Mapping Virginia CAFOs: Visualizing Environmental Impacts of Factory Farming
On Septemeber 30th, we had two influential people come to our school to give a talk called Mapping Virginia CAFOs: Visualizing Environmental Impacts of Factory Farming.
The opening lecture was by Jeff Kelbe who is the Presidnet of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network; he spoke about the impact of CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations aka factory farms) on the water quality. He gave some pretty terrifying facts about the river: 90% of fish in the Shenandoah have lesions due to contaminates in the water.
The times have changed in the Shenandoah valley. There are now 180 cows in an area that used to contain only 6. There are higher amounts of manure run-off coming from the increase of CAFOs (now 600) in the area which have created many environmental problems. Kelbe said that the Shenandoah valley contributes more nitrogen and phosphorous into the waterways than DC does, due to the amount of CAFOs. The improper storage of waste is causing a lot of issues for the Potomac and other water ways.
Mark Devries
The keynote lecture was by Mark Devries, the director of Speciesm and the creator of the Citizen Drone Project. He showed us videos of what he discovered when he flew a drone over a Smithfield Farm (largest hog producer in the world). One thing he showed us was that the manure from the farm was being kept in large "lakes" as well as being sprayed onto nearby fields. It was found that spraying of manure was negatively impacting the neighboring areas: asthma symptoms increased by 23% in schools near these farms. There was also found to be a link between living near factory farms and reduced immune function, as well as high spikes in blood pressure. The neighbors also reported smelling the manure daily.
Spy Drones Expose Smithfield Foods Factory Farm
Overall it was an amazing talk by two very inspiring people that made me realize even more about the negative environmental effects of factory farms. Most of the time when people talk about factory farms imapcting the environment, they talk about the release of greenhouse gases. Althoguh it is true that animal agriculture is a huge contributer to greenhouse gases (18% compared to transportation's 13%), it is easy to forget about the impact on other aspects of the environment such as water quality and fish populations.
If you have not seen Speciesm yet, I highly recomend it!!
