It’s pretty shocking that as the health care debate rages, very little coverage has been given to environmental degradation as a significant source of our nation’s health problems, particularly that caused by corporate agribusiness.

Thanks to Big Farma, we’ve seen horrific water contamination that has been linked to myriad health problems. As your members of Congress debate health care, we need to make sure they’re considering the impact of corporate agribusiness on the public’s health.

To give you an example, just one hog company — Smithfield — will produce 26 million tons of hog waste a year. And when I say ‘waste’, I don’t just mean fecal matter. This includes tons of antibiotics, afterbirth, stillborn pigs, blood, urine, and anything else that goes into a hog’s pen.

This waste is collected into lagoons that often overflow, contaminating our water supplies. Not to mention Big Farma has to pump tons of antibiotics into the hogs because they live in such horrific conditions — meaning the food itself is a chemical cacophony.

These are issues our Congress needs to look at as they look at health care. So please, send your members of Congress a message asking them to do so:
http://www.environmental-action.org/big-farma?id4=ES

Dan Stafford
Environmental Action Organizer
http://www.environmental-action.org