might there be something amiss permitting the fox to guard the hen houses

Perspective for your consideration … What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

When All Is Said and Dung…New EPA rules let factory farms police themselves on water pollution…Posted at 3:32 PM on 03 Nov 2008…Factory farms can skip getting a pollution permit if they don't think they'll be mucking up nearby waterways, according to new U.S. EPA requirements. Enviros are unimpressed; notes Eric Schaeffer of the Environmental Integrity Project, "It literally puts the foxes in charge of their gigantic henhouses."

I do not believe it takes an Einstein to question the logic or the intelligence of implementing a rule as described above.

Let’s see if I understand the implications of this rule…? If I own and operate a henhouse which has say 500,000 laying hens which produces copious amounts of chicken shit each day, I can declare I don’t believe the chicken shit my chickens produce will muck up any nearby waterways and therefore I do not need any permit from any source to operate my business.

However, if I am a homeowner in Arizona who is building a home on property not currently served by a municipal or quasi-municipal sewer system, I am required to obtain a permit from the appropriate county environmental health dept to discharge the projected 450 gallons per day my 3 bedroom home is expected to produce…?

What am I missing…? I do not believe one needs to be a rocket scientist to question the relative value or strength of these two sources of wastes: chickens vs. humans. Most folks of aware that a little bit of chicken shit goes a long way and it doesn’t take too much to burn up or kill a lawn or a vegetable garden. As we don’t normally utilize human feces, at least in the USA, it is difficult for me to come up with a valid comparison. This analysis would not be remotely complete were we not to address the issue of vitamins, growth hormones, antibiotics and other pharmaceutical products introduced in copious amounts into the feed stock of laying hens. What impact do these residuals have on the waterways into which this sewage is released…?

This is NOT to minimize the release of residual cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc found in human waste. But on a comparison basis, I suspect an individual might conclude the relative quantity of waste delivered on a daily basis into our biosphere is appreciably greater for chicken shit than it is for those homes utilizing an onsite septic system…? The question at this juncture is not whether either one is preferable...as I would conclude neither one has positive implications on the health of man.

This is a shining example of a pronounced – externality – a cost passed forward to a totally unaware populous. In this instance this externality will be paid for by generations and generations yet to come. In the meantime in our state of individual and collective amnesia we obediently adhere to the education we have for these past 40 years been taught by dominating-for-profit–corporations.

Might there be something amiss in permitting the fox to guard our hen house…?

With my personal “thanks” to Michael C. Ruppert …From the Wilderness… who closes his blog … "Fascism ought more properly be called corporatism because it is the perfect merger of power between the corporation and the state." … Benito Mussolini

… People should never be afraid of their government, government should always be afraid of the people …