Meat-eaters put a lot of faith in USDA inspection facilities, which are often overwhelmed by an endless flow of animals ready for slaughter to meet our seemingly endless demand for meat.
<p>Cutting back on meat has tremendous <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/cut-beef-consumption-help-environment--2639232980.html" target="_self">benefits for the environment</a>. And, it may keep you safe from food-borne illnesses when there's a slip-up at a processing plant like the one that happened recently in Chino, CA.</p>
<div id="c6041" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0GZWR01576661502"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1153379430766653440" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#NowReading - Cut beef consumption in half to help save the earth, says new study https://t.co/7ZMc557NNT via… https://t.co/Rm7NaPdY8Q</div> — World Resources Inst (@World Resources Inst)<a href="https://twitter.com/WorldResources/statuses/1153379430766653440">1563822059.0</a></blockquote></div><p>American Beef Packers Inc., recalled nearly 25,000 pounds of raw beef that are not safe to eat last weekend, according to a <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2019/recall-089-2019-release" target="_blank">statement</a> from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.<br></p><p>Inspectors at the facility pulled a possibly contaminated carcass off of the production line and took a few samples for testing. While they were waiting for the results to come back, the questionable carcass was released into the production line where it was butchered into various cuts and ground meat mix, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/05/health/beef-recall-aug-31-wellness-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. </p><p>The wholesale distributor sent the questionable meats out to various places in California and Oregon, according to the USDA.</p>
<p>Anyone in those states who buys beef should look for establishment number "EST. 34741" inside the USDA mark of inspection, the USDA said.</p>
<p>While there are no confirmed cases of illnesses due to this batch of meat, the USDA is concerned that some of it is in the fridges and freezers of people in California and Oregon. The Food Safety and Inspection Service urges people who have bought beef recently <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/8ac77cc3-2f87-428d-b88e-0d82e09fa20e/089-2019-Labels.pdf?MOD=AJPERES" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to check</a> the label for EST. 34741 and, if it is found, either throw it away or return it to the store where it was bought, according to its <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2019/recall-089-2019-release" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, another massive recall was underway when Tyson recalled nearly 40,000 pounds of its Weaver chicken patties after some consumers found pieces of rubber in their meal, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tyson-foods-recall/tyson-recalls-nearly-40000-pounds-of-weaver-chicken-patties-idUSKCN1V61PL" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. </p>
<p>In that instance, the USDA labeled the recall as Class 1, the strictest classification of recall where the product may cause serious harm or death. The USDA classification rubric says of a Class 1 recall, "This is a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death."</p>
<p>Tyson, the country's largest meat processor, did not say how many customers found rubber in their food. Nor did it disclose how the rubber from the machines used for processing slipped into the patties, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tyson-foods-recall/tyson-recalls-nearly-40000-pounds-of-weaver-chicken-patties-idUSKCN1V61PL" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>That recall followed one just a few months earlier of 12-million pounds of frozen ready-to-eat chicken strips, which may have been contaminated. </p>
<div id="13367" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="THDI3Y1576661502"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1114179958237204481" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">One more reason to leave out buying burgers for you summer BBQ.
https://t.co/PwKWagOQNP</div> — Ecogreenlabs (@Ecogreenlabs)<a href="https://twitter.com/ecogreenlabs/statuses/1114179958237204481">1554476177.0</a></blockquote></div>
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'Dangerous Proposal': USDA Seeking to Replace Government Inspectors at Beef Slaughter Plants With Private Employees
11 June 2019
Food
USDA Food Safety Inspection Service inspector examines frozen meat in New Orleans. U.S. Department of Agriculture / Flickr
By Julia Conley
In an apparent effort to boost profits for meat manufacturers despite potential harms to food safety, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is reportedly planning to privatize inspections of beef slaughter plants.
<p>Food and Water Watch <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/confirmed-usda-now-pursuing-privatized-beef-inspections?ms=some_tw_06102019_privatization-beef-inspection" target="_blank">reported</a> Monday that the USDA is pursuing deregulation of the food inspection system that has been used for years at beef slaughterhouses. The information came from documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.</p><p>The group released an <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/tyson_request_to_create_beef_himp_pilot.pdf" target="_blank">application</a> from beef, pork, and poultry manufacturer Tyson Foods, in which the company requested a waiver to allow Tyson employees to conduct more inspections at its beef plant in Holcolm, Kansas, instead of relying on USDA food safety inspectors.</p><p>"This dangerous proposal could rid beef slaughter plants of most government inspectors," Food and Water Watch said in a statement.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: We have obtained documents that confirm the USDA is seeking to privatize inspections of beef slaughterhouses. <br><br>This dangerous proposal could rid beef slaughter plants of most government inspectors. <a href="https://t.co/jNospAvLYn">https://t.co/jNospAvLYn</a> <a href="https://t.co/cbx4fo6lHy">pic.twitter.com/cbx4fo6lHy</a></p>— Food & Water Watch (@foodandwater) <a href="https://twitter.com/foodandwater/status/1138154646197932033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The documents were uncovered after many recent denials by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) that it plans to privatize inspections of mass-produced beef, Food and Water Watch stated.</p><p>Tyson's proposal comes 21 years after FSIS first launched a pilot program in more than two dozen poultry and pork plants in which government food safety inspectors were replaced by the manufacturers' own inspectors, allowing the companies to regulate themselves.</p><p>In 2013, the USDA's inspector general found that the agency "did not critically assess whether the new inspection process had measurably improved food safety at each plant" that produced pork.</p><p>The following year, FSIS expanded the program to the entire poultry industry. The agency will not conduct an assessment of the new system's effects on food safety until 2022.</p><p>"The previous attempts at privatized inspection have led to weaker food safety performance and are a ploy by the industry to increase line speeds," said Tony Corbo, a senior lobbyist with Food and Water Watch.</p><p>Despite a lack of evidence that the privatized food safety inspection system is making food safer — and CDC data <a href="https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/news/foodborne-illness-is-on-the-rise-says-cdc/" target="_blank">showing</a> that foodborne illnesses from foods including chicken have been on the rise since 2015 — FSIS is weakening standards in order to increase the speed with which meat is processed, allowing for greater manufacturing profits.</p><p>"The Tyson plant in Holcomb, Kansas is approved to operate at the current maximum line speed allowable" said Corbo. "FSIS management has had difficulty meeting its inspection staffing requirements in the past in western Kansas, which has contributed to beef slaughter plants not being able to maintain maximum line speeds. Tyson's solution seems to be to get rid of the government inspectors."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/10/dangerous-foodborne-illness-rise-usda-seeking-privatization-food-safety-inspection?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Tyson Foods Recalls Almost 200,000 Pounds of Chicken Fritters After Schools Find Plastic Parts
11 June 2019
Food
alimusicva / iStock / Getty Images
Tyson Foods is recalling nearly 200,000 pounds of chicken fritters after three schools complained of plastic in the items, CNN reported Monday.
<p>The Fully Cooked, Whole Grain Golden Crispy Chicken Chunk Fritters were not sent to retail stores, but were shipped nationwide to institutions including school cafeterias. They were not included in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/food/" target="_self">food</a> distributed as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National School Lunch Program, the agency said in its <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2019/recall-066-2019-release" target="_blank">recall notice Friday</a>.</p>
<div id="25a83" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="A0KB811576664066"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1137204176646279168" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Recall: Tyson Foods, Inc. Recalls Ready-To-Eat Chicken Fritter Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamina... https://t.co/CcrRBCbOsJ</div> — USDA Food Safety (@USDA Food Safety)<a href="https://twitter.com/USDAFoodSafety/statuses/1137204176646279168">1559965578.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Two customers reported finding clear plastic and soft gray plastic in the fritters, the <a href="https://www.tysonfoods.com/news/news-releases/2019/6/tyson-foods-voluntarily-recalls-limited-amounts-foodservice-chicken" target="_blank">company said in a statement</a>.<br></p><p>"Even though these reports are limited, out of an abundance of caution, the company is recalling 5,814 cases of product," the Pennsylvania-based company wrote.</p><p>That amounts to around 190,757 pounds.</p><p>"There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider," USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said.</p><p>It has been a rough year for Tyson's chicken products. In January, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tyson-chicken-nuggets-recall-2627540782.html" target="_self">company recalled</a> 36,420 pounds of chicken nuggets over rubber contamination. Then, in March, it <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tyson-chicken-recall-metal-2632462708.html" target="_self">recalled almost 70,000 pounds</a> of chicken strips after customers found metal fragments in the meat. That <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tyson-recall-chicken-strips-2636414395.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">recall was later expanded</a> to almost 12 million pounds in May after three people were injured by metal in the chicken strips.</p><p>This time around, the impacted products were produced Feb. 28. They have an establishment number of "P-1325" inside the USDA mark of inspection, FSIS said. The full product info is as follows:</p><blockquote>32.81-lb. cases containing four 8.2-lb. bags of "FULLY COOKED, WHOLE GRAIN GOLDEN CRISPY CHICKEN CHUNK FRITTERS-CN" and case code 0599NHL02.</blockquote><p>"FSIS is concerned that some product may be in food service freezers," the agency warned. "Food service locations who have purchased these products are urged not to serve them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase."</p><p>The fritters were sent to distribution centers in 29 states, specifically Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tyson-chicken-recall-2019-95-tons-of-chicken-fritters-after-plastic-parts-found/" target="_blank">CBS News reported</a>.</p>
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Mighty Earth
By Reynard Loki
Whole Foods bills itself as "America's healthiest grocery store," but what it's doing to the environment is anything but healthy. According to a new report, the chain is helping to drive one of the nation's worst human-made environmental disasters: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
<p>By not requiring environmental safeguards from its meat suppliers, the world's largest natural and organic foods supermarket—and most of its big-brand counterparts in the retail food industry, like McDonald's, Subway and Target—are sourcing and selling meat from some of the worst polluters in agribusiness, including Tyson Foods and Cargill. The animal waste and fertilizer runoff from their industrial farms end up in the Gulf of Mexico, where each summer, a growing marine wasteland spreads for thousands of miles, leaving countless dead wildlife in its oxygen-depleted wake.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxODAxOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDk1OTY0OH0.SvgeUyvdxTYiFZQKBxx-MNIthXvnaxWgAu3gaxVLtzc/img.jpg?width=980" id="ccb8c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="55d8018dcb6486049536cced27966957" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Community members and environmental activists demonstrate outside Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, on August 2, 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p>"The major meat producers like Tyson and Cargill that have consolidated control over the market have the leverage to dramatically improve the supply chain," according to the report, which was released by <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/" target="_blank">Mighty Earth</a>, an environmental action group based in Washington, DC. "Yet to date they have done little," the report's authors note, "ignoring public concerns and allowing the environmentally damaging practices for feeding and raising meat to expand largely unchecked."<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzgyOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDQ5MjExNX0.ouQe8cwV_Cdox_h7s_d9Reo97brD2tIS23w0I056nw0/img.png?width=980" id="7fbda" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7cc54b9a14082ac9d7229624879d57c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">How animal feed moves through the meat supply chain.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p>On Aug. 2, the day the report was released, those public concerns found a voice as citizens, environmentalists and sustainability advocates gathered outside Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, to deliver 95,000 petition signatures demanding that the company hold its meat suppliers accountable for their role in destroying the environment.<br></p><p>"Grocery stores like Walmart and Whole Foods and meal outlets like McDonald's and Burger King have the power to set and enforce standards requiring better farming practices from suppliers," states the report, which Mighty Earth says is the "first comprehensive assessment of major US food brands on their environmental standards and performance for sourced meat."</p><h2>Feeding the Nation, Failing the Environment</h2><p>Ranking the largest food companies in the U.S. based on their sustainability policies for meat production, the report found that the biggest players in the food industry—including major fast food, grocery and food service companies—are failing to protect the environment from the impact of their supply chains. Remarkably, the researchers found that not a single one of the 23 major brands surveyed have policies in place to require "even minimal environmental protections from meat suppliers."</p><p>Even more startling is that so-called "green" brands like Whole Foods that have built their reputations on providing sustainable food options have, according to the report, "failed to commit to environmentally responsible farming practices that protect drinking water, prevent agricultural runoff and curb climate emissions."</p><p>The <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/meat-scorecard" target="_blank">23 companies surveyed</a> were evaluated on their requirements for meat suppliers regarding where they source their animal feed, how they process their animals' manure and how they manage their greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p><a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/meat-scorecard" target="_blank">All but one of the companies scored an "F"</a> overall for their environmental policies (or lack thereof) for meat sourcing. The only company to score better than an "F" was Walmart, which received a "D" due to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain, as well as the launching of programs meant to improve the management of manure and <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/is-walmart-the-key-to-making-american-farming-more-sustainable-37af74a3ce22/" target="_blank">increase the sustainability of corn and soy farming</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzgzNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Mjc4OTE2OX0.0X8x68Yv2M8MecUjHIMzFk3BLBOktQcJrVNv6A0Kqq0/img.jpg?width=980" id="aa6fc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="904d8b2e353ca31289c7792791596832" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Soil erosion and agricultural runoff are the top sources of water pollution in the U.S.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><h2>Dead Cows on Your Plate, Dead Fish in the Ocean</h2><p>In oceans and large lakes across the globe, human activities are creating oxygen-depleted areas where marine life can no longer survive. These hypoxic areas, currently numbering <a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-zones-are-a-global-water-pollution-challenge-but-with-sustained-effort-they-can-come-back-to-life-96077" target="_blank">more than 400 around the globe</a>, are commonly known as "dead zones," and are caused by an increase in certain chemical nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus that drive the massive growth of algae, causing the spread of deadly "algal blooms." As the algae decomposes, their biomass consumes the oxygen in the water, suffocating fish and other marine life.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzg1Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODgxNzUzMn0.45UR_nBUGa6FIn9kQ_VnPJ8L72HYHc7mNiDVmq43cao/img.jpg?width=980" id="2c4e8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ec69a8e1ecc6d5e426b539fe1e5d7241" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Algal blooms are harmful to ecosystems because the blooming organisms contain toxins, noxious chemicals or pathogens. They also suck up all the oxygen, killing fish and other marine life.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</small></p><p>In the U.S. the largest recurring dead zone is located in the Gulf of Mexico, mainly off the coast of Louisiana, and extending east to the Mississippi River Delta and west to Texas. The Gulf acts as a massive drainage basin for polluted water containing <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Meat-Pollution-in-America.pdf" target="_blank">manure and fertilizer runoff coming from the American heartland</a>, from major beef-producing states like Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. During summer months, this area becomes a 7,000-mile-wide lifeless region—the only reminders of past life being the bodies of fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine animals that have suffocated due to a lack of oxygen. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is the<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180607120724.htm" target="_blank"> second-largest human-caused dead zone</a> in the world, after the hypoxic zone in the <a href="https://www.zmescience.com/science/oman-gulf-dead-zone-2924534/" target="_blank">Gulf of Oman</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzkwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzcwNDYwMX0.bcDzLCp92jOQY7WnoNr9RyAljq7s5jZ61HZ5p3D4GL0/img.jpg?width=980" id="b726c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2bf6753427cecaa6f9abb99fe6c8e8f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin drains approximately 41 percent of the contiguous United States that includes all or part of 31 states and two Canadian provinces. Map scale is approximately 2,000 miles across.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="http://deq.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/Water/LA_Nutrient_Management_Strategy_FINAL_May2014.pdf" target="_blank">Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality</a></small></p><p>"Excess nutrients bleeding off fertilized crops constitute the overwhelming source—over 70 percent—of the nutrient pollution that causes the Gulf Dead Zone," Donald Boesch, a professor of marine science and former president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, told the Independent Media Institute.<br></p><p>In August 2017, scientists measured the Gulf of Mexico dead zone and found that it was at its <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-is-largest-ever-measured" target="_blank">largest since the mapping of the zone began in 1985</a>—more than 8,000 square miles. But recently, scientists reported that the area is only about 40 percent of its average size. That doesn't mean that it is no longer an issue. "Although the area is small this year, we should not think that the low-oxygen problem in the Gulf of Mexico is solved," Nancy Rabalais, a marine ecologist at Louisiana State University and the lead scientist of the study, <a href="https://www.apnews.com/622dc4fde853414a81602d56596566c6" target="_blank">told </a><a href="https://www.apnews.com/622dc4fde853414a81602d56596566c6" target="_blank">T</a><a href="https://www.apnews.com/622dc4fde853414a81602d56596566c6" target="_blank">he Associated Press</a>. "We are not close to the goal size for this hypoxic area."</p><p><a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/10601/IssueBrief3.pdf" target="_blank">Nearly half (45 percent)</a> of the Earth's landmass is being farmed by the global industrial livestock system, which includes both the animals killed for human consumption and the crops used to feed those animals. The current human population, 7.6 billion, is <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/533935054/u-n-says-world-s-population-will-reach-9-8-billion-by-2050" target="_blank">expected</a> to swell to 9.8 billion by the year 2050. And if <a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise" target="_blank">most of </a><a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise" target="_blank">them</a><a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise" target="_blank"> will be meat-eaters</a>, the negative impact of the meat industry on marine ecosystems and coastal communities, if not addressed soon, will surely get worse. According to NASA, "The number and size of ocean dead zones is closely connected to human population density." It's basic math: More people means more meat-eaters, and more meat production means more and bigger dead zones.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzkyMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDExODMzM30.MMHFKSCvSFsBf_Ti2MjAKElns-05UJnKCRein63yDOc/img.jpg?width=980" id="aaf97" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7b82eaff2daee02c3af177c831ccecf0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Red circles show the location and size of many dead zones. Black dots show dead zones of unknown size. The size and number of marine dead zones—areas where the deep water is so low in dissolved oxygen that sea creatures can't survive—have grown explosively in the past half-century.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">NASA Earth Observatory, 2008</small></p><h2>More Pathogens, More Pollutants, Less Profit</h2><p>Dead zones could also introduce a host of public and animal health issues. Boesch points out that "various pathogenic microorganisms can thrive" in hypoxic areas. A 2012 <a href="https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article/79/3/773/493070" target="_blank">study</a> published in FEMS Microbiology Ecology discovered "sequences affiliated with Clostridium," a human pathogen that <a href="http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/botulism" target="_blank">causes botulism and diarrhea</a>, in the hypoxic zone of China's Lake Taihu. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warns that algal blooms contain cyanobacteria, "which are <a href="http://www.regions.noaa.gov/great-lakes/index.php/project/harmful-algal-blooms/" target="_blank">poisonous to humans and deadly to livestock and pets</a>."</p><p>Renee Dufault is a former environmental health officer for the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the founder of the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute. Dufault told the Independent Media Institute that the antibiotics and hormones injected into animals raised for food "are pollutants themselves when they are released from manure via surface water runoff into streams that may be used as drinking water supplies."</p><p>Dead zones also have economic impacts that harm local communities. The NOAA estimates that marine dead zones cost the U.S. food and tourism industries <a href="https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/cscor-provides-testimony-to-congress-in-support-of-harmful-algae-and-hypoxia-law/" target="_blank">$82 </a><a href="https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/cscor-provides-testimony-to-congress-in-support-of-harmful-algae-and-hypoxia-law/" target="_blank">million</a><a href="https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/cscor-provides-testimony-to-congress-in-support-of-harmful-algae-and-hypoxia-law/" target="_blank"> every year</a>.</p><h2>Risky Business: Eating Meat</h2><p>The main source of water contamination in the U.S. is the manure and fertilizer coming from industrial farms that grow feed to raise animals to be killed for human consumption.</p><p>The production of meat isn't just one of the most polluting of all human activities, contaminating waterways and driving the growth of dead zones across the world; it's literally bulldozing the planet's landscape. By converting rainforests and prairies into industrial farms, large-scale meat producers are responsible for the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/is-the-livestock-industry-destroying-the-planet-11308007/" target="_blank">widespread destruction of many of the planet's native ecosystems</a>, which threatens wildlife by destroying native habitats and releases stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further exacerbating climate change. Animals raised for food produce 42 percent of agricultural emissions in the U.S. Two-thirds of those gases are emitted directly by those animals in the form of belches and farts. And the majority of those emissions—around <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/" target="_blank">44 percent</a>—is methane, a greenhouse gas that is <a href="https://blogs.princeton.edu/research/2014/03/26/a-more-potent-greenhouse-gas-than-co2-methane-emissions-will-leap-as-earth-warms-nature/" target="_blank">30 times more potent</a> than carbon dioxide.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.iatp.org/emissions-impossible" target="_blank">report</a> released in July by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy offers some perspective: The top five meat and dairy companies, including Tyson and Cargill, emit more greenhouse gases combined than ExxonMobil, Shell or BP.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzk1NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDU2NjY2MX0.8PHnXTmoKQ7GWutobHPZPzxSKwxuplm1XkWwOgY3ISo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b4094" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cbc9a0dd7752670c92aaae92922e8788" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">This NASA satellite image shows deforestation in the state of Rondonia in western Brazil, where land has been converted for cattle farming. In 2017, Brazil exported 1.3 million metric tons of beef to the United States, worth $6.2 billion.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">NASA</small></p><h2>A Few Bright Spots<br></h2><p>The Mighty Earth report does note a few positive developments. Of the sectors studied, the food service industry that caters meals to universities and hospitals "is doing the most to promote plant-based diets, with Aramark reporting that 30 percent of its menus offer non-meat options and Sodexo reducing beef consumption through its mushroom-blended burger initiative." And McDonald's states that it is moving toward <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/McDonalds.pdf" target="_blank">100 percent sustainably certified soy by 2020</a> to feed the chickens it sources in Europe. (Unfortunately, that requirement isn't in place for U.S. suppliers.)</p><p>"Bright spots were few and far between," the report states, "but indicate that awareness is growing and improvements are possible."</p><p>Possible, yes. But probable? The food industry has shown a reluctance to enact sustainable practices, but has sometimes responded to consumer demand for change. "Many of these companies have set requirements for meat suppliers to improve practices around animal welfare and antibiotic overuse when the public pressured them to do so," Mighty Earth campaign director Lucia von Reusner told the Independent Media Institute. Her organization is hoping that their report will help raise public awareness, and that in turn will spur change within the industry.</p><p>"The public is now waking up to the industry's polluting practices and demanding improvements," she said.</p><h2>Reforming the Meat Industry</h2><p>One of the biggest misperceptions that the general public has about dead zones, says Boesch, is that "there is nothing we can do about them." He points out that, "although experience in other parts of the world shows that while it may take years for the excess nutrients to wash out of the watershed and [be] purged from bottom sediments, we can eventually breathe life back into dead zones if we reduce nutrient pollution. We are now seeing the dead zone in the Chesapeake gradually becoming less severe and smaller."</p><p>The Mighty Earth report recommends that meat producers start employing better farming practices to help curtail the destruction. One way to reduce the need of fertilizers on crops used to feed livestock, for example, is to use cover crops, which involves planting certain species on fields that can suffocate weeds, control pests and diseases, reduce soil erosion, improve soil health, boost water availability and increase biodiversity—all of which would benefit any farm. Mighty Earth also recommends that meat producers employ better fertilizer management, conserve native vegetation and centralize manure processing.</p><p>"The environmental damage caused by the meat industry is driving some of the most urgent threats to the future of our food system—from contaminated waters to depleted soils and a destabilized climate," von Reusner said. "More sustainable farming practices are urgently needed if we are going to feed a growing population on a planet of finite resources."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<a href="https://mighty.maphubs.com/map/public-embed/HyWMLJ68b/interactive" target="_blank"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzk5My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDY5NDYzMX0.2eMO-5Rt6mpcAB6e_hviy1Qpn9IEqTMENN4sIHsQ4zY/img.png?width=980" id="86c60" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bc7fdc5310b7caaaa13233505a15d856" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></a>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Map of nitrate levels by watersheds, 2016 overlaid with Tyson and top feed supplier facilities (<a href="https://mighty.maphubs.com/map/public-embed/HyWMLJ68b/interactive" target="_blank">View Larger Map</a>)</small></p><p>Unfortunately, there is little that the federal government is doing on this front. "Runoff pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from producing meat are largely unregulated in the US," von Reusner notes. "There need to be much stronger regulations that protect our waters and climate from the meat industry's pollution."<br></p><p>Boesch notes that an <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-03/documents/2001_04_04_msbasin_actionplan2001.pdf" target="_blank">action plan</a> agreed upon in 2001 by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force was meant to scale down the amount of nutrient pollution in the Gulf by 30 percent. But, he says the plan "lacks teeth." Consequently, he said, "not only has the Gulf's dead zone <em>not</em> shrunk, but the concentrations of polluting nutrients in the Mississippi River have not declined—and may have even increased."</p><p>In the meantime, polluting the Gulf with meat production runoff continues apace. The 2001 federal and state action plan, which was reaffirmed and amended in 2008, hasn't achieved its goal to reduce the hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA scientists have forecasted this summer's dead zone to be "<a href="http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/average-sized-dead-zone-forecast-for-gulf-of-mexico" target="_blank">similar to the 33-year average Gulf dead zone of 5,460 square miles</a>," which the agency points out is about the size of Connecticut. "This should be getting more attention by regulators, lawmakers and industry," said Boesch. "Unfortunately, the industry has worked with politicians to prevent regulations."</p><p>He notes that the plan to revive the Chesapeake Bay has each state "allocated a certain amount of reduction in nutrient pollution and is under a legally binding agreement under the Clean Water Act to accomplish this by 2025." But there is no such legal force when it comes to the Mississippi Basin states that are polluting the Gulf. Those states, says Boesch, "have never even been assigned an amount of pollution reduction for which they are responsible, much less been bound to it. The states have resisted even this first step in accepting responsibility. All efforts are strictly voluntary. So, there can be little wonder why, despite the commitment to reduce the size of the dead zone by two-thirds, there has been virtually no reduction in polluting nutrients discharged by the river after 17 years."</p><p>While reforming the meat industry's unsustainable practices is a way to stop the spread of dead zones, change from within isn't coming quickly enough. That's where consumers can play a vital role, says von Reusner. "Consumers need to demand that their favorite food companies provide more sustainable options by requiring more sustainable farming practices from meat suppliers."</p><p><em><a href="https://truthout.org/authors/reynard-loki/" target="_blank">Reynard Loki</a> is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent for <a href="http://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by <a href="http://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
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Missouri state lawmakers passed an omnibus agriculture bill on Thursday that includes a provision prohibiting plant-based products from being labeled as "meat."
This measure would ban companies from using the term "plant-based meat" to describe their products. It would also prevent any future lab-grown products that hit the market from using the labeling.
<p>
The change was approved on a 125-22 vote and was backed by the state's pork producers, the Missouri Farm Bureau and the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, the <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/fake-meat-can-t-be-labeled-as-meat-missouri-lawmakers/article_9bc086cf-2cda-5f34-a527-93bd4b2a707e.html" target="_blank">St. Louis Dispatch</a> reported.
</p><p>
<span></span>Critics see the act as an attempt from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/beef">beef</a> lobby to clamp down on the $5 billion "fake" meat industry, which has boomed from the public's increasing appetite for healthier, more humane and environmentally sustainable food products.
</p><p>
A recent Nielsen poll found
<a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2017/plant-based-proteins-are-gaining-dollar-share-among-north-americans.html" target="_blank">23 percent</a> of consumers want more plant-based proteins on the shelves. <a href="http://www.healthfocus.com/">HealthFocus International</a> also found that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/the-fight-against-fake-meat-has-officially-begun.html" target="_blank">60 percent</a> of U.S. consumers said they are reducing their consumption of meat-based products.
</p><p>
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tyson-foods-clean-meat-2529938894.html">Earlier this year</a>, Tyson Foods, one of the largest meat companies in the U.S., announced it is ramping up its investment in lab-grown animal protein in response to growing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/meat-consumption" target="_blank">demand for meat</a> worldwide. The company's venture capital arm purchased a minority stake in <a href="http://www.memphismeats.com/" target="_blank">Memphis Meats</a>, a San Francisco-based "clean" meat startup.
</p><p>
Still, Big Beef perceives meatless meats as
<a href="https://www.globalmeatnews.com/Article/2018/04/13/US-fake-meat-war-escalates" target="_blank">a threat</a> to the industry. Major national trade bodies such as the United States Cattlemen's Association, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the National Farmers Union have each petitioned the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/usda">United States Agricultural Department</a> over the labeling issue.
</p><p>
Missouri will be the first state in the country to enact such legislation if the bill, sponsored by state Sen. Brian Munzlinger, is signed into law. The state's House already passed their own version.
</p><p>
The act "prohibits misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry."
</p><p>
However, "misrepresentation is already prohibited by federal law; the intent of this bill is to censor labeling terms in plant-based products," Jessica Almy, director of policy at the <a href="https://www.gfi.org/" target="_blank">Good Food Institute</a>, a nonprofit that promotes plant-based and clean meat, noted to <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/food/2018/05/missouri-meat-fake-lab-grown-plant-based-pork-beef/" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a>.
</p><p>
She added that the term "plant-based meat" already makes it clear that a product is made from plants, and banning the term would "present a serious hurdle to manufacturers trying to describe their products."
</p><p>
The state's bill sends a signal to other states to introduce similar legislation, said Mike Deering, the executive vice president of the Missouri Cattleman's Association.
</p><p>
"This isn't a Missouri issue. This is about protecting the integrity of the products that farm and ranch families throughout the country work hard to raise each and every day," Deering said in a
<a href="https://www.mocattle.org/newspublications1.aspx?NewsID=1859&utm_source=Ag+Insider+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c9f46369df-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b0e8c666dd-c9f46369df-55783349" target="_blank">statement</a>. "I never imagined we would be fighting over what is and isn't meat. It seems silly. However, this is very real and I cannot stress enough the importance of this issue. We are beyond pleased to see this priority legislation cross the finish line."
</p><p>
Missouri's bill is akin to a measure announced in France this month that bans food producers from labelling plant-based products as a meat item.
</p><p>
Deering added that he does not oppose plant-based or lab-grown products. Rather, he wants to reduce customer confusion over the labeling.
</p><p>
"This legislation does not stifle technology, but it does ensure the integrity of our meat supply and reduces consumer confusion. We must ensure that those products do not mislead consumers into thinking those products are actually meat produced by farm and ranch families," he said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="da035" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="SB3EBZ1576662771"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="963939689899098112" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New Online Calculator Lets You See the Impact of Your Meat Intake https://t.co/zjGCpuX6xV @TheVeganSociety @YourDailyVegan</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/963939689899098112">1518656105.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
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One of the largest meat companies in the U.S. is ramping up its investment in lab-grown animal protein in response to growing demand for meat worldwide.
Tyson Foods, which supplies about one in five pounds of chicken, beef and pork produced in the U.S., announced Monday that their venture capital arm had purchased a minority stake in Memphis Meats, a San Francisco-based "clean" meat startup.
<p> Tyson has also invested in <a href="http://beyondmeat.com" target="_blank">Beyond Meat</a>, a startup that produces plant-based meat alternatives, and other Memphis Meat investors include Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Cargill. Tyson CEO Tom Hayes explained in a <a href="https://www.tysonfoods.com/who-we-are/the-feed/why-we-are-investing-alternative-proteins" target="_blank">statement</a> that the company is "giving our growing population more ways to feel good about the protein they're eating" and "giving today's consumers what they want and feeding tomorrow's consumers sustainably for years to come." </p><p>As reported by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tyson-lab-grown-meat-startup-memphis-meats-bill-gates-2018-1" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Proponents of food that mimics meat argue that it's more environmentally friendly than raising traditional livestock. Globally, traditional animal farming accounts for about <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/one-third-of-our-greenhouse-gas-emissions-come-from-agriculture-1.11708" target="_blank">18%</a> of greenhouse emissions, uses <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/news-release/gfpr-2016-press-release" target="_blank">47,000</a> square miles of land annually, and exhausts <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/impacts/water_use/" target="_blank">70%</a> of the world's water.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">Tyson faced<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tyson-foods-animal-abuse-report-2017-12" target="_blank"> controversy</a> in the last few years over allegations of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tyson-foods-results-idUSKBN15L1DF" target="_blank">price fixing</a> and <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/08/10/facing-animal-abuse-allegations-tyson-foods-retrain-poultry-workers/88544680/" target="_blank">chicken abuse</a>, but Tyson CEO Tom Hayes <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/07/tyson-foods-ceo-future-food-might-be-meatless.html" target="_blank">said</a> the company is committed to contributing to a sustainable food system.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">The plant-based meat industry is expected to <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40508181/get-ready-for-a-meatless-meat-explosion-as-big-food-gets-on-board" target="_blank">grow globally</a> in coming years, despite the fact that <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-02/have-a-meaty-new-year-americans-will-eat-record-amount-in-2018" target="_blank">red meat consumption</a> may hit an all-time high this year in the United States."</p><p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2018/01/29/exclusive-interview-tyson-invests-in-lab-grown-protein-startup-memphis-meats-joining-bill-gates-and-richard-branson/#578c53433513" target="_blank">Forbes</a> noted that Memphis Meats is still a startup without commercial production:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"One big hurdle is the sheer cost of producing the meat—currently runs around $2,400 to produce a single pound of its meat, which is often called 'cultured' or 'clean.'<br></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">But a meat giant like Tyson, which sells about $30 billion a year of beef, poultry and pork, can help advise Memphis Meats on how to scale up. 'We want to work with them to scale. Cost is the main focus for us,' Memphis Meats CEO and cofounder Uma Valeti told Forbes. 'At the end point, it will be significantly cheaper than conventional meat.'"</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="332cd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="YQI3SI1576662641"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="954064272597929984" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Future of Food: 8 Business Leaders Investing to End Slaughterhouses https://t.co/edYc6OqYHP @OrganicConsumer… https://t.co/36uWrfEb2K</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/954064272597929984">1516301622.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><strong><span></span>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tyson-takes-stake-in-cultured-meat-startup-1517244019?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=3" target="_blank">WSJ</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-29/tyson-joins-bill-gates-cargill-to-invest-in-lab-meat-producer" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arkansas/articles/2018-01-29/tyson-foods-announces-investment-in-food-tech-startup" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2018/01/29/exclusive-interview-tyson-invests-in-lab-grown-protein-startup-memphis-meats-joining-bill-gates-and-richard-branson/#7b73fd153351" target="_blank">Forbes</a>, <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/01/29/tyson-memphis-meats-investment/" target="_blank">Fortune</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tyson-lab-grown-meat-startup-memphis-meats-bill-gates-2018-1" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>, <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2018/01/29/tyson-foods-invests-in-lab-grown-meat-startup.html" target="_blank">Fox Business</a>, Background: <a href="https://climatenexus.org/climate-issues/food/" target="_blank">Climate Nexus backgrounders on animal agriculture and climate change</a></p><p> <em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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Less oxygen dissolved in the water is often referred to as a "dead zone" (in red above) because most marine life either dies, or, if they are mobile such as fish, leave the area. Habitats that would normally be teeming with life become, essentially, biological deserts. NOAA
By Shana Gallagher
What comes to mind when you think of Tyson Foods? A chicken nugget? A big red logo?
How about the largest toxic dead zone in U.S. history? It turns out the meat industry—and corporate giants like Tyson Foods—are directly linked to this environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, and many others.
<p style="">Industrial-scale <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture">agriculture</a> to support America's livestock is the number one source of water pollution in the country. But while industrial agriculture to feed animals raised for meat is currently resource-intensive and ecologically destructive, it doesn't have to be. Solutions exist which, if adopted, would allow the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-food">meat industry and agricultural corporations</a> that sustain it to reduce their impact on water and the planet.</p><p style="">That's why <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/" target="_blank">Mighty Earth</a> has launched the Clean It Up, Tyson campaign in order to hold this industry accountable to our communities and the environment. Corporations can and should respect the health and well-being of their customers, and the landscapes that allow them to profit. Considering America's current political climate, and the increasing severity of environmental problems across the globe, collective action and corporate-targeted campaigns like this one have never been more urgent.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMzEyNjM4MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzc3NzMxMH0.jXwNaxAYhdaNxEzIaKnuyluJZVFLk2chxJV3ghcFKVk/img.png?width=980" id="658e6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="73fe637b22be07d40ede75e7b2d530e0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Soil erosion and agricultural run-off is currently America's top source of water pollution.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p style="">In a country with five times as many livestock animals as humans, it takes a lot of land to grow feed for the meat that ends up on consumers' plates. More than a third of America's agricultural land is dedicated towards the production of corn and soy, but humans consume less than 10 percent of this, according to Mighty Earth's <a href="https://www.mightyearth.org/heartlanddestruction/" target="_blank">campaign report</a>. The vast majority is consumed by livestock.<br></p><p style="">What many people don't realize is that this livestock feed production is controlled by a very small number of large and powerful corporations, making huge upstream profits, but creating massive downstream pollution. These companies—ADM, Bunge, Cargill (often referred to as the ABCs)—don't have much of a public reputation, as they don't sell directly to individual consumers. Under our current regulatory system, they're also not responsible for their run-off or excess fertilizer use, both of which are classified as "non-point source" pollution. In other words, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/soil">soil</a> erosion and run-off from enormous swaths of America's crop fields are washing into the waterways, and taxpayers shoulder the burden. These two factors mean that industrial agriculture companies operate with impunity while polluting the land, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers">rivers</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">oceans</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMzEyNjUzMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODExODAzNn0._9Hcqo8ElcLwOCcdmhy56yQPAfR57LPJzn05BKakgJ4/img.png?width=980" id="021e0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="98cd8c650bd8de6dd19061cb7378d391" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">How animal feed moves through the meat supply chain</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p style=""><a href="https://www.ewg.org/release/report-suspected-carcinogen-farm-runoff-fouls-drinking-water-across-rural-america#.We4QDCMrL-Y" target="_blank">A recent report</a> by Environmental Working Group found that more than 200 million Americans—more than half of the people in our country—are exposed to contaminated <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water">drinking water</a> due to fertilizer pollution. The estimated clean water costs to taxpayers are more than $2 billion per year. The nitrate and phosphorous in fertilizer that leaches into our drinking water are associated with various types of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer">cancers</a>, birth defects and other health problems. This burden disproportionately falls on rural communities, whose water treatment systems were not built to deal with the levels of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals">chemicals</a> they're now facing.</p><p style="">"The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a> (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) ordered Pretty Prairie, Kansas, to build a new water treatment plant last year to lower nitrate levels that could cost $2.4 million—well over $3,000 for every person in town," EWG reported. "Eighty-five percent or more of the communities with elevated levels of nitrate have no treatment systems in place to remove the contaminant."</p><p>Another alarming characteristic of industrial agriculture is that because it's so intensive, fields are quickly exhausted, and the industry must continuously expand to new areas. For this reason, the American prairie and grassland ecosystems are being altered faster than the Amazon rainforest.</p><p style="">A recent University of Wisconsin study estimated that this loss of natural grassland "could have emitted as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 34 <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a>-fired power plants operating for one year—the equivalent of 28 million more cars on the road," noted Mighty Earth. These unique landscapes are among the most threatened in the world, and are irreversibly damaged after conversion into crop fields, often to grow corn and soy. At a time in our country when <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands">public lands</a> are being attacked from many angles, industrial-scale agriculture to support the meat industry is the biggest challenge these ecosystems face.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMzEyNjYzNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMzU3OTY5Nn0.EoBkF8tXXSwoYPx9VTfH1y6GWWIxUPAHgJH8WABkTmA/img.png?width=980" id="a90f5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a080b8f400ba58eff2da7342c19420ce" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Polluted run-off from manure and chemical fertilizer causes toxic algae outbreaks in lakes and rivers across the country, contaminating drinking water, killing marine life and endangering public health.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p style="">Luckily, there are a number of simple, cheap and effective ways in which the meat industry could adopt sustainability measures into supply chains to and protect clean water. For example, currently less than 30 percent of fertilizer applied to massive industrial-scale crop fields is actually absorbed by the plants. Instead, most of this washes off as fertilizer pollution and contaminates waterways.<br></p><p style="">This is what has caused the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/largest-dead-zone-recorded-in-us-threatens-marine-life/" target="_blank">largest dead zone</a> in U.S. history in the Gulf of Mexico. It is currently more than 8,000 square miles, where no <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">marine life</a> can survive due to toxic fertilizer pollution. By using more precise application methods, farmers could save money on fertilizer, and less of it would contaminate the water. Additionally, techniques like using cover crops, diversifying crops beyond corn and soy, and limiting tillage are proven ways to reduce soil erosion.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMzEyNjY1MC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5OTQ2MzI2Nn0.wfdR3fSTcmkTLPgdD-4NJtsONAsAtW2skYmv-65k9vE/img.png?width=980" id="a9fa1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b301b45767af538ef51997f73dc786ea" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A farmer sprays liquid urea ammonium nitrate fertilizer to pre-emergent crops. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">P177 / Flickr</small></p><p style="">A few months ago, Mighty Earth conducted a comprehensive study into which areas of America are experiencing the worst water contamination from fertilizer pollution (Figure 1), and the most dramatic land conversion into livestock feed crop fields (Figure 2). This groundbreaking research also identified the agricultural and meat industry corporations most present in these areas. The clear culprit driving these destructive agricultural impacts was identified: Tyson Foods.</p><p style="">The country's largest meat company, the second largest globally and the pioneer of the industrial meat system, Tyson Foods produces one in every five pounds of meat: more than 20 percent of all chicken, beef and pork. They are therefore uniquely placed to drive solutions, incentivize their suppliers to farm more responsibly, and reduce the catastrophic effects that industrial-scale agriculture has on the environment and public health.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMzEyNjkxNS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTUyNDI0Mn0.CrdO4YVnBTlRSG1P4mbisHMcNty6vByXBzzWrBPgtW8/img.png?width=980" id="8fc91" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8199546a1deeac8671b20a5c0d0e64c9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Figure 1. Nitrate levels by watershed, 2016 overlaid with Tyson and top feed supplier facilities</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMzEyNjkxNi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODY2NzM2Mn0.cxX-EDjhBCXGH1psWoLh21RUqK0jrCZKkmzCRHBmYOM/img.png?width=980" id="2a72f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b81c6491c499a2b2eaa9daa3b803fd4f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Figure 2: Grassland conversion by county, 2016 overlaid with Tyson and top feed supplier facilities</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p style="">"Recent commitments from a growing number of food companies like Kellogg's, General Mills, Walmart, PepsiCo, and even Tyson's competitor, Smithfield, are showing the way forward," reported Mighty Earth. "These companies have committed to improve fertilizer and soil-health practices in their U.S. crop supply chains and have launched programs and practices that Tyson and other meat producers can adopt to drive improvements in their supply chains."</p><p>Tyson Foods has the power to make these changes too, and therefore to change the entire meat industry for the better—and we have the power to ask them to do it.</p><p>Tyson's prior <a href="https://www.tysonsustainability.com/environment" target="_blank">commitments to sustainability</a> are admirable, but don't go far enough. With the demand for meat rising, and the threats to our environment increasing, the stakes could not be higher.</p><p style="">This issue affects all of us. As far back as 2013, the majority of American waterways were contaminated by fertilizer pollution, <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/26A31559BB37A7D285257B3A00589DDF" target="_blank">according to the EPA</a>. That's why Mighty Earth is organizing in communities across the country to ask Tyson to protect our water and our environment. By signing the <a href="https://www.thepetitionsite.com/929/806/900/tell-tyson-to-clean-up-its-pollution-and-help-rivers-and-the-dead-zone/" target="_blank">petition</a> or <a href="https://www.tysonfoods.com/contact-us" target="_blank">making a call</a> to Tyson's corporate headquarters (you can use our <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V4Rf_WLxD8jEFUKJzZYka_dzxQ7zGlzLCwySMoCgBsA/edit" target="_blank">calling script</a> for pointers), you can add your voice to the rising chorus calling for cleaner meat. Tyson Foods must lead the way to a more sustainable food system and protect the one planet we have.</p><p style=""><a href="mailto:@shanag888"><em>Shana Gallagher</em></a> <em>is one of seven organizers around the U.S. launching Mighty Earth's #CleanItUpTyson campaign.</em></p><p style=""><em><span></span>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.alternet.org/environment/tyson-foods-linked-largest-toxic-dead-zone-us-history" target="_blank">AlterNet</a>.</em></p><p style=""><strong>RECOMMENDED</strong></p><p style=""><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/baby-food-arsenic-toxins-2503915144.html">Arsenic and Other Toxins Found in 80% of Baby Formulas</a><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/baby-food-arsenic-toxins-2503915144.html"></a></p><p style=""><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/glyphosate-exposure-humans-2501317778.html" target="_blank">Human Exposure to Glyphosate Has Skyrocketed 500% Since Introduction of GMO Crops</a></p>
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