Life for Residents Near Hog Farms Just Got Much, Much Worse

[Hermit-The-Prog]

It just became much easier for large livestock operations to pollute near people’s homes.

Tom Philpott Mar. 28, 2018

In the midst of last week’s, um, stormy news cycle, the meat industry quietly scored a pair of legislative coups, both of which bolster corporate power to impose the downsides of factory-scale animal farming on communities.

One victory will affect people who live near these large operations. In North Carolina alone, 160,000 people reside within a half mile of vast open cesspools full of manure from thousands of confined hogs. If you lived in such conditions, you’d probably want to know what pollutants you and your family were breathing from the foul-smelling air wafting from these operations.

Folded into the omnibus spending bill signed by President Donald Trump last week is a rider that will prevent such knowledge from reaching public view. It’s based on a bill called the “Fair Agricultural Reporting Method Act” (get it? FARM), which proposed to free most livestock operations from having to report the air-borne toxins emitted from the manure they accumulate. These gases, which include ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, can trigger ill health effects in neighboring communities, including eye irritation, chronic lung disease, and olfactory neuron loss. The pork, beef, and chicken trade groups all hotly supported the measure, which is now the law of the land.

[...]

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2018/03/life-for-residents-near-hog-farms-just-got-much-much-worse/

[rzemanfl]

1. Shit. What else can I say? Oh, K&R. n/t

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. This is exactly the kind of thing that is happening over and over,

and is vastly more important than almost anything else, especially porn stars.

This country will be a very long time recovering from the damage that's been done and is continuing to be done since January 20, 2017.

[bobbieinok]

3. All those with yrs of plans to help themselves and destroy the rest now implementing them

[bluecollar2]

4. I'm guessing most hog farms

Are in Trump country...

You reap what you sew.

When the Trumpers streams and rivers are so polluted that they can't fish, maybe they'll put two and two together.

[malthaussen]

5. While Rome burns, Congress adds more fuel to the fire.

They have been passing quite a lot of virtually unnoticed legislation that is going to have to be repealed as soon as we get a sane government again. (see, I'm an optimist!)

-- Mal