The Cyberactivist

I was glad to see an article that told of
Tyson finally being held accountable for
high ammonia levels. According to it:

A federal court in Kentucky ruled today
[11/7] that food giant Tyson is responsible
for pollution at factory farms. The Sierra
Club and local residents sued Tyson for
failing to report hazardous releases of
ammonia from four animal factories under
its supervision, located in Webster, McClean,
and Hopkins counties.

You see, they can't emit more than 100 lbs.
of ammonia every day without reporting it
to the federal government and the local
community emergency coordinator.

But, Tyson's defense was that they were
not responsible for all that pollution since
they didn't actually own the farms. They
were trying to shift all the blame on the
growers that they have working for them.
Luckily, the judge didn't buy that argument.

Federal Court Judge Joseph McKinley ruled
that Tyson is "clearly in a position of
responsibility and power with respect to each
facility . . .and has the capacity to prevent
and abate the alleged environmental damage."

I was really glad to see them be held
responsible for the damage they do. They
are always trying to blame everything on
someone else, especially the little guy. It's
funny how all these people can live in a
community for generations with very little
noticeable harm coming to the land, air, and
water and then suddenly, after Tyson comes
into the area and things go wrong, Tyson
says that it is all these people's septic tanks
and runoff from their farms and gardens, etc.
that is polluting, not them.

This is only different in the fact that it is
even worse than the above story because
these people are growing for Tyson and
certainly wouldn't have tens of thousands
of chickens in a building out in back of their
house for any other reason. To try to
wriggle their way out of owning up to the
fact that the growers buy the equipment
and do business in exactly the way Tyson
says they have to or they don't do business
at all was futile. Everyone knows this.
Apparently, the judge did, too.

It seems like every time I turn around,
Tyson is in the news about something
horrible they have done to someone.
The Tyson family is about as shady as
the Mafia is and about as ruthless.

Maybe more.