Fecal Contamination

"Animals raised for food produce 130 times as much excrement as the entire U.S. population." This amount of fecal matter, which is roughly 89,000 pounds per second, can have severe affects on people and the environment. The problem with this waste is that the pollution strength of raw manure is 160 greater than that of raw municipal sewage. Since their are no regulations on what farms or factories need to do with their waste, the concentrated feces is being left in huge lagoons to rot or sprayed over crop fields. Both of these "disposal" methods are just leeway for parasites, bacteria, and chemicals to land in water runoff. If humans live near such farms, it is not uncommon for them to become very sick from the pollution. A statement put out by he Senate Agricultural Committee offered this warning: "It's untreated and unsanitary, bubbling with chemicals and diseased...It goes onto the soil and into the water that many people will, ultimately, bathe in and wash their clothes with and drink. It is poisoning rivers and killing fish and making people sick...Catastrophic cases of pollution, sickness, and death are occurring in areas where livestock operations are concentrated...Every place where he animal factories have located, neighbors have complained of falling sick."