more dead birds and manure?

Awhile back I wrote about manure's impact on excess water and aquatic plant growth.Excess weeds and algae that grew and then rotted and promoted botulism outbreaks that in turn killed thousands of birds on Lake Ontario a few years ago. Last summer a bad blue green algae bloom on Sodus Bay got the attention of the homeowners there. Certainly manure spread on fields upstream could be contributing to the problem of too much fertilizer in the bay. Several members of the Cafo Awareness Network are planning to sample water next spring in an effort to determine if indeed manure on fields in Rose might be finding its way into the waters of Sodus or East Bay. Then I heard abut the new pit.

I took a drive over to Savannah- Spring Lake last weekend. As a card carrying member of Cafo Awarenness Network I felt obligated to check it out. I found a hill overlooking a forty or fifty acre wetland complete with two eagles perched in shoreline trees surrounded by more forested hills and farmland. The view was of some of the prettiest landscape in the county though I suspect it's hard to keep bare soil on these hillsides in a rain. Atop the hill sat tons of manure in piles. Across the street a couple acres of mud and a collection of parked heavy equipment suggested the rumored manure pit in the making was well under way.

So why worry? Who cares? This farm is following “best management practices” isn't it? Well for one thing, best management practices are quite simply not the best, even when scrupulously followed. In other areas of New York state wells have been ruined and streams and bays have been clogged with algae and weed growth because of too much manure spread on too little land. A solid inch of manure laid down on top of snow on a hillside with a creek at the bottom (see photo) will not stay in place when the snow melts.

What if a little too much fertilizer goes into a swamp? What if there is a little tiny fish kill? It's just carp and suckers and bullheads. Who cares if the birds in Montezuma have to deal with rotting algae and polluted water next summer? Who cares if the folks on Sodus bay can't get their boats through the weeds at their docks?

Well for one thing, it's not just fertilizer. All CAFOs (yes, dairies too) use at least some antibiotics. Peer reviewed studies have documented increased 'gene swapping' that transfers antibiotic resistance between different types of bacteria downstream from CAFO operations. Some of these bacteria can sicken humans.

Too much fertilizer in drinking water has been linked to bladder cancer in humans.

In other parts of the US rural homeowners have successfully sued and appealed to reduce their property taxes because of stench and pollution associated with CAFO agriculture. If their taxes go down, other town residents must take up at least some of the slack or suffer the consequences of budget cuts. Do you want to pay more for milk at the grocery or more at tax time?

A 3000 cow dairy produces four times as much sewage as Syracuse. Where will the farm go next? Will it expand again into your neighborhood?

There is another reason to care. Get ready for a Big Word folks. Too much fertilizer in water chokes out native plants and kills off native animals. Tough hardy “weeds” take their places. This survival of the fittest in a polluted world reduces Biodiversity. Take my word for it. Lost biodiversity is a bad thing. It's bad for economic, physical, and to some people maybe most important of all, for moral and spiritual reasons It's stupid too.

Read more about the problem and what we can do about it here.


http://newyork.sierraclub.org/conservation/agriculture/Wasting_NYS_Report.pdf

please note there are also a couple of pig feeding operations in the area of the photos. I am not claiming any particular origin for the manure spread in photograph. I am saying however, it is poor practice whether it's cow shit or pig shit wherever it's from.