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Meat production in the United States is big business, and environmental regulators have not kept up. Four companies market 57% of the hogs produced in the United States, and cattle, poultry and egg-laying operations are similarly concentrated. The industry?s giant feedlots mass thousands of animals in warehouses, often in unspeakable conditions, where they produce more fecal matter than a large city. The off-gases from this waste are ventilated from barns and lagoons, and foul the air with ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other contaminants.
Researchers from state universities in North Carolina and Iowa and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have warned that the air around these factory farms may be unsafe to breathe, but their findings have been suppressed or ignored by agencies and legislators. EIP has asked EPA to begin monitoring the air around a number of operations that have been the subject of frequent complaints.
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