by Roy C. Hengerson
On Monday, June 11, as part of the annual Big River Week, the Sierra Club released copies of a new study and report entitled “Spoiled Lunch”. The report chronicled how big agribusiness corporations make millions of dollars on the federal school lunch program while engaging in dangerous and illegal environmental and safety practices. The government does not screen out companies that have serious and repeated violations of environmental and occupational safety laws and regulations from being contractors to the government supplying food products for the school lunch and other institutional feeding programs.
Scott Dye, Ozark Chapter staff and agricultural issues coordinator, did much of the work of compiling the information that went into the report. Amy Maron and Ed Hopkins of the Sierra Club’s Washington, D.C., staff pulled the information together and wrote most of the report. Volunteers from around the country also helped develop and review the report. The report recommends that the Bush administration finalize and issue regulations developed under the Clinton administration that would strengthen requirements for government contractors, which would give the large food production companies an incentive to improve their environmental and safety records.
Big River Week has been an annual gathering of activists involved in river and water quality issues around the country for almost a decade. This year’s conference was held in Washington, D.C., June 8 through12. As part of the workshops and discussion sessions the CAFO / Clean Water Campaign Committee met to plan and strategize. CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (also known as animal factories). The trend in agriculture to large and more concentrated operations and away from family farms has had a devastating effect on rural landscapes, the air and water, and the rural economies where large CAFOs have left a trail of pollution and social displacement.
The CAFO / Clean Water Campaign is one of the four major conservation campaigns of the Sierra Club. The committee, chaired by Hank Graddy of Kentucky, spent considerable time reviewing progress made, how the political landscape had shifted, and how and where the campaign should evolve to maximize its effectiveness. Because it is difficult to get better control of the problems caused by large CAFOs, the campaign has national, state, and local components. The committee focused on getting better coordination of the different elements of the campaign. It was felt that we need to define and promote good sustainable farming practices in addition to opposing practices and operations that pollute the environment and cause social injustice.
In addition to participating in the workshops and meetings, attendees of Big River Week then spent time lobbying Congress on various current environmental issues.