by John McNab
“Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America’s Waterways “ by Environment America in 2016 has revealed pollution from agri-business is responsible for many of the most serious water problems.
The report says according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), agriculture is the probable cause for making more than 145,000 miles of rivers and streams, 1 million acres of lakes and reservoirs, and 3,000 square miles of bays and estuaries too polluted for swimming, fishing, drinking, and/or maintaining healthy wildlife.
Today’s agribusiness practices – from the concentration of thousands of animals and their waste in small feed- lots to the massive planting of chemical-intensive crops such as corn – make water pollution from agribusiness both much more likely and much more dangerous.
The shift to such industrial practices is no accident. It is largely the result of decisions made in the boardrooms of some of the world’s largest corporations. Major agribusiness firms are responsible for the degradation of many American waterways, and they must change practices throughout their supply chains to clean up the mess.
Many see New Zealand as a parallel to the USA’s situation. In New Zealand corporates are increasingly dominating economic sectors such as forestry, dairying, wine and grape growing and others.
© Corporate dairy farming – Mackenzie Basin
