complaints of odor and pollution, and state investigators found uncontained fertilizer escaping from waste piles and barns and into streams and wetlands. Water samples collected by state inspectors contained high levels of nitrogen ammonia, a contaminant in fertilizers. After inspections, regulators found multiple farms had inadequate fertilizer management and issued minor fines to some farms for not obtaining proper operating permits.
In August alone, nine Amish farms were charged with violating fertilizer management regulations. The state also ordered the largest manure piles, some two and three stories high, to be removed. The farms cited are located near each other in Williams County, Ohio, and are all owned by large Amish families.
Local residents say fertilizer pollutants, which are often applied to fields as fertilizer, are leaching into waterways and polluting streams, lakes and the St. Joseph River. Water samples collected by two local environmental groups showed the continued presence of high concentrations of nitrates, phosphorus and dangerous E. coli in rivers and lakes in the region. animal excrement is Source of pollutants that cause annual toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie.
Five years ago, Ohio launched a $172 million, multi-year project aimed at curbing algal blooms by encouraging farmers to limit pollutants from their fields. But critics say the effort appears to have failed because of new large-scale feeding operations on several farms.
The situation infuriated Sandy Bing, executive director of Lake Erie Waterkeeper, who has worked for decades with local, national and bilateral groups to cure Lake Erie’s annual toxic bloom. There is.
“Having 100,000 animals and all the nitrate and phosphorus they produce flowing into watersheds that we’re investing millions, if not billions, of dollars to protect. How is that possible?” Bin said. “This shows how Meat and JBS can control the system.”
Neither family farm manager Noah Schumacher Jr. nor JBS executives were interviewed for this report. Executives at Wagler & Associates, an Indiana construction company heavily involved in building the feed barn, declined to be interviewed.
When asked about the concerns, Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Brian Baldridge said the department “continues to work with all property owners to ensure they are in compliance with Ohio laws and regulations.” .
national concern
What are commonly referred to as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) were developed in Eddon because of the known public health and environmental risks they pose, and communities across the country seek to prevent or limit CAFOs. This comes as the initiative expands. CAFOs produce most of the country’s milk, meat, and eggs, but state and federal assessments show that large amounts of fertilizer and other waste discharges from CAFOs are a major source of serious water pollution problems. It has become.
Phosphorus from pig, dairy, and poultry CAFOs has been linked to toxic algal blooms that occur annually in Lake Erie, Chesapeake Bay, Lake Champlain, and other iconic American waters. nitrate current from CAFO waste in the Mississippi River Basin states is a major contributor to the vast dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finally Summer sues three major dairy farms for control of fertilizer waste It is contaminating groundwater in Washington state and has directed state officials to stop polluting CAFO waste in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oregon.
California CAFO Critics put an issue to a vote In Tuesday’s general election, Sonoma County aims to become the first county in the nation to ban CAFOs, also known as “factory farms.” This measure failed due to strong opposition from agricultural and business interests.
“Our bread and butter”
For people living in and around Edon, the concerns are deep. More than 100 lakes in the area are currently being damaged, said Susan Catterall, a mother of five from the area who has become a leader in an environmental coalition opposed to large-scale cattle feeding. It is said to be a certain “heritage.”
Photo by J. Carl Gunter, Circle of Blue.
“It’s our bread and butter, it’s our tourism revenue. It’s our heritage,” she said. “We’re being spoiled. There are farms that are polluting our county with incredible amounts of fertilizer.”
Amish farms in the region feed male calves born to Angus bulls and Holstein cows from dairy farms in neighboring states, according to public documents outlining business plans for cattle feeding operations. Breeding. As 3,000 market cows weighing 600 to 700 pounds leave each week to be fattened in the finishing feedlot, approximately 3,000 calves arrive weekly to feed for several months.
Their final destination is JBS’s processing plant in Plainwell, Michigan, where an average of 1,400 cows are slaughtered each day. Animals containing 51% or more black skin can be sold by JBS as the more expensive, certified “Select” and “Prime” Angus beef.
competitive concerns
Amish farmers in the area are still identified by their buggies, beards, and plain clothing, but the farmers now coexist with dozens of large concrete, steel, and vinyl cattle feed barns under construction. There is.
Trucks carrying calves and cows now crowd highways and narrow dirt roads from farms to markets. And the pile of manure rests like a sleeping beast next to a locked-up barn.
Odor and contamination associated with cattle feeding operations are just one concern. Some observers believe that as JBS and other corporate beef suppliers increasingly establish supply chains dedicated to contracts with specific farmers, other farmers lose their ability to compete in an open competitive market, leaving the final They say they will lose their livelihood.
“The livestock industry is really the last frontier,” said Bill Bullard, a former South Dakota rancher and CEO of R-CALF USA, an independent cattle ranching industry group.
“We still sell about 20% of our cattle on open competitive or spot markets. What’s at risk here is that these vertically integrated systems could eliminate the cash market for the cattle industry. In the last five years alone, we’ve lost about 107,000 head of independent beef cattle, and they’re dropping like flies.”
(This report is co-published with Circle of Blue and is part of an ongoing series examining how agricultural policy impacts human and environmental health.)
