MODERN-DAY SERFS - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - page 125

wings, necks, legs, and feet became caught in cage wire, they could not reach food or water and suffered
injuries that led to a miserable death. Eggs were covered in feces. 46
A video, shot as part of the Humane Society investigation, shows what appear to be employees cutting
the toes off young turkeys before tossing them down a chute to a bloody conveyor belt. It also seems to
show employees scooping up a handful of turkeys and tossing them into a bin, dropping some on the floor
and leaving them there, as well as an employee pulling a cart of injured animals over to a grinder and
throwing them in. 47
Beyond the cruelty that marks the poultry industry is the truly massive pollution associated with pro-
ducing large numbers of chickens in one area. Poultry facilities generate tremendous volumes of stinking
waste that emit dangerous gases, such as ammonia, methane, and hydrogen sulfide.
For instance, layer hens can produce as much manure as the sewage generated in medium-size cities
in the counties where the poultry farms are concentrated. The 13.8 million layer hens in Mercer County,
Ohio, produce as much untreated waste as the entire population of greater Dallas-Fort Worth, as do the
20.1 million broiler chickens on factory farms in Shelby County, Texas. The 7.7 million layers in Sioux
City, Iowa, produce as much manure as all the sewage in Seattle. And the 17.5 million broilers in Franklin
County, Georgia, produce as much waste as the greater Philadelphia metro area.
A typical broiler factory . Photo by author.
As with the hog industry discussed earlier, the waste from laying hen operations is sometimes drained
into lagoons that leak and overflow. Other egg factories and most broiler operations store dry litter (manure
and bedding) in sheds or outdoors until it is spread on farm fields. After it is applied to the soil, much of
the waste runs into local waterways, causing people to become sick from breathing harmful gases or from
drinking water polluted with nitrates, dangerous microbes, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and viruses.
Scott Edwards, a former attorney with the environmental organization Waterkeeper and now a litigator
with Food & Water Watch's Justice program, knows firsthand the environmental devastation caused by
factory farms. Waterkeeper brought a lawsuit against Perdue in 2010.
Edwards says of the situation in Maryland: “It's almost downright impressive when, a week after being
sued for violating the Clean Water Act, you can walk into the governor's office and get him to do a public
relations dance for you by having him hand you an award for environmental stewardship. And how al-
most remarkable is it that Perdue has the ability to call state senators—some of whom they make campaign
contributions to—and get them to introduce into the state budget a hold on public funding for the environ-
mental law school clinic that is representing the Bay's interests in that suit?”