Animal Waste Debate

According the US government’s General Accountability Office (GAO), the number of “factory farms,” or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), tripled between 1982-2002. The GAO’s audit of the sector is to be released today. According to the Wall Street Journal, the report notes that “[the Environmental Protection Agency] lacks information and a clearly defined strategy for effectively regulating mega-farms.” A single CAFO operation is capable of producing 1.6 million tons of manure–1.5 times the amount of waste produced by cities like Houston and Philadelphia. The Associated Press reports that in the absence of clear federal regulation, states have begun enacting their own standards. California, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota have all put in place some emissions controls. An aspect that neither the Jounral nor the AP addresses in their articles is waste containment. More of the focus has been on emissions arguments and manure application as fertilizer. But lagoon construction quality is bound to rise on the radar, especially as the rapid construction of larger manure lagoons begins to exhibits the failings one would expect in the absence of regulation and proper CQA. Take, for example, the whales that developed at an installation in Indiana earlier this year.