Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Factory Farms Mapped by Public Citizen Website
A new website created by Public Citizen tracks pollution from factory farms in the United States. The site ranks New York State 30th out of our 50 states. However when ranked according to animal type, New York ranks 4th in its industrial dairy pollution and 19th in laying hens in terms of numbers of animals.
If you click on the counties tab, New York’s Wyoming County ranks as the 22nd most polluted county in the US and of course the most CAFO polluted county in our state.
If you click on New York State, the map will show the counties and their rank within the state. Please take the time to read their methodology. (http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/factoryfarms/factoryfarm-methodology)
They did not count all CAFO operations in the state- only those ranked by the USDA and the data is from 2002. Only dairy CAFOs with 500 plus cows are counted. New York actually had 600 plus permitted CAFOs by 2004 and many of the smaller CAFOs have greatly expanded. Therefore New York is far more full of **** than the map indicates.
See:
http://www.factoryfarmmap.org
Do not overlook the tool bar under the page title. There is a wealth of information under each key word.