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The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star

The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star

Amid uncertainty, French wine industry puts itself on show

By THOMAS ADAMSON | February 11, 2020

PARIS (AP) — France's big wine industry, shaken by U.S. President Trump’s painful tariff hikes and the threat of climate change, is hoping to re-energize global interest in its products with a big trade fair in Paris.Two thousand winemakers - including...

Factory farms provide abundant food, but environment suffers

By JOHN FLESHER | February 6, 2020

AKRON, Iowa (AP) — In recent years, Fred Zenk built two barns housing about 2,400 hogs between them — long, white, concrete-and-metal structures that are ubiquitous in the Midwestern countryside.

The Iowa farmer didn’t follow state requirements to get construction approval and file a manure disposal plan. But Zenk’s operation initially flew under the radar of regulators, as have many others across the United States because of loopholes and spotty enforcement of laws intended to keep the nation’s air and water clean.

Beef, chicken and pork have become more affordable staples in the American diet thanks to industry consolidation and the rise of farms with tens of thousands of animals. Yet federal and state environmental agencies often lack basic information such as where they’re located, how many animals they’re raising and how they deal with manure.

The animals and their waste have fouled waters. The enclosures spew air pollutants that promote climate change and are implicated in illnesses such as asthma. The stench of manure — stored in pits beneath barns or open-air lagoons and eventually spread on croplands as fertilizer — can make life miserable for people nearby.

For most of the nation’s history, meat and dairy products came from independent farms that raised animals in barnyards, pastures and rangeland. But the system now is controlled by giant companies that contract with farmers to produce livestock with the efficiency of auto assembly lines inside warehouse-like barns and sprawling feedlots.

The spread of corporate animal farms is turning neighbor against neighbor in town halls and courtrooms. Iowa, the top U.S. producer of swine and egg-laying chickens, has been a major battleground.

“It’s a fight for survival,” said Chris Petersen, who still raises pigs in outdoor pens.

Michele Merkel, a former EPA attorney who quit over the agency’s reluctance to punish polluting mega-farms and is co-director of the advocacy group Food & Water Justice, said the industry “has avoided any effective regulation and accountability for a long time.”

Industry groups say there are plenty of regulations and livestock agriculture is simply adapting to improved technology, equipment and methods.

“We’re responding to what the market is giving us,” said Brady Reicks, whose company runs numerous large hog structures in northeastern Iowa. “We’re doing it responsibly; we’re passionate about doing it. It increases growth in rural Iowa and it helps feed the world.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began to count the nation’s factory farms during the Obama administration but retreated when industry groups sued. Instead, the agency uses state data to produce annual statistics about only the biggest operations.

As of 2018, the nationwide EPA tally was about 20,300 — a roughly five-fold increase over nearly four decades.

Yet it’s a tiny fraction of all confined animal operations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates there are more than 450,000, most too small for inclusion in the EPA count.

Iowa has 80 million farm animals and 3 million people. Yet in 2017, regulators didn’t know how many livestock farms were in the state. Under federal pressure, the Department of Natural Resources pored over aerial photos, discovering 4,200 previously unknown facilities.

Zenk’s Plymouth County farm was among them.

“We knew nothing about his operation,” said Sheila Kenny, an environmental specialist with the state agency.

Zenk acknowledged breaking the rules but said no harm was done. He paid a $4,500 fine.

“You think you can get by with something once in a while and you can’t,” he said, strolling among his barns, tractor and feed bins.

To state regulators, such discoveries mean the system works. Critics say the Iowa experience shows how easily livestock operations can escape detection.

Putting thousands of animals in one enclosure produces huge amounts of manure. Unlike human sewage, which is treated and released to waterways, animal waste is stored, then spread on croplands as fertilizer.

Farmers insist they are careful.

“We take soil tests, we decide how much manure it needs and that’s how much we apply,” Reicks said.

Environmental groups say fields often can’t handle the volumes of manure produced, leading to runoff. Such pollution is exempt from regulation under the 1972 Clean Water Act, even though agriculture is the biggest contaminator of rivers and streams, according to the EPA.

In Emmett County, Iowa, small farmer Gordon Garrison sued a nearby operation with 4,400 hogs, contending manure from its croplands fouls a creek that runs through his property and feeds the Des Moines River.

“They’re using me for a waste disposal site,” Garrison said.

Livestock farms generate about 70% of the nation’s ammonia emissions, plus gases that cause global warming, particularly methane.

Yet they aren’t required to get permits under the Clean Air Act. The government hasn’t decided how to measure emissions from barns, feedlots, storage lagoons and croplands.

And under President Donald Trump, EPA has exempted livestock operations from requirements under other laws that industries report significant releases of air pollutants including ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.

Critics say yesteryear’s barnyard whiffs were nothing like the overpowering stench from today’s supersized operations.

“You don’t want to be anywhere near them,” said Brad Trom, a crop producer in Minnesota’s Dodge County, who lives within three miles of 11 structures housing 30,000 swine. He says he’s been staggered by powerful odors barreling across his fields.

Farmers say they’re trying to reduce the smells but contend they’re a normal part of country life.

“I’ve never lived on a farm that didn’t have nature’s fragrances on it,” said Gary Sovereign, a swine producer in Iowa’s Howard County.

Research has linked proximity to factory farms to various health risks. But scientists acknowledge it’s nearly impossible to pin someone’s illness on a certain polluter.

Jeff and Gail Schwartzkopf say after a hog mega-barn was built a quarter-mile from their home in northern Iowa, they developed burning and itching eyes, throat soreness and body rashes. They fear the manure odors are making them sick and ruining their home.

“Nobody’s going to want to buy it. We’re stuck,” Jeff Shwartzkopf said

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Follow Flesher on Twitter: @johnflesher

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Changing counts reveal inexact science of calorie labels

By CANDICE CHOI | February 4, 2020

NEW YORK (AP) — Almonds used to have about 170 calories per serving. Then researchers said it was really more like 130. A little later, they said the nuts may have even less.Calorie counting can be a simple way to help maintain a healthy weight —...

Germany’s Merkel meets food industry to discuss low prices

February 3, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel met food industry representatives on Monday to address concerns about the effect of rock-bottom supermarket prices on farmers and others.The meeting at the chancellery follows occasional protests over recent...

In fight to survive, US dairy farmers look for any tech edge

By IVAN MORENO | February 2, 2020

PICKETT, Wis. (AP) — At Rosendale Dairy, each of the 9,000 cows has a microchip implanted in an ear that workers can scan with smartphones for up-to-the-minute information on how the animal is doing — everything from their nutrition to their health...

2020 candidates brace for frenzied, final weekend in Iowa

By WILL WEISSERT | February 1, 2020

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates kicked off a final, frenetic weekend of campaigning ahead of the Iowa caucuses, which will begin the battle to take on President Donald Trump in November.Former Vice President Joe Biden and...

Prosecutors: Owner of shuttered organic dairy ran $60M fraud

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM | January 31, 2020

READING, Pa. (AP) — The owner of an award-winning organic dairy in Pennsylvania that abruptly closed its doors last fall is accused of milking investors to the tune of nearly $60 million.Philip Riehl, the majority owner of Trickling Springs Creamery,...

Asia shares mixed as WHO says China virus a global emergency

By ELAINE KURTENBACH | January 30, 2020

Shares were mixed in Asia after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a new virus that has spread from China to more than a dozen countries a global emergency.Markets in mainland China remained closed as the U.S. warned against all travel...

First hand account of maintaining a ketogenic diet

By Jordan Radloff | January 15, 2020

Going into the new decade I wanted to make a major change to my personal health. I looked up many methods on how to lose weight and decided on a diet that would be easy for me to keep. My experience following a ketogenic diet has been successful so far.Keto...

Pierce remembers time playing in different states, overseas

By Matt Boecker | December 5, 2019

DeKALB — Not many people can say they’ve lived in five states and three countries by the time they were 18 years old. Even fewer can say they played hockey while doing so.Hunter Pierce was born in North Pole, Alaska. When Hunter was eight years old,...

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to host Farmers’ Market of DeKalb

By Northern Star Staff | December 4, 2019

Artisan crafts, fresh baked goods and a used book sale are just some of the few things that will be at the Winter Farmers’ Market from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec. 14. The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will be hosting a Winter Farmers’ of DeKalb....

YMCA to host Halloween Bash

By Jacob Roushia | October 16, 2019

DeKALB — The YMCA will host its annual YMCA Halloween Bash at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Sycamore High School Field House, 427 Spartan Trail, Sycamore.The event is open to the public and admission will cost $3 if purchased before noon and $5 starting...