Polluting By the Numbers

By the Mother Earth News editors

At the beginning of the farm crisis in the late 1970s, suffering rural communities welcomed factory-style feedlots, hoping to prop up sagging economies. It was only after these feedlots moved in that neighbors started to notice the real price of the operations to air, water and life quality. Now, as many communities are trying to evict these polluting operations, several feedlot corporations are looking to expand.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Clean Water Network have compiled the report "Cesspools of Shame" The full report is available online at NRDC's Web site at www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/cesspools/cessinx.asp or by writing to 1200 New York Ave., NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005. Here are just a few numbers from the report: