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Tribune documents huge problems with Illinois’ factory farms

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Illinois

Analyzing thousands of pages from state agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Natural Resources and the attorney general’s office, the Tribune found that pollution incidents from hog confinements killed at least 492,000 fish from 2005 through 2014 — nearly half of the 1 million fish killed in water pollution incidents statewide during that period. Pig waste impaired 67 miles of the state’s rivers, creeks and waterways over that time.

Using either measure, no other industry came close to causing the same amount of damage. […]

Confinements with multimillion-dollar annual revenues often paid just a few thousand dollars in fines after causing massive fish kills. Many went to court to challenge authorities; since 2005, the state attorney general has filed or resolved at least 26 pollution lawsuits against swine confinements. Some operators polluted repeatedly. And the multistate pork producers who supply the pigs and profit from the confinements were rarely held accountable, the Tribune found. […]

In 2010, Illinois’ failure to monitor or regulate livestock confinements prompted the U.S. EPA to threaten funding cuts and decertification of the state EPA. Since then, Illinois has bolstered its inspections staff as well as documented and visited 236 of the largest swine facilities. That is fewer than half of the estimated 527 in the state and includes none of the additional 427 hog confinements with up to 2,500 animals.

* Lax animal welfare oversight…

Weeks after taking a job as a breeding technician at Eagle Point Farms, an anguished Sharee Santorineos sat down and wrote a three-page whistleblower complaint.

“I seen pigs that are pregnant beat with steel bars,” said her letter to the Illinois Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare. “I seen them kicked all over their body.” […]

Instead, like other worker allegations about animal abuse in Illinois’ 900-plus hog confinement facilities, Santorineos’ account went nowhere.

After Eagle Point executives gave a state bureau inspector a guided tour of the 6,000-pig operation, he wrote a single-page report.

“I did not observe anyone mistreating the animals,” it said. “No violations found. Docket is closed.”

The state has regularly discounted or dismissed such worker complaints, a Tribune investigation has found. In the Illinois hog confinements that send 12 million pigs to market annually, the bureau did not find a single animal welfare infraction or violation during the past five years, the Tribune found in reviewing thousands of pages of bureau records.

* Unchecked foreign corporate encroachment…

Still, the system was working for them until the mid-1990s brought punishing downswings in the market for live hogs — including a devastating 1998 price collapse. Big producers like Smithfield Foods and Cargill swooped in, Steele recalled, and enticed farmers to become “contract growers” instead of raising their own pigs.

It was a way for many to insulate themselves from market risk and remain on their land rather than shutting down altogether.

“For our generation, we all wanted to come back to the farm, and this has enabled us to do so,” said Genny Six, a contract grower whose Morgan County operation in central Illinois has steadily expanded to 7,200 pigs.

Then came the most recent seismic shift: China’s largest meat processor purchased Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion while a Brazilian firm paid $1.45 billion last year to acquire Cargill’s U.S.-based pork business.

“It used to be, the farmer raised the corn that fed his pigs here in Illinois, they got harvested by a packing plant here in Illinois and they probably got consumed here in Illinois,” said western Illinois hog farmer Greg Giertz. “Now the hogs might be owned by someone in Iowa, raised in Illinois, slaughtered in Indiana and shipped to China.”

* And an exploding marketplace…

Across Illinois, the nation’s fourth-largest seller of pigs, large hog confinements have exploded in number and size. Raising pigs for slaughter in an efficient, factorylike setting, the operations help hold down the price of the most widely consumed meat in the world. […]

Other states and local agencies have moved aggressively to address the problems caused by large hog confinements. Illinois has not, the Tribune found, even as consumers demand more humane treatment of livestock and stronger environmental protections. […]

With the pace of new construction permits accelerating, state authorities say they are doing the best they can to protect neighboring communities and the environment. But they acknowledge that Illinois’ Livestock Management Facilities Act gives them few tools to hold confinement owners accountable.

Twenty years after the state law was put in place, critics liken its provisions to a frontier-era timber blockade in the path of a bullet train.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 11:13 am

Comments

So to make sure I understand Conservatives.

McCroryCare (Government Bathroom Regulation) is needed.

A safe food and water supply for all citizens is Government overreach.

Ok, got it.

Hopefully one of these days I’ll get my Republican party back.

Comment by Doug Simpson Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 11:29 am
I commend the reporters on this and the Trib for running this series of articles. Here’s some more backgrounders. For full disclosure, I have worked on a large scale confinement farm (and not for just a month or two), and what you see in the video does happen.

Recent abuse by a whistleblower organization on a Maschhoff farm. WARNING it is very graphic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5VitkAhM7Y

From the third article in this series- “‘Now the hogs might be owned by someone in Iowa, raised in Illinois, slaughtered in Indiana and shipped to China.’”

Actually, China has owned the largest pork producer in the US for several years now.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/whos-behind-chinese-takeover-worlds-biggest-pork-producer/

From the last Trib article in this group: “In some instances, Anderson would not identify himself when people asked who he was or whom he represented, saying only that he is a resident of Sangamon County, transcripts show. Hearing officers have cut off citizens who try to learn who Anderson is or question him.”
Nic Anderson is the spokesman/director of the Illinois Livestock Development Group, which makes him more than just a resident of Sangamon County.

http://www.illinoislivestock.org/

And, big players have expanded into other livestock enterprises, too:

http://www.startribune.com/illinois-based-firm-buys-gold-n-plump-company/233008731/

BTW- this is not the first time the Trib has taken on this topic:
2010 http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-met-cheap-protein–20100923-story.html
2004

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0403240261mar24-story.html

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-03-24/news/0403240263_1_hog-farms-factory-style-american-farm-bureau

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 11:39 am
I am so happy to see the Tribune covering an actual story again. Maybe they are back in action?

I am happy that people will think about this. But, it makes me remember an older farmer that I knew who used to say (when you could smell pigs) “It’s the smell of money.”
This is the wrong way to farm and raise pigs and I am pretty sure that man would agree with me. It’s cruel and we all need to understand what is happening on the IL farms.
That was hard to think about since I love to eat pork.

Comment by Belle Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 11:40 am
If the Illinois Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare is like any other state agency, it is now staffed with political cronies that don’t know a boar from a sow. This state can no longer do anything right.

Comment by Stooges Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 11:52 am
Belle- If you want to try and find pork raised by other means, and actually talk to the people raising it, check out Illinois Market Maker:

http://il.foodmarketmaker.com/

BTW- you can find more than just pork on that site:) It was created at the U of I in 2004 as a graduate student project, and has led to a being a national program!

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:01 pm
This story helps one understand vegetarianism.

It also exposes the fallacy in the GOP mantra about overregulation by big government.

Comment by anon Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:09 pm
=== Other states and local agencies have moved aggressively to address the problems caused by large hog confinements. Illinois has not, the Tribune found, even as consumers demand more humane treatment of livestock and stronger environmental protections. ===

Maybe the Trib will support better funding for relevant state agencies, instead of attacking state workers as overpaid and underworked. Nah.

Comment by anon Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:10 pm
This Cap Fax reader remembers you were asking some hard questions during the factory farm legislation debate years ago.

anon 1209 is right - this industry screams for more regulation

Comment by siriusly Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:25 pm
I believe that regulation of these farms can be done in a way that brings greater balance to the rights of farmers and their neighbors. Unfortunately, Illinois fails yet again. This needs to get fixed and it’s something that could be done now.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:26 pm
Got half a hog from a local farmer in Atlanta, Illinois last year and i was even able to go and feed it a few times before it went to the slaughterhouse. Knowing your local farmer goes a long way instead of just buying what is on sale at the grocer. On another note i was up north visiting family a few weeks ago and from the exit ramp off of I-39 to the town my family resides (~16 miles) there were no less than 3 CAFOs on that road and you could easily identify them by smell in that heat.

Comment by frisbee Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:30 pm
Current listing of Notices of Intent to Construct in Illinois. Just leave all entries blank and hit Search. On the right side menu are also links to the LMFA and associated info from IDOA.

https://www.agr.state.il.us/Environment/LMFA/noitclist.php

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:38 pm
Obviously the Tribbies failed to check in with BigBrain and Katrina at the edit board before printing this stuff.
The very clear answer is if we rid the state of all these D* regulations we will rid these honest biz leaders of the alleged violations
Puff Done Waukegan Harbor Presto Chango

Comment by Annonin' Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:42 pm
Excellent journalism. Thanks for bringing this to our attention Rich.

A few comments:
1. Illinois represents the kind of regulatory authority we would have across the nation if the GOP gets their wish to move that authority from Washington to the states. Where the “experts” reside. Illinois is in dire need of a followup chain jerking by the federal EPA.
2. Farmers often cry about being over regulated.
Nothing could be further from the truth, particularly in Illinois.
3. Big Ag has a dominant and tyrannical presence across Illinois as expressed by the Dept. of Agriculture and enabled by the failure of the state legislature to stand up for the rights of the rural citizens.
4. Illinois is turning into a 3rd world state placing way too much value on giant capital thru ways at the expense of its people and environment.
5. Illinois has been Trumped with a lot of propaganda about the need for further sacrifices because “gotta feed the world!”.

Comment by Vole Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:43 pm
Hey, fellahs; what’s goin’ on in this thread? -Upton Sinclair

Comment by Upton Sinclair Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:45 pm
These CAFO’s for pork, beef, chicken, they generate more waste every day than a large sized township, but unlike the township, the CAFO’s don’t have any sewage treatment system except to store their waste in open-air lagoons that can leak and rupture and flood into the water table and local watershed… and the stink is incredible.

Apologists will tell you that the liquefied waste is used for fertilizer, but that doesn’t take care of but a fraction of the animal waste produced.

Now, I like ribs, bacon, sausage, chops, as much as anyone, and I like my prices low. But I want it produced responsibly, and with accountability. I don’t care that that raises the cost to me; ultimately it’s in the best interest of my health and my community that CAFO waste be managed and the rules really enforced for operators and their corporate overlords.

Comment by Upton Sinclair Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:50 pm
Ag is like the media, controlled by a handful of big companies with lobby money. The dirty work is farmed out.

Comment by Liberty Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 12:55 pm
I agree with Vole #3. State law overrides local control over confinement operations, and until that changes, rural citizens–like those who opposed a factory farm in Menard County–will suffer. It’s up to the legislature, which is lobbied heavily by agri-business, to stand up for Illinois citizens.

Comment by Wednesday morning Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 1:02 pm
I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Clearly, Illinois is just trying to be business friendly and competitive in the industrial hog farm industry. IEPA and IlDoAg are just doing their jobs to promote the industry be more profitable. Isn’t this what 1.4% wants for our State?

What’s a few fish and some minor contamination of water when compared to the opportunities that are available for the industry? We have to quit enforcing overly burdensome rules meant to stifle growth of business and the economy.

/S

Comment by Huh? Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 1:05 pm
This is what happens when basic government functions are not funded. The confined systems can be designed so that they do not stink up the neighborhood. And government needs to enforce that.

Animal cruelty is bad business and has been discouraged from the Old Testament “Do not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” (Of course it was an ox, so some cruelty was involved.)

Our State government needs to start functioning again.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 1:17 pm
“Ag is like the media, controlled by a handful of big companies with lobby money” Finally, something where Michael Madigan isn’t to blame.

Comment by Skeptic Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 1:19 pm
===Finally, something where Michael Madigan isn’t to blame. ===

Um, who do you think has bottled up any and all proposals to increase state regulation?

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 1:32 pm
Here is the link to some of the Public Meeting transcripts https://www.agr.state.il.us/lmfa-hearings. You need to realize semantics matter here. These are Meetings not Hearings, so testimony doesn’t hold a great deal of weight. At one meeting, years ago, Maschhoffs were planning to build (through a contract) 2 finisher barns within the confines of a levee district in Clinton County. Neighbors showed up with photos of the annual flooding the Kaskaskia did that got up to 3-4 feet in the footprint of where the barns were to be. But again, technicalities matter. Because the levee district wasn’t recognized by FEMA, Maschhoffs could have skated right around that pesky drainage issue (snark). Neighbors were eventually able to get the construction stopped, but only after a lot of hurt and bad feelings between neighbors who had lived and farmed in that area for generations.

IDOA is correct when they state that the LMFA is weak, but the leadership at IDOA has done virtually nothing by wring their hands and wink at the pork industry that they have to follow the law. If this was happening in Winnetka owner’s summer retreat area, imagine the speed at which things would change.

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 1:36 pm
Noticed none of the commenters worry about all the sewage that flows into lake Michigan after a big rain. Perhaps the Tribune will do a story on that.

Comment by Pooper Scooper Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 1:53 pm
If the entire world adopts the American diet it will be game over for everything but the bugs.

If you think I’m kidding, then you’re probably a meat eater who doesn’t want to brighten the darkest corners of your dietary mind.

Factory farming isn’t just immoral. It’s unhealthy in multiple ways.

Comment by Jerry Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 2:16 pm
they are figuring out just NOW that the pork lobby is powerful? that’s so 20 years ago!

Comment by Amalia Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 2:33 pm
You just can’t beat a double cut pork chop cooked medium rare. best if there is still a 1/2″ fat ring left on. Mmmmmm!

Comment by blue dog dem Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 2:40 pm
Jerry: “If the entire world adopts the American diet it will be game over for everything but the bugs.”

Wish the “everything but the bugs” were so. Pollinator insects are in great decline in many parts of the world, especially where industrial agriculture dominates the landscape. You got the first part about the American diet right on. Nice gig for our “health care” system. Not so good for species, natural ecosystems and environmental services.

Comment by Vole Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 4:02 pm
For better health and environmental reasons I no longer make beef or pork a part of my diet. Knowing how these animals are treated in factory farm is just one more reason to maintain a healthier way of eating without beef or pork.

Comment by Enviro Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 4:31 pm
“Hopefully one of these days I’ll get my Republican party back.”

It’s long gone and primarily, with a few exceptions, become a corporate shill.

Comment by Federalist Thursday, Aug 4, 16 @ 5:53 pm