NEW ORLEANS (CN) — Drinking water for more than 324,000 Louisianans is contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals from agricultural runoff from meat-producing farms as far away as the Midwest, and a panel of experts Thursday called on Tyson Foods, the largest meat producer in the nation, to do something to stop it.
Chemicals from the agricultural runoff flow into the Gulf of Mexico and create an annual dead zone the size of New Jersey and growing. The panel called on Tyson to hurry up and switch to the sustainable practices its new CEO Tom Hayes promised to adopt to stop the health dangers and environmental destruction.
The Thursday panel was part of a national campaign to hold Springdale, Arkansas-based meat giant responsible for the environmental harm it has caused.
Tyson, the country’s largest processor of chicken, beef and pork, has more than 115,000 employees and 6,700 independent chicken contractors, according to publicly available information. Ninety of its 300 processing plants are in the United States. It reported $41.4 billion in revenue in 2014.
Mighty Earth, a coalition of 31 Louisiana businesses, farmers and community groups, with a combined membership of 13,000, sponsored the Thursday night event with the Gulf Restoration Network.
The nonprofit network released a report this summer showing that Tyson is a major cause of the dead zone.
Toxins from fertilizer and manure that pour into the Mississippi River from the farms throughout America’s heartland eventually dump into the Gulf of Mexico, where they feed toxic algae blooms that suck up the oxygen, creating hypoxia, or strangulation of life.
The hypoxic area, or dead zone, is created every year and peaks in size in July.
Last year alone 1.15 million metric tons of nitrogen pollutants from Midwest agricultural runoff flowed into the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River, according to the report by Mighty Earth, an environmental group led by former Congressman Henry Waxman.
That is roughly 170 percent more pollution than was caused by the 2010 BP oil spill.
“The meat industry sets the standards for feed production,” Mighty Earth organizer Audrey Beedle said during the panel discussion. She said that due to its size Tyson has great influence in the industry and its practices.
“A few simple solutions can improve feed production and reduce pollution,” Beedle said. Among the suggestions from the panel were growing crops other than water-hungry soybeans and corn, as are primarily grown now, and using crop covers to prevent fertilizer and pesticides from washing into tributaries of the Mississippi River.
“We shouldn’t have to choose between good food and clean water,” Beedle said.
She encouraged thinking about where holiday meals come from and choosing ingredients raised in environments that foster sustainable practices.
“The goal here is to change the way meat is produced. This is not anti-Tyson. This is not anti-corporate. Tyson has said they want their practice to be sustainable. We are encouraging them to hold to that,” Gulf Restoration Network panelist Matt Rota said.
Nitrate contamination in drinking water from agricultural runoff is prevalent throughout the United States. Nitrates have been linked to Alzheimer’s and possibly to diabetes and Parkinson’s disease and several possible cancers, panelists said.