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Time of India
04-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India and Trump are haggling over the same constituency
The July 9 deadline looms large over the India-US trade talks which have stretched into weeks as both sides try to work around each other's hard stances. In April, US President Donald Trump had temporarily reduced the tariff rate for most countries to 10% to allow time for negotiations through July 9. An announcement on the trade deal is expected no later than the midnight of July 4-5, as per an ET report based on information from people in the know. The deal could be unveiled in phases. For days, there appeared to be a stalemate in the trade talks, with India hardening its position on offering duty concessions on agricultural products. What has been holding up the trade talks is the same interest group that matters to India as well as the US -- the farmers. The US has been pushing its agriculture and dairy products to promote its farmers, a politically powerful section in the US, while India has been resisting offering tariff concessions on these goods to protect its farmers from low-priced American agriculture and dairy products flooding the Indian market which can drastically bring down prices, thus harming Indian farmers. American farmers, an influential political bloc by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Remember Him? Sit Down Before You See What He Looks Like Now 33 Bridges Undo Trade negotiations are rarely just about economics. They are deeply entangled with domestic political imperatives. In the US-India trade talks under the Trump administration, one of the key undercurrents is the political weight of American farmers. Trump, elected in part due to strong support from rural America, has prioritised the interests of the US agricultural and dairy sectors in trade policy. His administration's push for greater market access to India for American agricultural and dairy products is not merely an economic strategy. It's a calculated political move shaped by the influence of the powerful farm lobby. American farmers, particularly those in the Midwest, represent a formidable political force. They are a critical part of Trump's base, having overwhelmingly supported him in the 2016 and 2020 elections. These regions hold significant sway in shaping the national conversation on trade and rural development. Live Events You Might Also Like: Why are farm goods holding up the India-US trade deal? America's most farming-dependent counties overwhelmingly backed Trump in last year's election by an average of 77.7%, as per independent news outlet, Investigate Midwest. Not only did Trump increase his support among farming-dependent counties, but more than 100 of those counties supported him with at least 80% of their vote. In a speech before Congress in march, Trump said that his new trade policies would "be great for the American farmer" even as he acknowledged that there "may be a little bit of an adjustment period." "Our farmers are going to have a field day right now," Trump said. He also claimed that farmers could compensate for any losses by selling more domestically. "Nobody is going to be able to compete with you," he said enthusiastically. Over the years, American farmers have grown increasingly dependent on exports due to domestic overproduction and changing consumption patterns. Major agricultural states like Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska rely heavily on foreign markets for commodities such as soybeans, corn, dairy and meat. Therefore, securing new or expanded trade deals that boost agricultural exports directly serves both the economic interests of these states and Trump's political interest. During Trump's previous term, government payments to farmers rose to historic levels as the Trump administration handed out cash to farmers to compensate for the financial losses from his tariff wars India is worried about its own farmers India's own political and economic considerations -- protecting its domestic farmers, adhering to food safety norms and maintaining strategic autonomy -- clash with American demands for duty concessions on agricultural and dairy products. Agriculture and its allied areas contribute just 16% to India's $3.9 trillion economy, but sustain nearly half of the country's 1.4 billion population. As farmers remain the most powerful voting bloc, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was forced into a rare retreat four years ago when it tried to push through controversial farm laws. You Might Also Like: India may allow GM animal-feed imports from US in trade deal The prospect of cheaper imports from the United States threatens to drive down local prices, handing the opposition a fresh opportunity to attack the government. New Delhi has traditionally kept agriculture out of Free Trade Agreements with other nations. Granting market access to the US could force India to extend similar concessions to other trading partners. The average Indian farm comprises just 1.08 hectares, compared to 187 hectares in the United States. In dairy, the average herd size in India is two to three animals per farmer, compared to hundreds in the US. This difference makes it difficult for small Indian farmers to compete with their U.S. counterparts. The US is pressing India to open its markets to a wide range of American products, including dairy, poultry, corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, ethanol, citrus fruits, almonds, pecans, apples, grapes, canned peaches, chocolates, cookies, and frozen French fries. While India is willing to grant greater access to US dry fruits and apples, it is holding back on allowing imports of corn, soybeans, wheat, and dairy products. India does not allow genetically modified (GM) food crops, while most US corn and soybean production is GM-based. Dairy remains a sensitive issue in India, where cultural and dietary preferences strongly influence food choices. Indian consumers are particularly concerned that cattle in the US are often fed with animal by-products, a practice that conflicts with Indian food habits. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) has cautioned that permanent reduction of agricultural tariffs in the India-US free trade agreement could result in subsidised US grains overwhelming Indian markets during global price downturns. Historical evidence shows that global grain prices plummeted between 2014 and 2016, with wheat prices falling under $160 per tonne, devastating African farmers. "India must retain policy space to manage food stocks, support rural incomes, and respond to global shocks. In today's geopolitically unstable world, food security must remain sovereign," GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava was quoted as saying by PTI. At present, the government doesn't allow cultivation of GM food crops, even though varieties can aid yields. The commercial release of GM mustard has been stalled due to a legal challenge in the country's top court, and in 2010, the government rejected a GM variety of brinjal. Still, India already meets about 60% of vegetable-oil demand through imports, including soy and canola oils from GM crops. The country is also the second-largest cotton grower, with more than 90% of that crop genetically modified. You Might Also Like: Import duty cut on US farm goods under trade pact could undermine India's food security: GTRI The way out of the deadlock While India remains firm on not giving concessions in market access in the sensitive dairy and agricultural sectors, India is looking to allow imports of certain GM-based farm products used in animal feed, ET has reported based on information from sources. Talks on the deal are nearing conclusion with some last minute fine-tuning, a person privy to the development told ET, adding it could be announced well before the July 9 deadline when the US government's moratorium on reciprocal tariffs ends. "Sensitive agriculture and dairy products are out of the deal. There could be some farm products such as apples where limited concessions are being worked out," said an official, adding that concessions for US-made automobiles are high on priority list. India may agree to inbound shipments of some products used in animal feeds, such as soybean meal and distillers dried grains with solubles, a byproduct of corn-based ethanol production, people familiar with the matter, who asked not be identified as the information isn't public, told Bloomberg. You Might Also Like: Modi-govt must hold the line on food and fuel trade when dealing with Trump
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
H-2A visas for white South African workers have surged 1,300% since 2011
The country's H-2A program has grown in popularity as a response to farm labor shortages. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of applications for H-2A workers increased by 72%, according to a new analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Screenshot taken Nov. 15, 2024, GAO official YouTube channel (Credit: Ben Felder / Investigate Midwest) Every year, hundreds of thousands of foreign workers come to the U.S. to fill temporary agricultural labor shortages through the H-2A program — a system first introduced in 1986 to address shortages in farmwork. From 2011 to 2024, the use of the program grew more than 400%, with nearly 90% of visas going to workers from Mexico. But the fastest-growing group is from South Africa – and predominantly white, according to private and federal lawsuits. While South Africans consist of only 3% of the program, their numbers have climbed by 1,300% according to data from the State Department between 2011 and 2024, and the rate of increase far outpaces any other nationality. The rapid rise has collided with legal scrutiny. Since 2022, the Mississippi Center for Justice, a law firm focused on advancing racial and economic justice, has filed seven lawsuits on behalf of Black farmworkers in Mississippi, alleging they were paid less than temporary workers from abroad who were mostly white men from South Africa. Each of those lawsuits were settled out of court with significant compensation and back pay, according to attorney Rob McDuff, who represented the plaintiffs. The latest case, filed in May, is still pending. 'This is the latest version of an age-old problem in America, in terms of the treatment of Black farmworkers,' McDuff said. The Department of Labor, under the Biden administration, conducted its own investigation following those initial lawsuits and found 44 additional agricultural employers in Mississippi to be in violation of the H-2A program's law. By 2023, the department's Wage and Hour Division had recovered $505,000 in back wages for 161 workers whose rights were violated. Employers were also required to pay an additional $341,838 in civil money penalties. The South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA, a non-partisan, independent organization and business association, promotes the work program to its citizens. After the lawsuits, the organization worked with the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa to make the H-2A program more inclusive and diverse. The federal government tracks the country of origin for visa holders, but does not collect data on which businesses hire those workers. Agricultural companies in the southeast host the largest number of H-2A workers in the nation. Because South Africans speak English and their growing and harvest seasons are the opposite of North America's, they make attractive candidates. 'You can get any nationality you want in H-2A, and we chose South Africans because their English is better,' Joel Brown, a farmer in Missouri, told Farm Progress. 'There are a lot of large farms in South Africa, and some of these guys are coming off those farms.' This article first appeared on Investigate Midwest and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. Sen. Hawley demands Tyson child labor probe. Trump's cuts to DOL could make that difficult.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, speaks at a confirmation hearing for Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. (screenshot courtesy of C-SPAN via Investigate Midwest) Despite rising child labor violations and new Senate demands to investigate the nation's largest meat processor, the U.S. Department of Labor remains silent on whether it has the staff to conduct future probes amidst a major reduction in its workforce. At a May 22 congressional hearing, newly appointed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said 2,700 department employees have taken a deferred resignation program offered to nearly all federal employees as a part of Trump administration-led staff reductions. However, she said enforcement staff with the Wage and Hour Division, who are responsible for investigating child labor, are exempt from the program. 'At the Department of Labor, our goal is to fully enforce the law and make sure that we are using the full enforcement capability of the Department of Labor to crack down if someone is knowingly breaking that law, and we will double down to do that,' Chavez-DeRemer said. Federal agencies that enforce labor, environmental and agricultural laws have seen layoffs, budget cuts and attacks on federal workers in recent months under the Trump administration. Jessica Looman, former administrator for the Wage and Hour Division under the Biden administration, said she worries ongoing cuts to staff and budgets will have a chilling effect on the division's ability to carry out its work. 'Enforcing federal child labor laws is one of the most important things that the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor does and it's critical that they have the resources to be able to do that work,' Looman said in an interview with Investigate Midwest. The Wage and Hour Division has roughly 1,400 full-time employees and a budget of $260 million as of fiscal year 2024, according to DOL budget documents and interviews with former staff. The agency has around 700 investigators tasked with enforcing federal child labor and other labor laws. In its 2025 budget proposal under the Biden administration, the Wage and Hour Division requested 50 additional full-time employees to continue investigating child labor. 'Over the last decade, WHD enforcement capacity has decreased from more than 1,000 on-board investigators to just over 720 investigators — one of the lowest levels in fifty years,' the document states. The DOL would not answer direct questions from Investigate Midwest about how federal budget cuts and deferred resignations have impacted the Wage and Hour Division, or how these changes would affect its ability to conduct child labor investigations. The concerns over cuts to staff responsible for child labor investigations come as multiple senators are calling for more investigations into potential child labor in meatpacking plants. This month, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, sent a letter to DOL Secretary Chavez-DeRemer demanding an investigation into Tyson Foods, the nation's largest poultry processing company. Hawley said he was contacted by a whistleblower who previously worked for the company and claimed to have seen underage workers at a processing plant employed by a third-party contracting service, as well as hearing from other coworkers that underage workers were working at the facility. 'They're using child labor, they're using illegal immigrant labor and they're basically participating in an illegal human trafficking ring,' Hawley said in an interview with Investigate Midwest. 'This has got to stop.' Tyson Foods is still under investigation for the use of child labor at two of its facilities in Arkansas, according to a DOL statement from March. In a letter sent to Hawley, the Department of Labor confirmed the company is under investigation for child labor, but did not detail specific facilities. 'We do not allow the employment of anyone under the age of 18 in any of our facilities, and we do not facilitate, excuse, or in any other way participate in the use of child labor by third parties,' a Tyson spokesperson said in a statement to Investigate Midwest. Hawley and Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker reintroduced legislation in March to prevent companies with child labor violations from obtaining federal contracts and funding. Nearly half of all child labor violations in the past two decades have come from agriculture industries, with the number of child labor violations increasing 35% in the past 10 years, according to DOL data. While crop production accounts for most of these violations, major meatpacking companies, such as Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Perdue Farms, Cargill and Mar-Jac Poultry have been fined and investigated for violating federal child labor laws in the past decade. In 2023, the Wage and Hour Division announced that Packers Sanitation Service, a company formerly based out of Wisconsin and now headquartered in Atlanta, employed more than 100 children – ages 13 to 17 – at 13 meatpacking plants across the country. The company was fined $1.5 million for child labor law violations. 'With cuts going on in the Trump administration, we certainly have a fear that there's going to be even less capacity and less appetite for enforcing child labor laws,' said Todd Larson, co-executive director for environmental and labor advocacy group GreenPeace, part of a coalition working to prevent child labor in meatpacking and food processing.. While it's unclear how child labor in the U.S. will be affected by federal cuts, international enforcement already has seen an impact. The quasi-governmental Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cut $240 million in funding for the Department of Labor's International Labor Affairs Bureau in March, according to POLITICO. The office investigates global use of child labor in supply chains, as well as labor performed under human trafficking or coercion. In a letter to the DOL, Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee called on the agency to reinstate funding to the bureau to prevent goods made under child labor conditions from entering the country's supply chain and competing with the U.S. labor force. 'American trade policy relies on critical federal programs working overseas to challenge unfair competition from governments that commit egregious abuses in global supply chains,' the letter states. 'By eliminating these and other technical assistance projects, the Administration is surrendering an essential tool for leveling the playing field and holding our trade partners accountable.' 2025-05-06-hawley-letter-tyson-whistleblower-re-child-labor (1) Hawley Response Signed (1) This article first appeared on Investigate Midwest and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Inside the business of killing millions of chickens in response to bird flu
A commercial turkey flock is killed using foam. (Photo provided by Dan Hougentogler) When a poultry farm tests positive for bird flu, the clock starts. Within the first 72 hours, farmers start depopulating, an industry term for killing contaminated flocks. Despite the sweltering heat inside the barns, hired workers wear gloves, face masks and other protective equipment and repetitively pick up flailing, sick chickens and place them into a metal container filled with carbon dioxide. In a few minutes, the chickens are dead. In other cases, workers seal the barn doors and crank up the temperature, causing the birds to die from heat stroke, or flood the barn with a suffocating foam. In a few hours, most of the chickens are dead and workers begin to haul thousands, if not millions, of lifeless caracasses out to dump trucks. The stench of death seeps into workers' clothes, sweat and even the water they're supposed to shower in. This is the business of killing chickens during the ongoing bird flu epidemic. And business is booming. As the virus spreads and drives up grocery prices by shrinking the nation's supply of eggs and meat, bird disposal companies, environmental waste businesses and large poultry producers have received millions of federal dollars to kill flocks, compost their bodies and clean barns across the country. However, the scale and urgency of these recent depopulation events have left room for worker protections to fall through the cracks, Investigate Midwest has found. A review of thousands of pages of state depopulation inspection records and conversations with dozens of people who work behind the scenes has revealed: Underage workers, in some cases, have been hired to kill poultry flocks, handle dead carcasses and clean industrial poultry farms. Workers sometimes lack personal protective equipment or receive damaged gear, despite the risk of the virus jumping from animals to people. Dealing with a federal backlog, some farms have used killing methods considered inhumane because it can be quicker and cheaper. 'The biggest factor in agricultural safety is the urgency,' said Bethany Alcauter, director of research and public health for the National Center for Farmworker Health, a Texas-based nonprofit that advocates for worker safety and health. 'Everything has to get done in a short amount of time and that really can be problematic because there's not the same amount of time to adequately train workers.' The current bird flu outbreak is also the first time in the nation's history that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has put a single federal contractor in charge of responding to outbreaks when a business or state agriculture department can't handle a farm's depopulation request. In the past, the USDA would train emergency response contractors across the country to deal with outbreaks in their state and region. This practice changed with the most recent outbreak when the USDA awarded a contract to Patriot Environmental Services to be the single provider of federal depopulation services. The use of a single federal contractor has caused delays when a farm requests assistance from the federal government to depopulate a flock, according to depopulation consultants, veterinarians and state agriculture agencies interviewed. In July 2024, hundreds of workers descended on two poultry farms in rural Colorado, an hour northeast of Denver, to kill over 3 million egg-laying chickens. Two of the state's largest egg companies had tested positive for bird flu and their flocks needed to be destroyed. Officials with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control were onsite at both outbreaks to monitor for symptoms of human exposure to the virus and to spot behavioral health concerns — that is, the psychological impact of performing high-volume animal killings in hazardous, often distressing conditions. CDPHE forms obtained by Investigate Midwest through public records requests show agency workers interviewing primarily Spanish-speaking workers. A behavioral health worker wrote in a daily report that USDA staff approached farm management and asked if they could meet with full-time farm employees to discuss working conditions, to which management said 'absolutely not.' 'They did not have the ability to go to the workers with us and did not have anyone who could be an interpreter for us,' the behavioral health worker wrote in a report, referring to USDA employees onsite. A separate behavioral health official wrote that they witnessed workers with torn or missing PPE, PPE not being utilized, and saw 'animal matter, including blood stains and feathers' on workers' torn PPE. The same behavioral health official noted that culling and disposal workers were required to shower at the entrance and exit of the barn, but workers said several people were not showering because the 'water has a dead chicken smell' and 'the horrible smell stays on the skin.' One of the July 2024 outbreaks was at an Opal Foods commercial egg facility in Roggen, Colorado, where 1.8 million egg-laying hens were killed. Opal is a private company headquartered in Neosho, Missouri, and partially owned by Indiana-based Rose Acre Farms, the nation's second-largest egg production company. Opal Foods has received $24 million in payments from the USDA to cover the cost of the lost flocks since 2022, a federal response known as 'indemnity payments.' The other outbreak occurred at Morning Fresh Farms, half an hour away in Platteville, Colorado, where 1.2 million egg-laying chickens were killed. Morning Fresh is a subsidiary of Versova Holding, the nation's fifth-largest egg-production company, which employs more than 2,000 people and purchased Morning Fresh in 2023. Morning Fresh received nearly $7 million in indemnity payments in 2022 and 2023, but federal data does not list them, or their parent company as a recipient of funds in 2024. Depopulation workers on both farms spent hours each day picking up chickens, putting them in metal rolling carts and filling the carts with carbon dioxide. This process subdues and kills the birds in a few minutes but poses a danger to workers because of the repeated exposure chicken handlers have to sick birds, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, a nonprofit that set guidelines for depopulation methods with the USDA in 2019. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment employees surveyed contract workers at both Colorado facilities to monitor for symptoms of bird flu and in a subsequent report, the Centers for Diseases Control showed workers self-identifying as young as 15. The Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act prevents workers under 18 from performing hazardous work such as euthanasia and disposal of animal carcasses unless performed in certain programs, such as student-learning initiatives, agricultural education opportunities like 4-H, and work apprenticeship training, according to a department spokesperson. The Colorado health agency confirmed with Investigate Midwest that workers under the age of 18 were present based on self-reported answers to survey questions and conversations with farm staff. The department did not provide the specific ages of workers, citing state privacy records laws. Investigate Midwest also received records through the Freedom of Information Act for Occupational Health and Safety Administration, or OSHA, inspections done at both facilities in July and August 2024. The records included the names of four contract labor companies interviewed by OSHA, two of which matched company names provided by the Colorado Department of Public Health. All four contract labor companies denied using employees under the age of 18. Aaron Garcia, owner of Atlas Labor and Staffing Solutions, which was hired during the Colorado outbreak, said his company and other contractors were working at both egg farms around the same time, given their proximity to each other and similar outbreak timeframes. Garcia said he has heard of agriculture contract companies hiring underage workers throughout the bird flu epidemic, but his company has not done so. He said his company, based in Iowa, was paid to provide laborers who cleaned and disinfected barns and provide laundry services for workers' uniforms. For a few days, his crew picked up dead birds and placed them in disposal trucks. He said all of his workers' ages were verified through federal E-Verify services. 'It's illegal, in the first place, and it does affect the reputation of the guys that are actually trying to do it right and follow the laws,' he said. Brian Mouw, a manager with D&H Poultry Services based in Sibley, Iowa, who was contracted to work at Opal Foods during the July 2024 outbreak, said all of their employees' ages are verified before being hired. OSHA compliance inspection report for Opal Foods / D&H Poultry Service 'The other 200-275 people were with three other contractors hired by Opal, it could've been them,' he said in an email to Investigate Midwest. 'They didn't work under us.' Khali Depardo, chief operating officer at 5280 Staffing, a Colorado-based staffing agency listed on OSHA documents as a contractor for Morning Fresh Farms, said his company 'does not hire anyone under the age of 18, at any time.' A spokesperson for Express Employment Professionals, an Oklahoma-based staffing agency also listed as a contractor in OSHA documents, said its Greeley, Colorado, office does contract work with Morning Fresh Farms but was not contracted to provide labor related to bird flu depopulation. 'Express Employment Professionals of Greeley, CO., has not employed individuals under 18 years old at Morning Fresh Farms,' the staffing agency spokesperson said in an email. OSHA compliance health narrative report for 5280 Productions LLC Investigate Midwest provided its findings of potential underage workers and their tasks to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. An agency spokesperson said it was unaware of any underage labor working on commercial egg farms. 'Without a full investigation, we are unable to definitively determine whether the work at issue was 'hazardous' under Colorado law, and if so was otherwise permissible, and we cannot opine on federal law as that is outside of our authority,' the spokesperson said. Asked about the Colorado case, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson said it 'is not clear' whether the specific case violates federal laws. Federal child labor regulations prohibit workers under the age of 16 from conducting certain hazardous tasks while working on farms, such as working with pesticides and chemicals, but makes no mention of the gases and tactics used to kill poultry during depopulation. The commercial egg companies behind culling events in July of 2024 denied the use of child labor as well as the hiring of contractors who used child labor. 'Morning Fresh Farms holds the highest standards for ensuring all employees are eligible to work,' a company spokesperson said in a statement provided to Investigate Midwest. 'Our company has no awareness of any underage labor issues by contracting companies working on our farm during our response to highly pathogenic avian influenza.' Versova Holdings, parent company to Morning Fresh Farms, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 'Opal Foods, LLC is a separate, independent company in which Rose Acre Farms has partial ownership,' said a spokesperson for Rose Acre Farms, parent company of Opal Foods. 'We do not know all the details nor can we speak to Opal Foods' internal operations, but Rose Acre Farms is not aware of any instances of underage hiring at Opal Foods, LLC. You should however direct your questions regarding this issue to Opal Foods.' Opal Foods did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Over 168 million birds have been depopulated in the U.S. since early 2022, the majority of which have been at commercial operations. When a flock is killed, the USDA can compensate producers for the loss of revenue and the cost to depopulate. Currently, operators are paid a flat fee for depopulation and disposal fees, regardless of whether the farm handles the killing on their own or hires a contractor. Producers are reimbursed $1.62 per bird for egg-laying chickens, $2.95 per meat chickens, $4.50 for turkeys and just over $5 per duck, as of February 2025, according to USDA documents. When a farm doesn't have the resources or money to kill a flock on its own, the state's agriculture department is contacted. If the state does not have access to equipment or labor, a USDA-approved contract company steps in and kills the birds. Patriot Environmental Services is the nation's only federal contractor able to provide depopulation services when requested by the USDA. The company is a subsidiary of the national environmental cleanup company Crystal-Clean and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with 18 locations across the country. Parent company Crystal-Clean works with oil spills and waste management and is owned by the private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Company. Crystal-Clean was fined $1.1 million in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failure to have proper permitting and handling of hazardous waste materials. Patriot Environmental Services has received more than $18 million in USDA poultry depopulation contracts since the beginning of the most recent outbreak, a figure that accounts for nearly a quarter of all depopulation contracts, technical assistance payments, research and grant funding related to bird flu funded by the federal government. This money has been paid to private companies, state agencies, universities and research groups related to poultry depopulation. Federal contracts and grants related to poultry depopulation during the ongoing outbreak have exceeded the total amount spent during the 2014 to 2015 outbreak of bird flu, from $68 million to $73 million and counting. In some states, poultry producers receive technical training from the state department of agriculture on proper depopulation methods and previously, the USDA would train emergency response companies across the country to handle outbreaks, according to Dan Hougentogler, an emergency response and depopulation consultant with nearly two decades of experience in the animal disease outbreak and research industry. This practice changed with the most recent outbreak when the USDA awarded a contract to Patriot Environmental Services to be the single provider of federal depopulation services. Hougentogler said this switch has caused a bottleneck when multiple farms need access to the federal services at the same time. A common depopulation tactic is to fill barns with suffocating foam and Patriot Environmental Services is the only company that can access the federal foaming equipment, he said. A state agency located in the same area as the national equipment has to wait for Patriot Environmental Services to deploy a team and use the equipment, even if they have staff trained to operate the equipment, he continued. 'Not having an expansive, trained network to operate this federal equipment, or allowing states to utilize the equipment that's just sitting here with minimal people to use it, does cause some concern,' Hougentogler said. The nation's largest poultry companies do not typically use a third party for depopulation services, according to a spokesperson for the National Chicken Council, an industry advocacy group whose board members include executive leaders of several major poultry processors. The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, whose members include leadership at Rose Acre Foods, Versova and Cal-Maine Foods, said its members follow all guidelines set by the American Veterinary Medical Association and referred questions to the USDA. The USDA, Patriot Environmental Services and Crystal-Clean did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In some cases, the backlog has caused companies to use more controversial methods of depopulation because they do not have the equipment or labor on hand to complete the killings in the needed time frame. Hougentogler said he was aware of turkey farms that used 'less appropriate methods' when they couldn't access the federal contracts in time. He noted an example where a turkey farm used ventilation shutdown and heat, referred to in the industry as VSD+, to depopulate a flock of commercial poultry. VSD+ is a controversial method of killing animals, but is currently accepted by industry standards set by the American Veterinary Medical Association. The USDA and the AVMA note that VSD+ is to be used only in 'constrained circumstances,' but the majority of birds killed during the ongoing outbreak have been killed using ventilation shutdown. Workers close off the circulation of air and seal entrances to barns with ventilation shutdown, oftentimes adding extra heating units to increase the temperature. 'Ultimately, the goal is to have the production system and the state veterinarian agree on what is best for both the production system and animal welfare,' Hougentogler said. 'We are depopulating the animal regardless, but until they are unconscious, we should still take as much care for them as possible.' Utah state veterinarian Amanda Price told Investigate Midwest that the state was able to receive help from the federal contractor Patriot Environmental Services when requested, but some instances were delayed by a few days. This resulted in farms using ventilation shutdown in an effort to stay within target time frames meant to prevent virus spread. Crystal Heath, a California-based veterinarian and co-founder of Our Honor, a nonprofit group of veterinarian members that advocate against using ventilation shutdowns in the U.S., said that ventilation shutdown is a cruel method to kill flocks. The practice is banned in the European Union and has been criticized for its cruelty to animals in both commercial pork and poultry depopulation. 'If producers are going to get bailout money, they should put plans in place to depopulate with less cruel methods.' – Crystal Heath, veterinarian and co-founder of Our Honor 'If (producers) are going to get bailout money, they should put plans in place to depopulate with less cruel methods,' Heath said. The American Veterinary Medical Association is currently reviewing proposals to update its depopulation guidance and is expected to announce changes later this year. The AVMA did not respond to a request for comment. Once a farm has depopulated its flock, the work isn't over. Carcasses, feed, eggs, manure, and other organic materials are gathered and composted or disposed of, a process that requires a fleet of equipment and workers. Michigan, a state with 31 confirmed cases of bird flu in dairy cattle herds, has had 16 commercial poultry farms infected with bird flu since 2022, with more than 7 million birds killed. Most birds killed in Michigan were at egg-laying commercial farms using the ventilation shutdown method, according to USDA data. 'Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) isn't going to discuss details about the responses done on individual farms as most of that information is protected by Michigan law,' MDARD Director Tim Boring said in a statement provided to Investigate Midwest in response to questions about the use of ventilation shutdown. 'At every facility, we are balancing multiple priorities; including, but not limited to, stopping the spread of the disease, animal welfare, practicality given the structure, and of course safety of the people involved,' the statement continued. Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development HPAI activity logs obtained via public records requests. Documents obtained through records requests from the Michigan Department of Agriculture show Herbruck's Poultry Ranch, the state's largest egg-producer and supplier of eggs to McDonald's, disposing of dozens of dump trucks filled with chickens by the day during a depopulation that occurred in April 2024. Records referred to Herbruck trucks hauling caracasses to be composted at an outbreak site named 'IO 02,' which is a reference to 'Ionia 02.' This was the site of an April 2022 depopulation event that killed 2.1 million egg-laying chickens. Herbrucks used ventilation shutdown to kill the flock, based on USDA depopulation data and references to renting and using 'heaters' made in the daily logs filled out by staff on site. Daily worker logs describe days where 55 loads of dead chickens and other material were hauled off the farms to be composted or sent to a landfill. Contracted environmental waste companies, composting companies, labor and disinfecting crews hauled dead birds and contaminated materials to nearby landfills as well as composted the dead carcassess. Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development HPAI activity logs obtained via public records requests. Composting the bodies of birds infected with bird flu is a common practice in disposal and requires all organic material to reach an internal temperature of at least 130 degrees Fahrenheit for three days in order to kill the virus and other pathogens. Contaminated feed, manure, bodies, eggs and other waste are stacked into large mounds, monitored for internal temperatures and eventually spread back onto land as fertilization. Herbruck, which received $89 million in indemnity payments for the flocks killed by VSD+, was part of fast-food giant McDonald's push for cage-free eggs and the decision to 'prioritize the health and welfare of the animals,' according to a 2024 company press release. Herbruck announced it was laying off hundreds of workers in Michigan a month after its 2024 bird flu outbreak. Mohamed Mousa, Herbruck vice president, declined to answer questions about the company's depopulation events and bird flu outbreaks. In an email, Mousa said the company does not have a media contact and is trying to 'move on.' This article first appeared on Investigate Midwest and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { url: ' urlref: }); } }
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
One legislator blocks bill to prevent dumping sewage on farmland
Kenton Patzkowsky, R-Balko, is the Oklahoma state representative for District 61, the largest and most rural of the state's districts. He states that his 'legislative priorities include the protection and sustainability of Oklahoma agriculture.' However, this noble sentiment is belied by his recent actions in the 2025 Oklahoma legislative session. Before we get to specifics of this charge, some background information is needed. More: As officials consider 'forever chemical' regulation, see where PFAS is found in Oklahoma A bill, Senate Bill 3, submitted in the current legislative session would have placed a moratorium on the application of biosolids (solids separated from the liquid waste stream at sewage processing plants) onto farmlands. So what's the concern here? For decades, farmers across America have been encouraged by the federal government and state officials to spread municipal sewage on millions of acres of farmland as fertilizer. Converting sewage to fertilizer saves cities money on landfill costs, is a cheaper nutrient-rich fertilizer for farmers, and has become a billion-dollar industry for a handful of companies. We now know, though, that sewage sludge isn't a green plant food. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it harbors a mishmash of all kinds of dangerous substances that leach into soil, plants, water and even the food we eat, including: Heavy metals such as lead, copper and mercury. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which can harm our reproductive systems, suppress our immune systems, and increase our risk of cancer. Microplastics, which spread the various chemicals added to plastic, such as flame retardants and endocrine disruptors. And most concerning, sludge is a huge conveyor of PFAS, known as 'forever chemicals,' because of their longevity. They are linked to a range of serious health problems, including increased risk of certain cancers, thyroid disease, liver damage, immune system effects and reproductive issues. According to Investigate Midwest, more than 80% of Oklahoma's wastewater sludge ends up on crop fields. Presently, there are no viable means to remove PFAS from sludge at scale or to remediate the farm soils that sludge contaminates. So let's return to SB 3. It passed the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on a nonpartisan basis and moved to the Senate chamber for a vote. The Senate passed the measure overwhelmingly with 44 votes 'For' and only 4 votes 'Opposed.' Then the bill went to the House Agriculture Committee for consideration. Here is where Rep. Patzkowsky enters the picture. As chairman of the committee, he serves as a gatekeeper and has the discretion to either put a bill on the committee's agenda for a vote or not. If he decides not to put the bill on the agenda, the bill does not receive a vote and dies in committee. His decision was to kill the bill. More: What can we do about 'forever chemicals' in Oklahoma's drinking water? | Opinion There is certainly an issue here as to whether a state representative in a district with a population of about 37,500 should be in a position to obstruct legislation that could affect 4 million Oklahomans. We can also play armchair psychologist and question why Rep.e Patzkowsky would potentially put his constituents, indeed, all Oklahomans, in harm's way. Perhaps he is simply uninformed about what science says about the dangers of biosolids. Perhaps he feels beholden to Synagro, a company that handles much of the biosolid material produced by Oklahoma City's wastewater system and turns it into fertilizer for farms and money for shareholders. We will probably never know. What we do know is that Rep. Patzkowsky knowingly or unknowingly has put the health of Oklahomans and the environment at risk. Regarding his stated priority of 'the protection and sustainability of Oklahoma agriculture,' there will be at least one more year of poisoning farmlands, livestock, crops. Another year of PFAS infiltrating ground, surface and drinking water supplies. Further out, there will be law suits, condemnation of farmland, medical costs entailed by affected farming families. For a glimpse of that future, look no further than Johnson County, Texas, when on Feb. 11, 2025, it declared a state of disaster due to PFAS contamination on agricultural land. The county says test results showed an 'immediate threat to the county's agricultural sector, drinking water supplies, and public health.' Farmers in Johnson County, who said they were no longer able to make a living off their land due to the contamination, have filed lawsuits against the EPA and Synagro. Concern is increasing across the nation regarding biosolids contamination in general and PFAS in particular. The Johnson County situation is being closely watched nationwide as some of the first litigation involving fertilizer PFAS contamination. Let's hope Rep. Patzkowsky is also paying close attention. (Editor's Note: The Oklahoman requested, but did not receive, a response to this columnist's viewpoint from Rep. Patzkowsky.) Mike Altshuler is a retired educator and environmental activist who lives in Edmond. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: A missed opportunity to halt farm sewage dumping | Opinion
