And within 10 years, 90 percent of Missouri’s independent hog producers were forced out of business by their competition.
He’s also reviewed countless studies on CAFOs prepared by highly reputable research institutions.
Ikerd found serious consequences from CAFOs are inevitable.
However, the economic, ecological, and social consequences are inevitable for any significant group of CAFOs at any point in time and for any individual CAFO over a significant period of time."
On water pollution, he said the EPA found waste generated by large-scale hog and other CAFOs had polluted over 35,000 miles of river and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.
"The environmental regulation of CAFOs has been far less stringent, and far less effective, than for other industries because CAFO supporters have been able to convince lawmakers that CAFOs are agricultural, not industrial, operations.
This expert in sustainable agriculture writes that negative effects on water quality are a consequence of waste from too many animals in areas too small to effectively assimilate it.
CAFOs should be regulated like any industrial operation, he wrote, and animal waste should be regulated much like human waste to protect public health.
Pig waste is 39 times more concentrated than human waste, "so animal waste can quite logically be thought of as a form of toxic waste.
Those who express scientifically justifiable concerns over the inevitable environmental effects of a CAFO located in an ecologically sensitive watershed are labeled by those behind CAFOs as emotional over-reactors and "radical, idealistic environmentalists who just don’t understand modern agriculture," Ikerd wrote.