A new report by a national environmental group cites major agricultural companies as culprits behind much of the pollution that scientists say causes the Gulf of Mexico’s so-called dead zone every summer, The Courier reports.
The report was released Thursday by the Environment America Research and Policy Center. It uses publicly available data to document pollution from Tyson and four other major agriculture conglomerates the group claims is responsible for an estimated 44% of the pork, chicken and beef produced in the U.S.
The other companies are Smithfield, Cargill, JBS and Perdue.
“When most people think of water pollution, they think of industrial pipes spewing toxic chemicals,” says John Rumpler, senior attorney with Environment America and author of the report. “But this report shows how, increasingly, corporations like Tyson are turning farms into factories and ruining our rivers and bays in the process.”
“Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America’s Waterways” points to the hundreds of billions of pounds of farm fertilizer and animal waste produced every year by five of the largest agribusiness companies in the United States, the center says.
The report drew the immediate attention of the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based environmental group that has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, claiming the agency has failed to enforce federal-state agreements to curb such pollution. That lawsuit continues to wind through the federal courts.
Three weeks ago, scientists estimated that this summer’s area of low- to no-oxygen in the Gulf will cover about 5,898 square miles, about average for the last five years but still the size of Connecticut. The area us unable to support marine life, which either must escape those waters or die.
Scientists and environmentalists have long cited fertilizer runoff, known as nutrients, flowing down the Mississippi River as the dead zone’s main cause.
The Courier has the full story.
