Negotiations with Tyson Foods and other large poultry producers began in 2001 to address chicken litter-caused water pollution in the Illinois River Watershed. The Environmental Protection Agency has recognized that nutrient pollution caused by phosphorus is one of America’s most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems. But during negotiations, poultry companies made offers they knew the state would not accept. So, as the calendar turned to 2005, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson finally filed a lawsuit.
Nearly 20 years later, that lawsuit is still unresolved. A judge ruled last year in favor of the state and ordered the companies to hold settlement talks with the state in an effort to come up with new standards for controlling chicken litter-caused pollution. Those negotiations ended without an agreement. Edmondson (now in private practice) remarked “ I didn’t think they would agree to anything, just keep trying to delay this thing. They won’t change their ways unless they are paid to or made to .”
Meanwhile during Oklahoma’s 2024 legislative session, House Bill 4118 was passed, which stifles lawsuits against poultry corporations for water pollution. Rep. Meloyde Blancett, D-Tulsa, noted that, “What this does is allow these poultry integrators (like Tyson) — that are not based in Oklahoma, by the way — to use our state as a disposal site for their poop. And it goes into our lands, it goes into our water, it goes into our aquifers. And they are not held accountable.”
Publicly available data from the EPA shows that over the course of five years (2018 through 2022), Tyson’s meat processing plants dumped almost 372 million pounds of waste directly into waterways or sprayed it onto land, where it can seep into groundwater. Meat processing is only one part of the company’s operations, and Tyson pollutes water in other ways. For example, the corn and soybeans that comprise the bulk of animal feed are fertilized with unnecessarily large amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and manure, all of which can run off into waterways, and the concentrated animal feeding operations (“factory farms”) where animals are fattened for slaughter produce both air and water pollution.
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The water pollution created by Tyson’s meat processing plants (and those of its competitors) is actually a bigger problem than has been described so far. Since only about 300 of the country’s 7,000 meat processing plants are subject to federal pollution limits and required to report their discharge, it can definitely be said that the estimated 372 million pounds of waste that Tyson discharged over five years is a drop in the bucket of this industry’s total waste pollution.
Since 2000, Tyson Foods and its subsidiaries have been fined a total of almost $300 million by the federal government for violations ranging from price fixing and anti-competitive practices to unfair wages, lax safety oversight, and environmental damage.
However, Tyson is not an outlier. It simply has the most recognizable name among a group of large corporations together known as Big Ag, and it is representative of what has gone wrong with the U.S. food system. Big Ag has exploited the giveaways and loopholes afforded by the federal government, leading to outsized profits and expanding their footprints at the expense of our health and environment.
Obviously, it is not sufficient to fine a $53 billion corporation like Tyson for isolated instances of wrongdoing or related companies that pursue the same harmful business practices. Fines are just viewed as a cost of doing business. Stronger government oversight of Big Ag is required, along with legislation that will spur competition and protect farmers, workers, and in the end, all of us.
Mike Altshuler is a retired educator, longtime resident of Edmond and a member of Sierra Club and Citizens' Climate Lobby.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Opinion: Fines alone aren't enough to stop Illinois River water pollution
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