Saturday, September 29, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Rivers, Chicken Poo, and You
In the Appalachian foothills of the southeast, the scent of chicken and hog parts can hit you like a warm stench blanket. You could be driving down the highway, passing another big-rig that turns out to have hundreds of live pigs stuffed into it, their whiskered snouts poking through the metal grates as if they too want to get as far from the putrid smell as possible. Or you could be passing an open field behind a Gold Kist sign and surrounded by misplaced ponds that smell like they're full of the chlorine supply for all the nation's water parks. Or you might be paddling down one of Alabama's many river systems after a rain and suddenly the water smells like chicken poo and you're reconsidering jumping in for a swim. Lastly, you could live in the effected areas and have to deal with the coughing, nausea, gastrointestinal disorders, kidney problems, and other medical ailments associated with the excess waste product from industrial farms far too big for their britches.
I spoke with Nelson Brooke, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, about this issue, which he encounters most days of the week considering his job involves first-hand monitoring of the streams and rivers in the Black Warrior Watershed.
Industrial livestock operations are nothing new - their size and corporate efficiency yield the numbers that keep McNuggets, BK Broilers, Tyson frozen chicken fingers, and KFC poppers at Third World prices. In northern Alabama the problem is especially acute: Alabama ranks third behind Georgia and Arkansas in broiler chicken production and Culman County is the state's largest producer. Nelson and the folks at the Black Warrior Riverkeeper have published a report on the situation within the Black Warrior River Watershed, one of Alabama's most ecologically important river systems. Check out the full report by the Black Warrior Riverkeeper HERE .
Tyson, Gold Kist, and others have large processing operations in this region but the most elusive and challenging production component, from a regulatory standpoint, are the CAFOs spread around the rural countryside. CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and, frighteningly, they are beginning to stand for the modern American family farm. A large, corporate agricultural producer like Tyson or Gold Kist will develop a privately owned small farm to the point of being able to produce chickens or hogs at the rate required to turn a profit. The farm operation is turned over to the owner. What's left looks like a small family farm (with a jolt of adrenaline, perhaps) but the economic vitality relies on a sound relationship with the corporate chicken/hog buyer. This puts pressure on the individual farmer to a) produce more, more, and then a little more and b) to keep his/her mouth shut and property closed to as little regulation and oversight as possible... because to produce more one must provide more antibiotics and hormones and then dispose of more chicken poo.
The common method of poo disposal is as a fertilizer over crop fields and pastures. Large trucks cross the fields spraying the yellowy dust from its sides. Despite the fact that chicken waste is a “hot” fertilizer, full of nitrogen and phosphorous, this dispersal practice is common and accepted by authorities. However, according to the Riverkeeper report (per Auburn’s College of Agriculture), northeast Alabama alone produces three times more animal waste than the entire state can handle as fertilizer. On the area’s notoriously thin soil, this fertilizer inevitably runs off into the nearest stream.
Kayakers and canoeists in north Alabama know to look for the chicken gauge on the Alabama Whitewater page. 1-3 chickens indicates the relative amount of waste runoff in certain rivers. Most in the north part of the state have a 2 or 3 rating, not that such a formal system is needed; step down to the riverside after any amount of rain and it's like sticking your nose into the soup pot, only its chicken poo, not noodle.
GOOD HOT WINGS, GOOD BACON...
Organizations like the Black Warrior Riverkeeper - blackwarriorriverkeeper.org - (part of the nationwide Waterkeeper Alliance) does a great job monitoring the situation in north Alabama's watersheds with people like Brooke.
Of course, the everyday consumer has the greatest (and easiest) opportunity to help. First, know the source of your chicken and pork. If the label says "Free range" on your eggs, chicken or pork product, you can feel pretty certain you're getting meat that was not a raised in a confinement broiler barn, the practice industrial farms have used since the late '60s when they put the then-popular free-range method out of business (withdrawal of growers' contracts led to a collapse of free-range techniques within a few years).
See factoryfarm.org, sustainabletable.org, locallygrown.net, and eatkind.net for more information and sources of healthy meat near you. Also see the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network at http://www.asanonline.org
The following pictures were taken two weeks ago at the Locust River and Graves Creek in northern Alabama.
Pond in front of Tyson plant
Algae bloom in wetland between Tyson plant and Graves Creek
Spectator at Locust River Invitational Races, a few miles below the Tyson plant's effluence into Graves Creek
I spoke with Nelson Brooke, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, about this issue, which he encounters most days of the week considering his job involves first-hand monitoring of the streams and rivers in the Black Warrior Watershed.
Industrial livestock operations are nothing new - their size and corporate efficiency yield the numbers that keep McNuggets, BK Broilers, Tyson frozen chicken fingers, and KFC poppers at Third World prices. In northern Alabama the problem is especially acute: Alabama ranks third behind Georgia and Arkansas in broiler chicken production and Culman County is the state's largest producer. Nelson and the folks at the Black Warrior Riverkeeper have published a report on the situation within the Black Warrior River Watershed, one of Alabama's most ecologically important river systems. Check out the full report by the Black Warrior Riverkeeper HERE .
Tyson, Gold Kist, and others have large processing operations in this region but the most elusive and challenging production component, from a regulatory standpoint, are the CAFOs spread around the rural countryside. CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and, frighteningly, they are beginning to stand for the modern American family farm. A large, corporate agricultural producer like Tyson or Gold Kist will develop a privately owned small farm to the point of being able to produce chickens or hogs at the rate required to turn a profit. The farm operation is turned over to the owner. What's left looks like a small family farm (with a jolt of adrenaline, perhaps) but the economic vitality relies on a sound relationship with the corporate chicken/hog buyer. This puts pressure on the individual farmer to a) produce more, more, and then a little more and b) to keep his/her mouth shut and property closed to as little regulation and oversight as possible... because to produce more one must provide more antibiotics and hormones and then dispose of more chicken poo.
The common method of poo disposal is as a fertilizer over crop fields and pastures. Large trucks cross the fields spraying the yellowy dust from its sides. Despite the fact that chicken waste is a “hot” fertilizer, full of nitrogen and phosphorous, this dispersal practice is common and accepted by authorities. However, according to the Riverkeeper report (per Auburn’s College of Agriculture), northeast Alabama alone produces three times more animal waste than the entire state can handle as fertilizer. On the area’s notoriously thin soil, this fertilizer inevitably runs off into the nearest stream.
Kayakers and canoeists in north Alabama know to look for the chicken gauge on the Alabama Whitewater page. 1-3 chickens indicates the relative amount of waste runoff in certain rivers. Most in the north part of the state have a 2 or 3 rating, not that such a formal system is needed; step down to the riverside after any amount of rain and it's like sticking your nose into the soup pot, only its chicken poo, not noodle.
GOOD HOT WINGS, GOOD BACON...
Organizations like the Black Warrior Riverkeeper - blackwarriorriverkeeper.org - (part of the nationwide Waterkeeper Alliance) does a great job monitoring the situation in north Alabama's watersheds with people like Brooke.
Of course, the everyday consumer has the greatest (and easiest) opportunity to help. First, know the source of your chicken and pork. If the label says "Free range" on your eggs, chicken or pork product, you can feel pretty certain you're getting meat that was not a raised in a confinement broiler barn, the practice industrial farms have used since the late '60s when they put the then-popular free-range method out of business (withdrawal of growers' contracts led to a collapse of free-range techniques within a few years).
See factoryfarm.org, sustainabletable.org, locallygrown.net, and eatkind.net for more information and sources of healthy meat near you. Also see the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network at http://www.asanonline.org
The following pictures were taken two weeks ago at the Locust River and Graves Creek in northern Alabama.
Pond in front of Tyson plant
Algae bloom in wetland between Tyson plant and Graves Creek
Spectator at Locust River Invitational Races, a few miles below the Tyson plant's effluence into Graves Creek
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Patagonia Billionaires
Bloomberg.com: News
Check out this article on the various issues around the purchasing of Patagonia land by international billionaires. There are several references to Douglas Thompkins and his Parque Pumalin that relate to the fight to keep Endesa out of the Futaleufu.
Check out this article on the various issues around the purchasing of Patagonia land by international billionaires. There are several references to Douglas Thompkins and his Parque Pumalin that relate to the fight to keep Endesa out of the Futaleufu.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Diamonds Move From Blood to Sweat and Tears
NY Times Article: "Diamonds Move From Blood to Sweat and Tears"
For those of you who have seen the recent Leonardo DiCaprio flic "Blood Diamond", you may be interested in reading this NY Times article on the current state of Sierra Leone after the civil war (which was depicted in the movie). I actually have not seen the movie yet, although I hear it is on our Netflix queue.
The article has a short audio link with slide photos that tell the same story in a more visual manner...it is worth checking out.
Some interesting quotes from the article include:
"...diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains a grim business that brings the government far too little revenue to right the devastated country, yet feeds off the desperation of some of the world’s poorest people."
"At the losing end are the miners here in Kono District, who work for little or no pay, hoping to strike it rich but caught in a net of semifeudal relationships that make it all but impossible that they ever will."
"A vast majority of Sierra Leone’s diamonds are mined by hand from alluvial deposits near the earth’s surface, so anyone with a shovel, a bucket and a sieve can go into business; and in a country with few formal jobs, at least 150,000 people work as diggers, government officials said."
"Some countries, like Botswana, whose diamonds lie locked deep underground, have been able to make their deposits a source of wealth through careful management and control. But countries like Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola and Ivory Coast, where diamonds wash up in rivers and often sit just a few feet below the surface, have struggled to manage what may be the world’s worst resource curse."
"Most had been dug by hand by workers in places like Koidu. But the paper trail does not reach all the way back to the miner, so there is no way to know how much a miner was paid. It is a gap, said Mr. Kanu, the diamond policy adviser, that can lead to the illusion that the problems brought to light by the civil war have been solved."
For those of you who have seen the recent Leonardo DiCaprio flic "Blood Diamond", you may be interested in reading this NY Times article on the current state of Sierra Leone after the civil war (which was depicted in the movie). I actually have not seen the movie yet, although I hear it is on our Netflix queue.
The article has a short audio link with slide photos that tell the same story in a more visual manner...it is worth checking out.
Some interesting quotes from the article include:
"...diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains a grim business that brings the government far too little revenue to right the devastated country, yet feeds off the desperation of some of the world’s poorest people."
"At the losing end are the miners here in Kono District, who work for little or no pay, hoping to strike it rich but caught in a net of semifeudal relationships that make it all but impossible that they ever will."
"A vast majority of Sierra Leone’s diamonds are mined by hand from alluvial deposits near the earth’s surface, so anyone with a shovel, a bucket and a sieve can go into business; and in a country with few formal jobs, at least 150,000 people work as diggers, government officials said."
"Some countries, like Botswana, whose diamonds lie locked deep underground, have been able to make their deposits a source of wealth through careful management and control. But countries like Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola and Ivory Coast, where diamonds wash up in rivers and often sit just a few feet below the surface, have struggled to manage what may be the world’s worst resource curse."
"Most had been dug by hand by workers in places like Koidu. But the paper trail does not reach all the way back to the miner, so there is no way to know how much a miner was paid. It is a gap, said Mr. Kanu, the diamond policy adviser, that can lead to the illusion that the problems brought to light by the civil war have been solved."
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Upcoming Source Stories
Now that we've nearly wrapped up The Gold Link - full story is on The Gold Link archive link and multimedia photo essay will be up soon - we're looking ahead to future stories. Here are some sources we'd like to investigate. Please share your ideas for everyday consumer items with a source worth experiencing, whether good, bad, or ugly.
Chicken factories, northern Alabama, and polluted rivers
Digital TV, cellular, media satellites launched from oil rigs at the Equatorial Pacific
Cedar River wateshed, the source of Seattle's water supply
Wild salmon vs farmed-raise and the communities affected by both in Alaska
The source of hydro-power in British Columbia
Blue jeans from the Mississippi Delta to you via the Oregon prison system
Chicken factories, northern Alabama, and polluted rivers
Digital TV, cellular, media satellites launched from oil rigs at the Equatorial Pacific
Cedar River wateshed, the source of Seattle's water supply
Wild salmon vs farmed-raise and the communities affected by both in Alaska
The source of hydro-power in British Columbia
Blue jeans from the Mississippi Delta to you via the Oregon prison system
Monday, February 19, 2007
Losing Paradise to Hydropower
After almost a month I finally got around to putting together the story on the Futaleufu hydropower project. The proposed dam on the Futa has been around for years, but this story gives an up to date (as of January 2007) account of what is going on in the Valley and also how people can help. There is also some news about a new rapid forming in Inferno Canyon and includes some pics and stories of kayaking the river while I was there. If you have not heard of the Futaleufu Valley in Chile it is definitely worth checking out. Click here to go to the story, or click the link labled "Futaleufu" on this blog.
Christopher Columbus
I found this quote the other day and thought it was pretty amusing to think about after the whole Gold Link story Michael and David have been putting together...it is by that crazy spaniard who sailed the ocean blue in 1492!
"Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise."
--Christopher Columbus
"Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise."
--Christopher Columbus
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Volcanoes and Rivers
After meeting Nick in Santiago we took a side trip south in search of shady forests, big rivers, and something to climb. Before returning to the arid north for the final push with The Gold Link, we wanted to explore a different part of Chile. The following pictures show what we found: Las Siete Tazas (the seven cups) for perhaps the world's best swimming holes in a series of basaltic bowls carved out by sapphire clear water, the Teno River valley where we met Eduardo Doerr, co-owner of Chilean Adventures, at his family's stone house beside the brown, fast, paddleable Teno River, and Volcan Planchon on the Argentina-Chile border overlooking the massive high-alpine Teno Lake.
The southern detour ended with the Gastronomic Festival in the small town of Santa Cruz: meat, fresh empanadas, cheap wine, and live traditional music and dance.
Off to La Serena to meet with Barrick 's Ron Kettles this evening and then further north to the Huasco Valley.
The southern detour ended with the Gastronomic Festival in the small town of Santa Cruz: meat, fresh empanadas, cheap wine, and live traditional music and dance.
Off to La Serena to meet with Barrick 's Ron Kettles this evening and then further north to the Huasco Valley.
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