The Earth’s Open Wounds
The News
From above, the red and purple shapes look like gaping wounds on the planet’s surface. And, as it happens, that is exactly what they are. Agribusiness calls them “lagoons,” which conjure up images of pristine bodies of water, but they’re actually cesspools filled with the toxic waste of tens of thousands of animals.
Agribusiness describes their cesspools as “lagoons.” Pictured on the left: an actual lagoon
On factory farms, owners pump the animal waste from their sheds and feedlots into these man-made cesspools. Some of the sludge, which is filled with nitrates, antibiotics, bacteria and other toxins, seeps into the groundwater consumed by area residents who pump their water from wells. Most of it, however, is sprayed into the air, wreaking havoc on the communities that surround them. People who live near factory farms say that airborne liquid waste makes them sick; contaminates their drinking water; and prevents them from being able to go outside and open their windows.
Agribusinesses spray animal sludge into the air to make space in the cesspools for more waste
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “lagoons routinely burst, sending millions of gallons of manure into waterways and spreading microbes that can cause gastroenteritis, fevers, kidney failure, and death.” A study published in January concluded that surface water near North Carolina factory farms is, in fact, contaminated. According to University of North Carolina professor Steve Wing, researchers “have evidence of pig-specific bacteria in surface waters, next to industrial swine operations.”
Waste lagoon at “Judy’s Family Farm” in Sonoma Valley, California (photo: Factory Farming Awareness Coalition)
Like the factory farms themselves, the cesspools are hidden from public view. But, in 2014, Mark Devries, the director of the documentary film Speciesism, flew a drone over pork producer Smithfield Foods, exposing millions of people to a behemoth cesspool and its impact on the people who live in the community and the environment.
Ag gag laws, which criminalize the taking of photos and video on factory farms, have and will continue to compromise the ability to document these cesspools. In 2013, a National Geographic photographer was arrested for trespassing while taking photos of a feedlot in Kansas from a paraglider.
U.S. animal rights groups are fighting “ag-gag” bills
To “Jeff” above – holding ponds are NOT environmentally friendly in any way, shape, or form on these farms. We’re talking FACTORY farms here (also called CAFOs – Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).
These are places where animals – usually hundreds if not thousands of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc. never see sunlight on their faces; are kept in barns where waste – TONS of it every month – is dumped into these cesspools called “holding pools”.
The animal waste gets into the water table, contaminating ground water and our very drinking water supply. Crops OD on this animal waste and the soil is contaminated as well. Read up on it more and you’ll discover the truth – as I have.
There’s a woman in rural Michigan (I believe it’s Michigan) who investigates these places, documents what they’re doing, and tries to get them shut down. Her name is Lynn Henning, and she won the Goldman Environmental Prize several years’ back for her work. She’s a true crusader for human, animal, and environmental health. You can read more about her all over the Internet. Here’s one link:
http://www.sraproject.org/2014/01/goldman-prize-winner-lynn-henning-joins-factory-farms-fighter-srap/
THIS IS AN AMAZING AND DISGUSTING SITUATION. HOW CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH THIS? DONNY, THIS IS A TERRIFIC REPORT YOU HAVE DONE. THE WHOLE COUNTRY SHOULD SEE THIS.
We as the human race should be ashamed.
there is the human race then there is the inhumane race. we all know which one these people / companies belong to. i guarantee the owners live nowhere near these places
There is Nothing “Good, or Natural” about Factory Farms! These places are a “Hell, for the Animals”! Animals were meant to live outdoors, and be given shelter from the elements. They were meant to be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion, Not cruelty. “Ag-gag” legislation protects “Animal Abusers”, and makes criminals, out of those who “Protect Animals”, and for this reason, anyone who cares about Animals, must “OPPOSE” ag-gag bills!
It is my opinion that Factory Farms are evil places, and should NOT, exist! Greed and tryanny are the reason that Animals are Suffering. They are sentient beings, who are used, abused, and treated like “Things”, rather than the Feeling Animals, who they are. “Humans”, in their arrogance, and selfishness, have lowered themselves, to the cruelty and apathy, which is, “the factory farm, and the POOR ANIMALS, who SUFFER there, every DAY! I am Thankful that I do not eat or wear, these PRECIOUS BEINGS, WHO I LOVE –
Talk about a lot of fearmongering and finger-pointing with little basis in fact.
Even just mild research into the process behind constructing and maintaining holding ponds discredits most of this article. Manure has been used to fertilize fields for thousands of years. Using scary-sounding adjectives to describe it won’t change that. How do you think they grow the vegetables you so heroically eat?
The “holding ponds” are an outgrowth of 20th century industrialized agriculture, so manure from these toxic cesspools has not been used as fertilizer for “thousands of years.” If you can point to any inaccuracies in the article, I will edit them.