Manure Pathogens
Key Points – Manure Pathogens What are the major manure-borne pathogens? Manure-borne pathogens include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can sicken people, either through direct contact with manure or indirectly from contaminated water, food, or air. When a person becomes sick from a pathogen that has moved from an animal to human, it is considered […]
Animal Ag PM2.5 & Human Health
How damaging is PM2.5 pollution? Globally, PM2.5 is considered the largest or 2nd largest cause of premature death.[1,2] In the U.S., PM2.5 air pollution is likely the number one environmental cause of premature death.[3,4] Brauer, M., et al., (2024). Global burden and strength of evidence for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and 811 subnational […]
Animal Ag Ammonia and Human Health
KEY POINTS – Animal Ag Ammonia and Human Health 1. Ammonia is considered by the EPA to be a “severely hazardous substance,” with direct health risks at the local level, major regional health risks due to the contributions to PM2.5, and wide-ranging risks to planetary and human health due to its central role in nutrient […]
Factory Farm Ammonia: The Unrecognized & Unregulated Air Pollutant
Ammonia is generated by factory farms at levels that regularly exceed the EPA’s “reportable quantities” by 10 to 50 times or more. And yet, these emissions are underestimated, underreported, and largely invisible to the American public.
The Planetary Boundaries Framework: A Moral Guide for the Anthropocene
For those who believe that the health of our Earth and the long-term survival of its inhabitants are in jeopardy, the Planetary Boundary framework may be the new Ten Commandments.
When Antibiotics Fail: The Role of Factory Farming
Given the stakes, factory farming’s continuing abuse of antibiotics surely ranks high among the most irrational and dangerous practices of industrial animal agriculture. Our government’s enabling of this profligate usage is a serious dereliction of duty.
America’s Overlooked Pollution Crisis: Factory Farm Manure
While headlines may focus on PFAS or microplastics, this more potent and pervasive pollutant continues to escape national scrutiny. Produced in unfathomable quantities, the embedded nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus – severely contaminate waterways and degrade air quality.
Nitrates – Hardship for the Few, Cheap Meat for the Many
Along with 42 million other Americans, our household sources drinking water from groundwater via a private well. Last month, after spending a couple of weeks researching and writing about nitrates in our nation’s drinking water, we woke one morning to the strange smell of something noxious in our own water.
Nitrates in Drinking Water
KEY POINTS – Nitrates in Drinking Water 1. Nitrates in drinking water are a significant, though poorly understood health threat; the risks include blue baby syndrome, birth defects, low birth weights, and several types of cancers. 2. Most studies suggest that the EPA’s current maximum contaminant level (MCL) underestimates the threat. 3. Nitrates often contaminate […]
Unpacking the “National Security” Implications of Glyphosate
The claim that glyphosate is crucial to U.S. agricultural productivity and food security is a smokescreen. The true national security concern is that the government encourages farmers to grow cheap monoculture feed crops in some of the most fertile soil on earth instead of growing healthy food for humans.