Chapter 7: Sierra Club Michigan’s Work to Rebuild Our Food System

By Gail Philbin, Chapter Director

It took a while for the “Get Big or Get Out” agricultural ethos of the 1980s fueled by then-Secretary of Agriculture James Watts to trickle down to Michigan, but by the late ’90s, concentrated animal feeding operations, a.k.a. CAFOs or factory farms, had sprouted up all over the state. These large-scale livestock facilities generated millions of gallons of animal waste with serious consequences for the quality of our water and air and for public health. People near animal factories are exposed to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus and forced to breathe dust, mold and poisonous gases. They experience health problems including chronic bronchitis, sinusitis, heart attacks, fatigue, anxiety and depression. Even urban and suburban residents are at risk—rivers through cities used for recreation and drinking water often originate in agricultural areas affected by CAFOs.

For more than 15 years, the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter has been on the front lines of the battle to stop the pollution created by these animal factories through regulation, litigation, public awareness and education of local citizens.  Our efforts have included working with state agencies to enforce regulations; testing and documenting water quality in at-risk areas, filing lawsuits against individual polluting operations, petitioning the US EPA, and organizing residents of rural communities.  The Chapter website has become the go-to source for information about CAFOs.  Our successes include:

·   The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality agreed in 2002 to require water quality permits for factory farms in response to Sierra Club’s relentless advocacy.

· In 2005, the Michigan Strategic Fund suspended new subsidies for construction of new animal factories.

· We released “Living a Nightmare,” a 24-minute documentary of the horrors endured by family farmers and residents near CAFOs, in 2006.

·   The International Goldman Environmental Prize of North America in 2010 was awarded to Michigan Chapter CAFO Water Sentinel Lynn Henning for her work documenting animal factory pollution.

· Ten years of aerial documentation by Sierra Club with Lighthawk, a non-profit aviation service for  environmental causes, and Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan has triggered government agency inspections leading to CAFO enforcements, penalties and civil fines exceeding $1 million for the State.

Less=More: Less Support for Polluting Factory Farms Means a More Sustainable Michigan

After nearly two decades of the hard work of pollution monitoring, citizen engagement, policy advocacy and legal efforts, Michigan residents and consumers are better educated about where their food comes from than when we began and are putting more money where their mouths are. However, our progress is threatened as environmental protection and enforcement activities are cut, more animal factories are proposed, and they continue to pollute.  Our tax dollars continue to support polluting CAFOs even as our pocket change goes to the farmer at the local market.

To address this situation, the Michigan Chapter took a new long-term approach to animal factories several years ago, inspired by the success of national Sierra Club campaigns including Beyond Coal, which in the last eight years has blocked more than 200 proposed new coal plants and moved towards its goal of retiring 1/3 of US coal plants by 2020. In 2013, we launched Less=More, an effort to educate and engage Michigan consumers about the reality of where their tax dollars are going and to effect real changes in farm payments and subsidies here.

Sierra Club’s goal is to foster the growth of sustainable farms by creating a fair marketplace that values and supports clean, safe farms over polluting animal factories. We’re focused on decision-makers in Michigan who set priorities for how farm subsidies are distributed, deciding the kind of agricultural practices our tax dollars support.  This includes the State Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), who ultimately decides how federal payments are distributed in Michigan, and the State Technical Committee that advises him.

The chapter holds a leadership role in the Less=More coalition, a diverse network of national, state, and local advocacy groups; farmers; and consumers with different perspectives but a common goal: creating a food system that supports sustainable farmers rather than unsustainable animal factories. Members include Center for Food Safety, Crane Dance Farm, LLC, East Lansing Food Coop, Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan, Food & Water Watch, Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council, Groundswell Farm, Humane Society of the United States, Michigan Small Farm Council, Michigan Voices for Good Food Policy, Michigan Young Farmers Coalition, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter and Socially Responsible Agricultural Project. The coalition also includes sustainable farmers, medical professionals and concerned consumers.

Michigan is home to 274 CAFOs, which disproportionately harm the environment, rural economies, and public health. In 2014, agricultural pollution, including Michigan CAFO waste, poisoned Lake Erie drinking water for 400,000 people, yet factory farms remain entrenched thanks to taxpayer-financed subsidies that prop up an unsustainable system at the expense of sustainable farms. In 2013, the coalition’s report, Restoring the Balance to Michigan’s Farming Landscape, showed how CAFOs cited for environmental violations between 1996 and 2011 received more than $26 million in subsidies during the same time frame. In 2015, the Michigan Chapter and their coalition partners released a new report, Follow the Manure: Factory Farms and the Lake Erie Algae Crisis, demonstrating how hazardous agricultural pollution is to the public health. The chapter’s incisive research bolsters our advocacy work with clear, factual evidence. We also produced several video projects, which can be viewed here.

We are currently working on a follow-up to 2015’s Follow the Manure report that will vividly depict the link between subsidies and factory farm pollution in Michigan to be released in early 2017. We’re also producing a series of interviews with farmers throughout Michigan, documenting their knowledge and new techniques in sustainable farming, and continuing to participate in the administrative process, via the NRCS State Technical Committee, to advocate for ending subsidies for factory farms.

If you’re interested in getting involved in the movement to build a better food system, consider joining our Agriculture Committee, which educates about and promotes regenerative agriculture. Contact: pdmac@mac.com.