CAFOs, Honeybees, Cage-Free Eggs

December 19, 2007

JOE MILLER

Bees

Michael Pollan (1) has a very informative article in the New York Times on Sunday (12/16) focusing on: (a) new and even more virulent forms of antibiotic resistant staph infections, (b) ongoing concerns about Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees -- the pollinators "of an estimated one of three bites" of everything we eat, and (c) the contribution of "modern" forms of industrial food-animal production to both antibiotic resistant infections in humans and colony collpse in honeybees.

1. Michael Pollan: Our Decrepit Food Factories 12/16/07
   http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/17/5857/

Pollan also raises very important questions about whether using the non-evocative term "unsustainable" denies us the energy and outrage needed to acknowledge and counter the urgent threats created by chemicalized, petroleum dependent, monocultural industrial food-animal assaults. Similar questions might be raised about the meaning, images and outrage we are denied when we talk about "permitted" levels of pollution, "global warming" or "climate change" gases, etc. Here's a more evocative image, for instance, of the areas of the US coast that will be under water with just a one meter increase in sea level due to "global warming" (2).

2. A Coastal Impact Study - Nation Under Siege - Architecture 2030
   http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/cutting_edge.html

CAFOs

Returning to the massive threats posed by industrialized agriculture, a number of recent peer-reviewed articles provide excellent overviews of many of the reasons we need to move away from CAFOs, and have a moratorium new CAFOs. The following articles (3, 4) document that antibiotic resistant bacteria have been found in animal wastes, animal bedding, air inside and downwind of CAFOs, surface and groundwater near and downstream from CAFOs, and in consumer meat and poultry products.

3. Elevated Risk of Carrying Gentamicin-Resistant Escherichia coli among U.S. Poultry Workers 11/19/07
   http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/10191/10191.html
4. Antibiotic-resistant enterococci and fecal indicators in surface water and groundwater impacted by a concentrated swine feeding operation 5/18/07
   http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/newscience/2007/2007-0513sapkotaetal.html

The following article (5) documents the various ways that CAFOs impair the economic, physical, mental, and social health of individuals and communities close to such operations. The article also reviews the way in which CAFOs are often sited in areas with "the lowest level of political influence," and the ways in which federal and state regulatory agencies have failed in their responsibilities to regulate CAFOs.

5. Community Health and Socioeconomic Issues Surrounding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations 2/07
   http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1817697

For information on CAFOs in Indiana, check the website of Indiana CAFO Watch (6). One particularly powerful article that you'll find on the site is a piece by Karen Hudson (7) documenting the special vulnerability of young children to air pollutants generated by CAFOs.

6. Indiana CAFO Watch
   http://www.indianacafowatch.com/
7. CAFO Air Pollution and Children - A Prescription for Precaution
   http://www.indianacafowatch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=40

Eggs

I'll close with a bit of positive news. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced today (8) that Compass Group -- the world's largest food service provider with 7,500 clients in the United States -- will switch from providing battery cage eggs to cage-free eggs to all of its clients within the next 90 days. "While cage-free does not mean cruelty-free, cage-free hens generally have 250-300 percent more space per bird and are able to engage in more of their natural behaviors than are caged hens. Cage-free hens may not be able to go outside, but they are able to walk, spread their wings, and lay their eggs in nests -- all behaviors permanently denied to hens confined in battery cages."

8. World's Largest Food Service Provider Hatches a Cage-Free Egg Policy 12/17/07
   http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/compass-1.html

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Joseph Miller
Associate Professor of Psychology
Saint Mary's College
Box 51, Madeleva Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556

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St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN