Tyson Foods, one of the world’s leading meat producers, allegedly dumped an alarming volume of pollutants into America’s rivers and lakes — endangering ecosystems, wildlife and potentially human health.
Over a span of five years, from 2018 to 2022, Tyson was responsible for releasing millions of pounds of toxic substances into the environment, a detailed investigation spearheaded by the Union of Concerned Scientists found.
The probe found some 371 million pounds of contaminants — including nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil, and even cyanide — have been ejected into waterways from 41 of Tyson‘s facilities. The extensive pollution was found to affect water bodies in 17 states, notably impacting Nebraska, Illinois, and Missouri the most.
“There are over 5,000 meat and poultry processing plants in the United States, but only a fraction are required to report pollution and abide by limits. As one of the largest processors in the game, with a near-monopoly in some states, Tyson is in a unique position to treat even hefty fines and penalties for polluting as simply the cost of doing business. This has to change,” said the UCS co-author Omanjana Goswami, according to The Telegraph.
The pollutants stem from about 87 billion gallons of wastewater, a mix containing blood, bacteria, and animal feces, discharged by Tyson‘s operations. This volume is significant enough to fill approximately 132,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, underscoring the massive scale of this environmental issue.
One striking aspect of the UCS’ findings is the realization that the documented pollution only represents a fraction of Tyson‘s total impact, covering merely a third of the company’s operations.
Furthermore, it sheds light on the inadequacies of current federal water regulations, which lack specific limits for phosphorus and exempt the majority of meat processing plants from stringent water pollution standards.
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