Local groups rally to protect Texas waters from meat industry’s pollution

Media Contacts
Brian Zabcik

Environment Texas Research and Policy Center

AUSTIN – Community members gathered at Lady Bird Lake today to call on Tyson Foods and its peers to clean up polluting practices causing nitrate spikes and toxic algae blooms across Texas waters each summer. Many Texas waterways are contaminated due to polluted runoff washing off industrial farms that feed and raise meat. The #CleanItUpTyson rally is part of a nationwide campaign urging America’s largest meat company to adopt farming practices that would prevent chemical fertilizer and manure runoff from polluting Texas waters.

“Every summer, millions of families are robbed of the opportunity to swim or fish because our waters have become too contaminated by the pollution washing off factory farms into our streams and rivers,” said Brian Zabcik, Clean Water Advocate for Environment Texas. “America’s largest meat companies like Tyson have a responsibility as our upstream neighbors to fix the broken farming practices causing chemical fertilizers and manure to leak into our waters.”

The meat industry is the single largest source of water pollution in the country, with the bulk of the pollution coming from chemical fertilizers used to grow feed for meat and disposing of the manure. Over 2000 miles of Texas’ rivers are classified as ‘impaired’ by the EPA due to agricultural runoff pollution, and the drinking water of more than 300,000 Texans is contaminated by agricultural toxins. These toxins, particularly nitrate and phosphates, are linked to birth defects and cancers, and cause toxic algae blooms that make water unsafe for swimming and endanger marine life.

Mighty Earth’s #CleanItUpTyson campaign has spurred hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country to join the call for Tyson Foods and its industry peers to adopt better farming practices that prevent runoff pollution into surrounding waterways. Tyson recently responded with a commitment to improve farming practices on two million acres of corn fields used to raise meat, but has yet to detail what this commitment means and how it will be implemented.

“Tyson’s commitment to improve farming practices on two million acres show its ability to influence our agricultural system on a dramatic scale, however we have yet to see how this commitment will translate into real impact on the ground that keeps our waters clean and soils healthy” commented Lucia von Reusner, campaign director for Mighty Earth.