Poultry.org FarmAnimalShelters.org FreeFarmAnimals.org BanCruelFarms.org Help outlaw the cruel confinement of pigs on factory farms in Florida. The 1,600 dairies in the Central Valley of California alone produce more waste than a city of 21 million people. In his book, Diet for a New America, John Robbins calculates that human waste is produced at 25,000 pounds per second, compared to the 250,000 pounds per second produced by farm animals.
Animal waste permeates our water supply in several ways.
When manure is applied to crop land in amounts greater than it can be used or retained by the soil, nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients leach into surface and ground water. Leaching from earthen waste storage lagoons may also pollute ground water. Following a disastrous series of spills in North Carolina three years ago, researchers examined manure lagoons across the state and found that half of them were leaking manure. An informal study of leading livestock-producing states indicates that state enforcement actions taken in response to spills or discharges nearly doubled between 1992 and 1995. Animal waste consists not only of manure and urine, but also of dead animals, used bedding, waste feed, and other residual organic matter.