www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/30/tyson-foods-toxic-pollutants-lakes-rivers
Tyson Foods dumps millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into US rivers and lakes | Environment
PollutionEven if what they were doing was illegal, which it doesn’t sound like it is, the profits would vastly outweigh the the cost of doing business fine. So sad what they’ve done and are doing to our collective wellbeing.
So the bigger story here is a case in front of the Supreme Court regarding the Chevron doctrine. When the Federalist Society goons on the court eventually overturn that doctrine by June at the latest, one key result will be making it nearly impossible for regulatory agencies/commissions to do their actual jobs.
So if there was any uncertainty about whether what Tyson is doing here was legal or not, there won't be after the Supreme Court does what the right wing billionaires demand they do.
The FAA is owned by Boeing - this will take time to reverse. Supreme Court could blow up all federal agencies with the Federalist wet dream of Chevron. The Republicans are the dog that caught the car with the overturning of Roe v Wade and this should come back to bite them in 2024.
Why would it? Their base is getting everything they want, and Biden's basically handing them the White House by completely alienating young voters for the sake of Israel
Trump literally said he’d “Finish the Job” if he were Israel lol.
Some people will cut off their nose to spite their face and love doing it.
Even in this subreddit, there's plenty of people willing to completely blame Biden without comparing/contrasting how Trump would handle it and then say they won't vote for Biden.
I was hopeful that Biden would emerge victorious this year with the economy in generally good shape, low unemployment, multiple bills passed, cancelling student loan debt as much as he can, re-schduling marijuana, etc but now I'm not so sure. Republicans fall in line. Democrats fall in love. It seems that despite Biden doing his best to help younger people, younger people aren't loving him. If the youth don't turn out, Biden could very easily lose. The electoral college favors Republicans. Biden had a solid polling advantage at 3-6% last time and barely won. He won with 44000 spread across 3 states. Trump's ahead of him in the polls this go around. If he's ahead in the polls, there's a very good chance he'd win.
I'm hoping for the best for democracy, the climate, healthcare, women's bodily autonomy, etc but I'm ready to be sorely disappointed this year.
I wouldn’t hit the panic button just yet but there’s always room for concern.
Polling will likely skew conservative bud because that is the type of Demographic still likely to take a poll.
Also - while Biden’s approval rating might not be in an ideal place - there’s a big difference between not being in love with Biden and voting for Trump.
That’s one of the differences between Conservatives and Liberals. Liberals are capable of nuance.
I sincerely hope that you are right. I will vote like my country depends on it and hope everyone reading does also.
How are we talking about single people figure-heads when it's clear for decades that they're beginner-tier magician tactic "oh boy look here, nevermind the man behind the curtain"
Vote local, remove FPTP as the literally stupidest easiest dumbest thing someone could ever come up with for a voting system. Proportional Representation best, but Approval or Ranked also better than idiotic FPTP.
b-b-b-b-but we were arguing about our teams
Knock it off!
edit: /r/EndFPTP
If the punishment is just a fine, then the wealthy would do it over and over again as long as it's profitable. It will only stop once the chain of command starts getting prison time.
If the punishment is a fine, it's only illegal for poor people.
All the shaking heads and tisking over the grave of humanity
-nobody, because everyone's dead
Good news everyone, it won't be for too much longer, cuz nearly everyone will be dead...Oh wait, that might be bad news.
Well, at least 10% of the population survives, so Good News Everyone!
"Outdated regulations"
Thr supreme court just gutted the EPAs ability to monitor wetlands. They did this over a lawsuit for a single home in Idaho that someone wanted to build. So the SC said the EPA can't regulate wetlands, which feed directly into waterways.
The right said it was a victory for individuals. But really, it was a way to allow mega corps to pollute freely.
That's what 'individual rights' means. And that is why "corporations are people, too". Ask any woman if individual rights applies to them and their bodies.
Oh wow! Really? Very interesting and unfortunate since wetlands are supremely important ecosystems to biodiversity and climate! As cited by IPBES:
85%: of wetlands present in 1700 had been lost by 2000 – loss of wetlands is currently three times faster, in percentage terms, than forest loss.
Some estimates are closer to 95%. The USA was built on a swamp. Basically, the entire east coast is a marshy wetland.
After that ruling my father in law almost immediately asked if we were going to develop the wetland that makes up a good portion of our property. He was kind of incredulous when I told him not a chance
Submission statement: This article reports on Tyson Foods polluting rivers with massive amounts of toxins. Another example of corporations skirting regulations to improve their bottom line, at expense of the local and global environment.
But the article highlights other issues with the status quo:
- The EPA (US's environmental protection agency) has outdated and weak regulations
- These corporations heavily lobby to influence regulation in their interest
- Many processing plants are exempt from wastewater regulation, with no tracking of the toxins they are releasing into the environment
As the article mentions "The water problem – and lack of accountability – goes beyond Tyson."
The [EPA] has said that it is leaning towards the weakest option on the table, which critics say will enable huge amounts of nitrates, phosphorus and other contaminants to keep pouring into waterways.
Allowing corporations to treat the environment and ecosystems as a free resource or dumping ground is one reason why we're in overshoot and state of collapse.
Lobbying should be illegal. That's just a public word for corruption and manipulation.
It's all posioned. There is no water that isn't contaminated now.
"There's nothing to eat drink that don't carry the stink of some human waste dumped in the Nile "
Lou Reed, 'Sick of you'
Not true in this context. When it comes to plastic and PFAS pollution, yes, absolutely. I get my water near the Continental divide with 250 miles of wilderness and the highest peaks on the continent upstream and there has never been industry between me and those peaks. I have water rights to over 3 million gallons per year for agricultural and residential use.
that's incredible, and oddly motivating. sad to think about the incredibly pervasive plastics all around, but it's rare and wonderful to hear about relatively untouched wilderness.
The podcast Swindled talks about Tyson in their latest episode. Happened to listen to it today as a matter of fact. It was easily the most devastating thing I’ve ever heard in my life. It was hard to hear, but now after reading this now other thing they’ve done I’m glad I know what I know.
Just a warning, if you listen to the episode it is extremely triggering and horrifying and a very difficult listen.
Well….I listened to that today, regardless of your warning. I really went for it, and hit the P&G episode, too.
It’s a great podcast, and not so great. The P&G episode was of the same mold. But I digress, we should know these things.
Slap them with a mediocre fine , that will teach them.
Those teens in Florida got charged with felonies for like two trash cans worth.
They should incorporate and enjoy a slap on the wrist.
Stop buying this toxic food.
I hate Tyson with a fiery passion.
They are absolutely huge. It is incredibly challenging to avoid all of the Tyson subsidiaries and brands.
This is a good point, they dump so many toxins into the environment but how much ends up in the food and therefore you? People who can afford it should try to buy as much of their food directly from organic responsible farmers as possible.
They can't even afford Tyson.
Let them eat cake!
Tyson Foods also uses slave labor and buses in prisoners to 'work' in their factories.
They are an absolutely despicable company with disgusting workers’ policies.
And they’re just huge. It is so difficult to avoid their products.
ah one of my boycott targets, may they eat shit. i recommend others join if only because the quality of their product is awful, let alone business practices
It’s so difficult to avoid them. I thought I was boycotting them for years, only to discover my preferred brand of store bought bread was theirs.
Dumping toxic waste into our lands and waterways should earn life in prison. Disgusting. I don't know how these people can live with themselves.
"bUt iT's LegAL"
Sadly that's billions not millions. Or for the common vernacular in the article they estimate 3.25 Olympics swimming pools per hour? Anyway I think the numbers go way Beyond many if not most people's comprehension and or math skills and as such it's not always understood for how bad it is
system is by design of failure
if penalties are cheaper than polluting, companies will always pollute
the only off set of game theory would be to penalize them severely and jail, the off set of sneaking penalty avoidances must be accounted for as well
the current system is pathetic and demonstrates any lack of accountability
Another good reason to go Vegan.
but people will still try to argue there is any other way to live at this point. “if we convert to small organic farms with grass fed” stupid bs.
Awful company. Environmental damage. Egregious worker exploitation. Mustache-twirling supervillain levels of animal cruelty.
How does John Tyson spend his chicken man profits though?
Is it on basketball players and coaches who are paid to play at his alma mater? Yes, Tyson just spent $7 million on John Calipari to leave a school and come to his s alma mater as the coach and is reported to be giving $6-7 million on salary for University of Arkansas Razorback players.
John is spending that $14 million on a circus at the expense of everybody's health.
Another corporation "caring about the nutrition and well being of people" /s
Dark waters 2 when?
I remember when a pollution report came out for a small river in a modest city nearby. It blamed the elevated levels on trailerparks and suburbs off of city grids, which was probably true enough. However, they excluded a Sanderson Farms chicken plant from the list, which was located on the same river.
The processing facility may have been nuking their discharge with chlorine, but report would have overlooked the effects of biosolids being added. The biological oxygen demand figures would probably have been grandfathered in by state discharge permit.
Mostly there are relatively limited exotic contaminants, but as pH drops in sync with oxygen levels, heavy metals tend to get liberated from sediments, and biomagnified in predator species.
Yeah no shit
The definition of "regulatory capture" should include this sentence from the story:
The current federal regulations set no limit for phosphorus, and the vast majority of meat processing plants in the US are exempt from existing water regulations – with no way of tracking how many toxins are being dumped into waterways.
The worst thing about this is all around the world freshwater bodies are being diminished.
To be fair, it would be really expensive if companies had to dispose of their waste properly.
Wont somebody Please, think of the poor investors!
The price of affordable flesh for the masses
Mega corporation dumping into waters: legal
Person dumping a microfraction of shit into the water: felony
Not justifying people dumping anything; but we're picking at paper straws here.
I read it from a Korean website first. My big question is, will they get away with it?
This is what happens when you don't grow your own food. Just like how you don't walk, but rely on cars and public transit to get around, just like how you don't chop your own wood but rely on gas to heat your home, just like how you don't build anything but rely on manufacturing to fill your home with goods, just like how you don't exercise but rather rely on big pharma to curb your appetite and give you mood enhancement drugs, you don't grow your food and rely on industrial agriculture to do it for you. Of course it's going to be concentrated! Of course the NPK cycle is disruptive in concentrated quantities and depleted where you all live. Of course you blame big oil for the co2, big Ag for the runoff, big pharma for the pills and side effects. Of course it's the lazy consumer that needs all of these things to survive.. Of course it's overpopulation showing how humanity doesn't scale. Of course you keep having children, buying car seats and plastic toys, happy meals, and Ozempic shots.
For a person being born into these consumer systems there's little choice to participate. Not having an internet connection bars you from finding most jobs, there's no reasonable way to cut much of it out that doesn't involve self-destructing your life. I didn't choose fossil fuels on their inventions, and with biog oil's regulatory capture of governance, I've had little choice.
Did you have children?
no, no it's those other guys fault, not me!
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27d
Try again. This time with empathy. "I.. I... I... I..."
It’s really hard to be zero waste. But my husband and I do the best we can. We live in a city so we drive maybe once or twice a week. I ride my bike to work. He walks. We both exercise, eat whole foods, very little meat. He works in a food hub with everything farmed locally, so we almost exclusively eat local foods. Hardly ever eat out. It’s just too expensive.
Childfree as well.
I only buy thrifted clothes, and I upcycle sooo much fashion. I thrift for kitchen tools and and household items. I haven’t been in a big box store in years.
No central air in our house. It’s a late 19th century townhome. Our cars are both used. We try to keep a small footprint but it’s so hard when plastic is shoved down our throats at every turn.
Someday we will get out of the city and get some land to work. Good on you, friend.
I appreciate your effort, but the tone of this message is super condescending. Its actually making me want to live a complete opposite lifestyle of yours just to piss you off
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27d
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Hi, phul_colons. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:
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laughs in vegan
You still have to live on the same planet and drink the same water as the rest of us. Give a smug vegan laugh about the mountains of chicken shit being dumped into rivers or H5N1 running rampant through cattle populations if you want, but it won't save you from the oncoming environmental collapse or next plague.
But hey, at least you get to tell someone "I told you so" as you die.
*fapps pointlessly in vegan
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27d
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1 missing reply
The following submission statement was provided by /u/nommabelle:
Submission statement: This article reports on Tyson Foods polluting rivers with massive amounts of toxins. Another example of corporations skirting regulations to improve their bottom line, at expense of the local and global environment.
But the article highlights other issues with the status quo:
As the article mentions "The water problem – and lack of accountability – goes beyond Tyson."
Allowing corporations to treat the environment and ecosystems as a free resource or dumping ground is one reason why we're in overshoot and state of collapse.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1clfj3r/tyson_foods_dumps_millions_of_pounds_of_toxic/l2t7dia/