Martha Stevens is livestock farmer who lives and farms near Hatfield, Missouri. This article is part of an ongoing series by Martha Stevens - Straight Talk - commenting on the life and politics of farming in Missouri and the U.S. as a whole.

"Pathogens found near hog lots." So read the front page banner headline of the Des Moines Register, Saturday, August 7. The article went on to describe conditions found by federal investigators for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) near confinement hog facilities of 1000+ head in Iowa.

The CDC said that contaminants were found in surrounding ground water wells (nitrate, fecal bacteria, metals), lagoons/cesspools (sulfate, antibiotics, metals, nitrates, bacteria, parasites), drainage wells which empty into underground water supplies (nitrates, bacteria, metals), drainage ditches (bacteria, nitrates, metals), and rivers (parasites, nitrates, bacteria, metals).

What is foremost in my mind, and I’m sure for those living in "at risk" areas of the country, is "If these contaminants were found in Iowa where the facilities are relatively small, what level of contamination are those living near the largest facilities -- those producing 2 million hogs or more annually -- facing?"

As was pointed out by Dr. Lee Friell, University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory, "this industry exploded without convincing environmental safeguards." How true.

When the mega CAFO operations dangled dollar signs in the name of Economic Development and made their grandiose proposals to local and state politicians, those leaders swallowed the bait; hook, line, and sinker. Having attended some of those "information meetings," I must admit that those PR people are pretty darned good at making it all sound plausible -- except to skeptics like me. I think the real turning point that waved a red flag before my eyes was when the vice president of the swine division of Continental Grain, David Gieman (who is now a mega producer in his own name!!) stated that their facilities were so state of the art that cesspool waste was purified to the extent "you could drink it." Ugh! This might be true if the operations used a treatment system such as that required of even small towns in Missouri, but that isn’t how its done. There are no treatment plants, just open cesspools that are temporary "holding pits" of raw sewage before that same raw sewage is spread over the land -- or spilled into the waterways.

Remember the assurances from manufacturers regarding Atrazine? Farmers were led to believe that it was safe. Now, here we are some twenty years later with wells laced with Atrazine, and look who is being blamed for the problem; not the company that assured farmers it was safe to use, but the farmer who believed them. Will the hog factory fiasco result in the same 20/20 hindsight? When the damage is already done?

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is making every effort to downplay the CDC report. NPPC advisor Dr. Paul Sundberg said that the study wasn’t "designed" to show that the contaminants were coming from the hog farms.

Excuse me? Not coming from the hog farms? I would like for Dr. Sundberg to explain why then, identical contaminates in those ditches, rivers, wells, and underground water were found in the cesspools (lagoons) at those hog factories? Common sense would go a long way here, Dr. Sundberg! His theory is based on the fact that exposure to sunlight would kill many of these pathogens. But what about those it didn’t kill? What about continuous and/or over-application to fields, allowing for run-off into streams, drainage ditches/wells with likely destination, the aquifer? And what about those millions of gallons of cesspool waste spills that could find their way into the aquifers where there is no sunlight to "cleanse" it?

The NPPC stance is based on the premise that there is no "proof" of a danger to humans from such contamination. Give me a break! Far less "proof" is required -- and rightly so -- to remove harmful substances for the protection of the general public, and particularly the children. Why should we do less in this instance? Why should the innocent children -- or their parents -- be placed at risk for the benefit of the bottom line of the mega hog factory? Of course, further study should be done. In the meantime, those living in the "danger zone" should be provided with safe drinking water, and if that means bottled and trucked in by state or federal health departments, then that is the price they pay for not doing their investigations before sending out the Welcome Wagon.

Today’s quote: "It (the study) shows that not only is the stuff moving, but it contains pathogens. They didn’t find a health risk because they didn’t look for it." -- Aaron Heley Lehman, Iowa Farmers Union.

Published in In Motion Magazine - August 29, 1999

Also read other essays by Martha Stevens