Our World and Everything in It

Monroe News presented an article this weekend from ABC news and other sites like The Huffington Report below that 36 states will suffer water shortages in the next 5 years. We’re a little slow to move to divert emergencies in this country lately so it’s imperative each community get moving.  Look what the small town of Clary N. Carolina did way back in 2001.

Cary began a reclaimed water system on a small scale in 2001. Reclaimed water has been treated up to a certain stage in the purification process. We can’t drink it, wash, or bathe in it but meets federal standards. What a community can do is recycle it instead of dumping it into lakes, rivers, and streams and reclaim it for irrigation, industrial processing, cooling, etc., leaving us with more clean drinking water.

Reclaimed water needs a separate pipeline from drinking water. This does require money, but it’s good for jobs and is just the beginning of what a green industry could bring. In the long run the system helps the community in times of drought.

The Cary, N.C. Reclaimed Water website states: “The state lets Cary divert a total of about 5 million gallons of treated wastewater a day from the two treatment plants (water reclamation facilities) for reuse rather than discharging into creeks.
        Amounts reused are:
        • Approximately 1 million gallons on peak day
        • Up to 20 million gallons monthly in summer.”

Cary is aiming at a 20% water usage reduction by 2015. Currently, close to 1900 communities across the country are using reclaimed water. The most progressive states include Washington, Florida, California, Arizona and Texas. Cary is a small town of a little over 112,000 that saves almost 1,000,000 gallons of water per day. If the roughly 2000 communities are doing as well as Cary than 2 billions gallons of water is saved per day or more by reclaiming water.

Think about an entire country doing this, the jobs it would create. But I’ve blogged about lack of money to renew water infrastructure in this country. We are in need of much money wasted on war concerns at a time when we should be hunkering down and getting serious about alleviating global warming. We can see our environmental conditions are changing. Preparing for its effects is not unwise. I don’t know about anyone else but the less I have to change drastically the better. If it means starting earlier than so be it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071026/vanishing-water/.

http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pwdept/reclaimhome.htm.
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 I’ve read tht Humanities courses are down compared to Business and Marketing in most colleges and think it’s a shame because things like literature can be reassuring. From literature we learn nothing is new under the sun and we get a good view of mankind’s mistakes: wars, plagues, and even abuse of the environment. Enjoy this translated letter to President Pierce by the Indian Chief, Seattle, back in 1855. It speaks for itself. 

     “We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his fathers’ graves, and his children’s birthright is forgotten. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.
     There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insects wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented with the pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man. For all things share the same breath—the beasts, the trees, the man. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
     What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
     It matters little where we pass the rest of our days; they are not many. A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the children of the great tribes that once lived on this earth, or that roamed in small bands in the woods, will be left to mourn the graves of a people once as powerful and hopeful as yours.
     The whites, too, shall pass—perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in our own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires, where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt, the end of living and the beginning of survival? We might understand if we knew what was that the white man dreams, what he describes to his children on the long winter nights, what visions he burns into their minds, so they will wish for tomorrow. But we are savages. The white man’s dreams are hidden from us.

Our Great Lakes are in serious jeopardy. We’re all seeing Atlanta dry up. The water source for millions there will be gone by January. Already this morning folks in a small town in Tennessee turned on their taps to a trickle.  The mountain stream that supplied their water dried up. I’ve already brought up the issue of the Southwest in one of my first blogs. We watched as Vegas was touted as the fastest growing region in the country, with New Mexico seeing a boom as well. I warned that it wasn’t very prudent to do so considering 5 states depend on only one water source there, the Colorado River.

Recently, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico made comments about the Northern tier of states sharing water with the south. Others have alluded to the same scenario. And we’re back to the whole issue of moral decisions just like Al Gore has been trying to explain. Sure we have 8 governors in states around the Great Lakes signing compacts to include 2 provinces in Canada that seek to keep our water here, but that is stalled in Wisconsin. Besides, it must make it through out U.S. legislature and probably will not. We haven’t been able to stop a war that a majority want stopped.

The biggest scare, however, is the fact that one of our nation’s largest underground aquafiers, the Ogallala aquifier,  that provides 1/3 of all water used in the heartland, the supplier of 35% of our food crops, is drying up. New Mexico and Kansas will have no irrigation for crops by 2010. The leadership in those states knew the aquafier was drying up, ignored it, did not let farmers know ahead to drill for deeper wells. Instead they allowed the flow of people and industry to those states, even encouraged it, knowing full well the consequences..

So, while we continue to argue about whether global warming is man-made, take partisan stands on just about everything, and even speculate global warming is a U.N. conspiracy, parts of the world are literally drying up and dying, something we will be seeing here in the very near future. There is a Great Lakes pact between 8 governors, and 2 provinces of Canada to preserve our water and keep it here that has stalled in Wisconsin. All 8 states must ratify it, including Canada’s provinces, and then it has to make it through our U.S. legislature. It’s not likely to happen. Even if it did, when fellow Americans have no water, it becomes a very moral issue. I wrote a blog about this a year ago, move over Michigan. What are you going to do, let fellow Americans perish?

I think for starters, if other states want our water, the citizens must move here. Clean industry for jobs to sustain the new transplants should be invited as well. Michigan has plenty of low priced, lovely homes. It’s only fair. Michigan’s economy is dying and everyone wants to take our water too? That’s not fair.  If you want our water, move here to get it for starters. After that, we’re in deep, deep trouble as human beings. I happen to think the earth is on the path to right itself of its problem–humans.  Nothing we’re going to do is going to stop it.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=668794.

We have so many environmental groups and they are doing a great job. They have been successful in enlisting many, many corporations to urge Congress to get moving on global warming. Environmental Defense started USCAP (U.S. Climate Action Partnership). They have a lot of companies that have joined and more are being added to the list all the time. USCAP is united as a force to help get Congress moving on global warming and is successful so far.

I was looking over the list and there is a little bit of irony on that list. BP who is doing that 3.8 billion dollar expansion at their refinery in Indiana, which will pollute Lake Michigan more, is on the list. Now does this seem funny to you? If I expand my oil refinery, I’m planning on refining a lot more crude, but at the same time want to help with global warming. Staying status quo until new alternatives hit the market is one thing, but expansion? It just doesn’t appear that BP is maintaining their oil business as much as increasing it. Does it?

I saw their commercials that they are investing millions on alternative energies.  But now they are polluting Lake “Michigan” That’s hitting a little too close to home. And won’t an expansion of the refinery produce more oil, to consume and create more CO2? I realize a bigger refinery means less dependence on foreign oil, and that our refineries are not up to par, but BP is a foreign oil company and polluting our lake. It’s our lake. It’s named Michigan.

As for the list, isn’t it contrary that they are on the USCAP list? Do environmental organizations screen the companies that go on the list to see if they are double-talking,or do they hope by helping they will soon practice what they preach? The American car companies are on the list also, but paid $40 million last year to lobby Congress about the Energy Bill and mpg standards they wanted to lower. The way I see it, is you are either in earnest about alternative sources of energy and start showing us something, or we just have to believe what we see with our own eyes, that companies that pollute, and have not really curbed their actions to pollute, are not being honest about wanting change. We’re getting ready to drill in the Artic Refuge for Pete’s sake. Are we stupid?

BP has been allowed to dump an average of 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of sludge into Lake Michigan every day.  With only 35 miles of coastline on Lake Michigan, Indiana is the state that made this decision The additional sludge is the maximum allowed under federal guidelines. Anyone think these guidelines are a joke, especially in light of the Great Lakes Legacy Act? It just shows how incompetent the Bush Administration is when the right hand consistently issues contradictions to what it created with its left hand.

Indiana exempted its state environmental pollution laws for a 3.8 billion dollar expansion of its facilities for CANADIAN oil! And you know what the icebreaker was for this decision?–the creation of 80 new jobs. 80 lousy jobs may in the future deny how many thousands of people fresh drinking water? We are playing with fire here. No one seems to understand that without an environment that provides clean land, air, and water jobs will be of no concern. We will perish!

BP is already one of the largest polluters along the Great lakes. Now that it plans to release 54% more ammonia and 35% more sludge into Lake Michigan everyday those that live along the shoreline will see much more algae blooming; the stuff that gets caught up in props, hogs all the oxygen and kills fish. We’re going around dredging to take pollution out through the Great Lakes Legacy Act and BP is outdoing those efforts at what ratio? This is a practice in futility if I ever saw one.

This just goes to show oil companies, even BP, who is supposedly investing millions for alternative energy sources, speak with forked tongues. Since they have $3.8 billion to invest then surely they can come up with a billion or two to truck the sludge and ammonia to the interior of Canada and dump it in the miles of uninhabited forest land. Oh that’s right, we might ruin one of their wildlife habitats.

Read more about this travesty of justice for our world:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-pollute_15jul15,1,647384.story?ctrack=1&cset=true.

BOYCOTT BP and INDIANA. With only 35 miles of shoreline, blighted by the BP refinery, and now this, Indiana shouldn’t have any say so for anything to do with the Great Lakes any longer.

E-mail Mitch, the governor of Indiana and tell him what you think about this at:

http://www.in.gov/gov/2310.htm.

Sign the petition from Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois to save the lake and watch the press conference about this injustice: http://durbin.senate.gov/SaveOurLakePetition.pdf.

Contact BP and tell them what you think about them. Hey, they want you to,  and are set up to receive your thoughts at: http://www.bp.com/genericformsdisplay.do?formId=7050066.

Canadian officials announced today that health risks for eating Great Lakes fish are increasing. I have two stories relative to this. First of all, walleye and perch are delicious, and a great natural resource for Michigan. The health risks are associated with what the fish eat, passed onto us when we eat the fish. It’s all a big chain you know. Ever wonder why vegetables are suddenly important enough to be included in dog and cat food? They are both known carnivores (meat eaters). Well when a wild dog or cat eats a bunny, it automatically gets the veggies the bunny ate. So even wild dogs and cats get their veggies one way or another. The fish are getting whatever is being discharged or accumulated in our Great Lakes that are supposed to be clean according to the fish flies. Baloney. I think those fish flies are adapting to pollution.

Anyway, way back in the 80’s, I worked with someone who was an avid fisherman who liked to fish Lake Michigan. His wife did not like to cook, so there was a lot of grilling going on. He grilled all kinds of Great Lakes fish and ate it about 4 times a week. I didn’t pay much attention when he started have digestion problems and had an upper GI looking for the culprit. Nothing turned up, but the stomach or intestinal problem continued. I saw an article about eating lake fish and how it should be limited because of mercury and other pollution. So I asked him how many times a week he was eating salmon he caught? When he lifted his head, I could see the lightbulb go on. Was it the fish? He cut out eating Lake Michigan fish for awhile and the symptoms subsided.

Next story, is about a family that lived along the shores of Lake Erie. The father enjoyed hunting, and fishing and the family ate all kinds of wild things, particularly a lot of walleye, and perch. The daughters grew up to have children that all suffer some form of autism an/or unusual chronic health problems. The daughters cannot find any other unifying factor outside of genetics, that may be the culprit, other than eating a lot of fish while growing up. Doctors doubt the genetic factor because the diseases are not the same except for autism.

This is not about the fish being delicious or the fishing industry taking a hit. It’s flat out about pollution. We surely don’t want a legacy of lakes full of fish that are unedible. The Great Lakes Legacy Act was established to help maintain the clean quality of our lakes but is it too late? Some people have eaten the fish for years with no problems, but then again how many times a week? Eating fish every Friday doesn’t seem to pose a problem. Eating it everyday may be another story. I live on the lake and don’t eat any of it. I’d like to have a pond and raise my own quite frankly.

Environmentalism is taking a bit hit in Congress in Michigan right now. I don’t think we can afford to do that do you? As good citizens we have a big responsibility keeping the freshwater “fresh” for many years to come.

I know “Not From Around Here” wanted to know the deal with the Fish Flies around here. Someone commented that fish flies indicate the good health of our lakes. I’m reading reports of what’s being dredged up at designated sites around the Great Lakes through the Great Lakes Legacy Act. We have a lot of coalburners, particularly around Lake Erie, that put mercury in the atmosphere and ultimately the water, I see tumors on fish, and I’ve lived on Lake Erie for the past 20 years. Fish flies are synonomous with clean water but the facts presented don’t warrant that. I went to some websites to find why fish flies mean the water is clean. There is no big connection other than the fish flies live on the bottom of the lakes for up to 2 years before they emerge. So the logic is that the bottom of the lake and water must be pretty clean. Fish flies are sensitive to oxygen levels. Polluted water has lower oxygen levels.

Oxygen levels in water are also low when there is a lot of weed growth. And what about adaptation? The fish flies we’re seeing used to be rare to Georgia I believe. Suppose they’ve adapted to pollutants? And because we’re warming up here in Michigan we’ve had a new influx of these southern fish flies. We had a minor plague of fruit flies last fall that didn’t leave until Christmas that were also a rare type of fruit fly. They had already adapted to global climate change and came from Europe. Lower species of life like fruit flies, and fish flies adapt to change easily, and extremely fast compared to higher forms of life. That is why fruit flies are used in biology classes. The results for generations shows up quickly.

What I want to know is can’t we just check the water in the Lakes to know the lakes are clean. The idea that fish flies indicate the water is clean over-all might not hold true.  It’s not really scientifice. I don’t get very many fish flies and never have in 20 years of living on the water. I know Bolles Harbor is littered with them sometimes. There is a very big difference where they do and don’t appear in quantity. To say the water is clean over-all, based on fish flies, is not correct then. The assumption is that the presence of fish flies indicate water is clean, then the absence of fish flies indicate it’s dirty. Some places are full of fish flies, others are not, therefore, the water is clean in certain areas only. Somebody needs to do more research on this new, rare fish fly. Quite possibly, I don’t have any fish flies because I live near the mouth of the Detroit River, or my fish flies haven’t fully adapted yet.

In any event, I’m glad I’ve never really been plagued with the little boogers and everyone I know is amazed my neighborhood is not overabundant with fish flies. I’m glad because after the plague of the fruit flies last fall, I have a greater sense for what could be real life plagues in the future. Fish flies would be one of the most repugnant plagues for sure.

Today, June 1st, an international team of 20 runners left New York in the Blue Planet Run 2007 sponsored by Dow Chemical Company. They will travel worldwide to draw attention to the growing water shortage crisis. U.S. News and World Report, June 4th, 2007, titled “Why You Should Worry About Water” reported the event.  The magazine said the 20 runners “will run 24 hours a day in 10-mile individual relay segments for 95 days, passing the baton at more than 1,500 exchange points worldwide.” The Blue Planet Run Foundation hopes to rally people everywhere to help get fresh water to 20 million people by 2015.

When they say, “get freshwater to” they’re talking about mostly women and children, one in every five people, who spend up to 6 hours per day getting water from somewhere else. The water is hardly clean to begin with, and by time they get it back home, it’s surely contaminated. Water borne disease is the largest cause of death in the world. 6,000 children die every day from unsafe water and our planets fresh water is dwindling.

The cover story states that in the U.S. “supply is shrinking, pipes are aging, and few are willing to pay the price.” Of the developed countries, we pay the least for water per gallon @ $2.49. Imagine Denmark and Germany that pay $8.50 per gallon. The United Kingdom pays $7.20. But here lies the problem also. We’re spoiled. Like most people who have access to freshwater, we take it for granted and think of it as a natural occurring element and don’t want to pay for it. It’s kind of like the way we kicked when we started paying for airwaves for TV.  $2.49 per gallon is a small price to pay, so small that our water mains and pipelines are in horrible disrepair in this country. Because we pay so little, there is little money to accomplish the repairs that are needed and soon.

Ask the citizens of New Jersey who suffered a water main break in the middle of the night. Imagine lying in bed and a wave of water rushes through your house high enough to go over your bed. We assume someone somewhere is taking care of things but in actuality funds to repair and maintain horribly aged pipelines, some are 80 years old, just don’t exist, and the problem continues to be overlooked year after year. We don’t seem to practice much preventative maintenance in this country. It’s more or less fix the disaster when it happens. Is this the way a wealthy, capitalist society operates? It’s shabby. I reported on the Bush administration cuts for federal money that affect community subsidies that would go to repair old water line infrastructures. What is everyone thinking? It looks like pass the buck again to me. But the pipes won’t hold forever. I wonder if they are that old, then how safe are they to carry drinking water?

Our drinking water in Michigan is not all that clean to begin with. A report on contaminants found in Lake Michigan showed traces of female hormone supplement, and ingredients from painkillers. It seems too many people do not think before flushing drugs down the drain or toilet. It is assumed it goes nowhere, is filtered and treated, but somehow it’s ending up back out into the lake where it’s in good enough amounts to be traceable. Anyone that says Americans don’t pollute any more than anyone else needs to stop and think many people in the 21st century do not have flushing toilets or hormones or painkillers to flush down toilets. These people are busy looking for food, water, and shelter.  Developed nations obviously pollute the worst. We need to start thinking of others because our turn at water shortage is not that far off.

In Florida, fires surround Lake Okeechobee that is already down to 8.5 feet from 13 ft. from dry, hot weather. It’s a large, shallow lake but is considered as a backup water supply for 5 million people. 8.5 ft. of water versus a raging fire is not a good thing. Hopefully residents of Florida won’t need a backup water supply too soon, but the weather and fires are not cooperating. Let’s hope we don’t take water for granted so long that we lose the privilege of having it at our disposal.

Do one thing. Every time you finish doing yard work late into the evening, covered with sweat, grime on top of that, and a random supply of mosquito bites, think about not having the luxury of  climbing into that warm shower. And when you do climb in, appreciate the heck out of it, enough to cut that shower short to conserve it for another time, for someone else. Funny what we relish so readily when we need it, we quickly forget when it’s over, something as simple as a shower. 

I got a kick out of the controversy over cloned food that made the news this morning. The FDA is ready to make a new ruling. They say meat and milk from cloned animals is as safe as any other meat. More than likely, our other meat is pumped with hormones. Our other meat is fed food that is filled with additives and fertilized with the hormonal animal manure, blood, and bacteria. Our other meat is doused with pesticides while breathing the fumes from the cesspools below them.  Our other meat is sickly and then pumped with drugs to keep alive. Where is the Center for Food Safety for these conditions? They are voicing their concern over cloned meat.

So to say cloned animals are as safe as any other meat is not saying much at all. I wonder if some of the medical conditions we suffer are from eating meat like this? Kids suffer Attention Deficit Disorder. Adults suffer ADD also. There are conditions out there that go undiagnosed after years of tests. Autism is growing. Girls reach puberty earlier. Boys go bald sooner.

We need to pay attention to our food industry. We’ve had a preview of tainted food already. Not a terrorist to blame but ourselves. We’ve allowed industrialized farming and they are terrorists of a different sort according to the small farmers they’ve put out of business.  And we’re worried about cloned animals? I suggest if we take up the fight against cloned animal meat do it also to discontinue industrialized farming. Read my “Pig Poo” blog. The future of our food and freshwater depend on our petitioning our representatives to stop monopolies like Smithfield Foods and other industrialized farmers.

45% of Americans polled thought cloning animals is morally wrong. Industrialized farming is the most immoral act I’ve read about yet. The pollution from them is overwhelming. The animals live a life of hell. They are literally traumatized from birth to slaughter. And this is on the heels of science that declares pigs have a high degree of intelligence. Oh how I loved pork. I don’t eat it anymore. Red meat is an occasional treat.

You might say animals have always been foodstuff. The act of slaughter is not pretty. But I like to think we at least allowed the animal to have a life first, grazing, and procreating. It’s called kosher.  A decree by God for his animals. They are to be treated with care and decency. The slaughter should be clean and swift. Our idea of morality and the animal kingdom is like the fickle finger of fate that points and misses more than not. We’re concerned about cloned animals while the suffering of those given us by God goes ignored.

The next time you receive “junk mail” that is from Farm Sanctuary, or a Farm Animal charity, read it. They exist for a purpose. We not only need to watch how much we eat for our health, but what that food went through to get on our plate.

I just read the most disgusting article about pollution I’ve read in a long time. And I read a lot of pollution articles. The article, “Boss Hog” by Jeff Tietz in Rolling Stone magazine took me on a tour of the pork meat packing business that got me thinking of hell, torture, something out of Revelations in the bible, to disgust, outrage, mistrust of the EPA, USDA and other governmental organizations. A lot of thoughts for one little article about Smithfield Foods.

Joseph Luter III owns Smithfield Foods. It is the largest meat packing business in the world. Smithfield killed 27 million hogs last year. Hogs weigh 50% more than people so it was the equivalent of processing, (a decent term), the entire human populations of 33 of America’s largest cities. Hogs also produce 3 times the poo we do.

The hogs are compartmentalized in cubicles from birth to slaughter in large buildings. The slats in the floor allow droppings, stillborn piglets, small piglets, and afterbirth to fall through to open air pits that flow into lagoons around the massive buildings. Large ventilation fans attempt to take the stench out but the animals breath  bacteria and methane gases. Coupled with the trauma from living in hell, the pigs immune systems weaken. They have to be shot up with drugs and antibiotics continuously. They are also doused with pesticide. Much of it falls into the pits and out to the open air lagoons.

Lagoons are lined, but liners can break.  Lagoons can cover an area as large as 120,000 sq. ft. and be 30 ft. deep. One slaughterhouse can have as many as 100 open air lagoons. The stench is described as putrid and fetid.  The lagoons are the color of Pepto Bismal from blood.  Dead pigs are piled up in areas of the premises. It’s a sewage horror story and I haven’t stated the worst yet.

When the lagoons get too high, workers suck the stuff up and blow it into the air to land on the ground that grows the feed for the hogs. Pig poo hangs from the surrounding trees and covers everything. Industry people call this over-saturation and act as if this stuff is a nutrient. At this point, picture grease in a pan of cold water, the slimy crust floating on top a mix of blood, pig parts, afterbirth, chemicals, drugs, fertilizer, bacteria, and poo. Pour something like that on the ground. That slime is going to lay on top and draw more bacteria, and flies, before it seeps in. Raise a flag to the recent outbreak of bacteria tainted veggies? Smithfield has operations in 20 states.

The lagoons overflow into subsidiaries when it rains too much. When hurricane Floyd hit N.C., and one of the largest hog farms, entire counties became cesspools. Fish died within minutes of touching lagoon water. There were dead fish along the ocean shore at the mouths of the subsidiaries that swelled with lagoon overspill. People who come in contact don’t fair too well either. The stench cannot be inhaled for long or a person blacks out. A worker repairing a lagoon in Michigan inhaled too much, blacked out, fell in, and immediately died.

That’s right. Smithfield is in Michigan. All of our  lakes, streams, and rivers run into our Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater supply. If a Smithfield farm was dead center in our state, I wouldn’t rest easy. I don’t think this is the wave of the future at all. It is unnecessarily inhumane. Many states are fighting it as a monopoly because Smithfield sucks up all the small farms. Dead pigs piled up is nothing but waste and overkill. The pollution is uncontrollable, affecting our groundwater and soil, and eventually our other food and water supplies. The pigs are sickly. Many are pumped with drugs and kept alive long enough to kill and serve as our food.

While organizations are forming to keep Smithfield out of their state, and to stop industrialized farming, Smithfield Foods made the Fortune list, was honored by a leading meat packing industry magazine, and the EPA honored them for following ISO 14000 standards. These standards are a joke. The 14000 program is a pilot that only encourages active environmental management. None of the standards hold force so a company is not required to improve its quality control. Most significantly, the standards do not require sufficient public disclosure of a firm’s environmental impacts. What’s wrong with this picture? The EPA, not long ago, handed Smithfield the largest fine in history. 
Pollution is a political issue. Luter is a major contributor to politicians and part of the growing problem with lobbyists. Lobbyists like Smithfield Foods get the government to look the other way and dump their pollution on us when we don’t fight back. We don’t fight back when we don’t know about it. We don’t know about it because of flimsy, voluntary standards s like the EPA’s 14000 ISO’s.  
Smithfield Foods is not only killing off America, they are in Canada and have spread like a virus to Poland and Romania.  Search the article under Boss Hog by Jeff Tietz. One of the first urls brings up the entire article. E mail Senators Levin http://levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm, Stabenow http://stabenow.senate.gov/email.htm, and Representative Dingell http://www.house.gov/writerep/  to stop Smithfield Foods and industrialized farming.  Global warming isn’t the only threat to our environment.