Tyson Foods dumps millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into US rivers and lakes

Tyson Foods dumped millions of pounds of toxic pollutants directly into American rivers and lakes over the last five years, threatening critical ecosystems, endangering wildlife and human health, a new investigation reveals.

Nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil and cyanide were among the 371m lb of pollutants released into waterways by just 41 Tyson slaughterhouses and mega processing plants between 2018 and 2022.

According to research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the contaminants were dispersed in 87bn gallons of wastewater – which also contains blood, bacteria and animal feces – and released directly into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands relied on for drinking water, fishing and recreation. The UCS analysis, shared exclusively with the Guardian, is based on the most recent publicly available water pollution data Tyson is required to report under current regulations.

Archived at web.archive.org/…/tyson-foods-toxic-pollutants-la…

roguetrick, (edited )

That’s just the processing plants for Tyson. Realize that they control their whole production chain. They hatch the chicks, sell or rent them to farmers, produce and sell the farmers the feed, then transport the grown chickens back to be processed.

They are truly a monstrous polluter.

www.ucsusa.org/resources/truth-about-tyson

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

We can start right at the beginning with what happens with all the chicken shit.

bayjournal.com/…/article_95f38ed6-7d0b-5622-ba2c-…

roguetrick, (edited )

Tyson isn’t quite as an oppressive powerhouse in the Delmarva areas, but Perdue and Moutaire operates the same way.

Their claim to fame on the eastern shore is actually when they pulled out of Maryland and closed their feed mill and processing plant instead of competing. Everyone that was dependent on their chicken contracts got left holding their loans from starting their operations. Less pollution in the bay that way though.

The entire industry is designed to force externalities (like pollution and farmer loans) onto other people while ensuring a healthy margin at all points. Even if you don’t look at the animal rights angle it’s exploitative as fuck.

GenitalHurricane,

Great timing on this article and a new episode about Tyson from one of my favorite podcasts

pca.st/…/f7d0725d-dcf7-4d63-8db3-269401469e4b

CaptnNMorgan,

https://reddthat.com/pictrs/image/27b90924-6e35-4846-830b-c144a80b9ca3.jpeg

leds,

What do they use cyanide for?

tearsintherain,
@tearsintherain@leminal.space avatar

reuters.com/…/how-four-big-companies-control-us-b…Explainer: How four big companies control the U.S. beef industry

The big four processors in the U.S. beef sector are: Cargill (CARG.UL), a global commodity trader based in Minnesota; Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N), the chicken producer that is the biggest U.S. meat company by sales; Brazil-based JBS SA, the world’s biggest meatpacker; and National Beef Packing Co (NBEEF.UL), which is controlled by Brazilian beef producer Marfrig Global Foods SA.

SeaJ,

It is perfectly moral to spoil Tyson products at the grocery store. They are rife with animal abuse, human rights abuse, and illegally dumping toxic waste. Nobody will fault you for accidentally ripping open their products and tossing them in the garbage.

Argonne,

That type of vandalism just fucks over the store owner. Vote with your wallet instead

SeaJ,

It’s an incentive for them to not carry Tyson’s garbage anymore or at the very least, charge more.

Argonne,

It’s still vandalism though

FiniteBanjo,

If you think that’s bad, wait until you hear what they’re feeding to people.

john89,

Basic chicken? It’s really the salt and breading that’s killing people.

FiniteBanjo,

So basic that it’s banned in the UK. They treat their chicken with chlorine and paracetic acid. A while ago 173 Tyson employees got hospitalized from a spill.

westyvw,

Thank you for posting.

I am not surprised they did this, but I am surprised people are willing to eat Tyson foods. They have been awful for as long as I can remember.

Blackmist,

I don’t think most people know.

They mostly sell food to other food suppliers, caterers, restaurants and so on.

Alexstarfire,

Can I get a list of companies that aren’t pieces of shit? I think it’ll be shorter.

Cethin,

Sure, here you go:

Alexstarfire,

Thanks. I wrote it down so I won’t forget. https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ed49fa79-ea99-4e79-b4d1-f8a5521f31c6.webp

xnx,
@xnx@piefed.social avatar

Brought to you by the company that uses slave labor https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e

https://revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/

And child labor https://www.npr.org/2023/09/25/1201524399/child-labor-perdue-farms-tyson-foods-investigation

some_guy,

The wastewater was enough to fill about 132,000 Olympic-size pools, according to a Guardian analysis.

Can we please hold these fucks accountable?

Delusional,

Nope. Best we can do is a $100 fine.

umulu,
@umulu@lemmy.world avatar

So fucking revolting

force,

I like how Olympic-size pool is such a universal unit of measurement lol. I remember looking for the number for how much waste nuclear power plants produce and it was something like the entire US produces half an Olympic-sized swimming pool of spent fuel annually.

jpreston2005,

Last year Governor Jim Pillen, whose family owns one of America’s largest pork companies, was widely criticized for calling a Chinese-born journalist at Flatwater Free Press a “communist” after she exposed serious water quality violations at his hog farms. Earlier this month, the Nebraska supreme court ruled that the state environmental agency could charge the same investigative news outlet tens of thousands of dollars for a public records request about nitrates.

Everywhere I look there’s a huge problem affecting all of us, and a republican doing everything in their power to make it worse.

fukurthumz420,

and what’s the solution? ____ all conservatives for the sake of humanity

FordBeeblebrox,

Banish to Antarctica

elrik,

Why make the penguins suffer?

some_guy,

Their mandate is to do harm.

UnderpantsWeevil,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

calling a Chinese-born journalist at Flatwater Free Press a “communist” after she exposed serious water quality violations

This tactic works. “Chinese Disinformation! Don’t trust it!” Americans eat this kind of dismissal up with a spoon, because its easier to believe in a sinister outside force that’s trying (and failing) to threaten you than it is to realize the killer is in your own backyard and there’s nothing you can do to stop his cleaver from claiming another victim.

Earlier this month, the Nebraska supreme court ruled that the state environmental agency could charge the same investigative news outlet tens of thousands of dollars for a public records request about nitrates.

The only thing amazing about the TikTok ban is that it didn’t happen much sooner.

RustyShackleford, (edited )
@RustyShackleford@programming.dev avatar

CCP and Republican™ Political disinformation, propaganda, and bullying from multiple actors and entities can and do occur simultaneously.

Very few, if any, political parties across the planet are benevolent to average citizens.

aniki,

Go. Vegan.

bleistift2,

oil and cyanide were among the 371m lb of pollutants

Why does a food producer even have these things?

aniki,

Lots of machinery with moving parts means lots and lots of oil.

tsonfeir,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

What do you mean? They’re food additives in America.

stembolts,

I wonder why the EPA is being gutted. Their ability to enforce regulations stripped (potentially soon) by the partisan, Federalist Society Supreme Cunt, ah sorry I meant to say court.

So that corps like this can operate in a way that harms us all. What the folks that run these companies don’t get is that we are harming the environment, yes, but also humans ARE the environment. Including them and their families! Such shortsightedness.

The blood that flows through your veins is produced by water and minerals you consume through food, food that comes from animals and plants living in these areas and areas like them, animals that eat plants full of these pollutants watered by water full of the very same.

So in a (very direct) way, when corpo cunts dump toxic output into rivers, they’re dumping it right into your veins.

HUMANS ARE THE ENVIRONMENT, WE ARE NOT SEPARATE FROM IT.

So next time you hear someone joking about environmental regulations, remember they are playing games with your body.

Gee, I wonder why cancer in young persons is booming. Well, at least we have adequa healthcare, not like we’re just draining peoples’ life savings for harm caused by this and things like this, right. Right?

Smh.

But hey, go out and look at the beautiful algae blooms this year. Not that we have a choice.

OpenStars,
@OpenStars@startrek.website avatar

YOUR veins, not THEIRS.

You don’t get to become a CEO by remembering the human. Hate the playa, but even more so hate the game.

stembolts,

You’re right, I’m certain that is their perspective. But I also believe they overestimate their ability to avoid the damage they are causing. Everything is interwoven.

OpenStars,
@OpenStars@startrek.website avatar

What I see of management styles today is “make a plan”. Period. End of sentence. End of matter. End of discussion. Short-term thinking is the only type of thinking allowed. Want to do more? You’re fired, and replaced with someone who will be more of a “team player”. Even/especially the CEO, by the Board. i.e., you are overestimating their willingness & capacity to think beyond their greed - YOU (& I/we) see that, but they don’t won’t.

img

aniki,

You don’t have to give Tyson food your money. I don’t.

Eating meat is not only abhorrent morally, its also abhorrent environmentally.

disguy_ovahea,

It’s funny that you think that you’re free from Tyson as a vegan or vegetarian, since they are leading producers of corn and soy in the US as well.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyson_Foods

AlligatorBlizzard,

That’s probably overwhelmingly animal feed. I’m from a farming family, and you would be surprised at how much of that ocean of corn is feed corn.

Unfortunately Raised and Rooted plant ‘meat’ is owned by Tyson. So vegetarians have to avoid Tyson too.

disguy_ovahea,

Good point. Thanks for your insight.

aniki,

Still way better than eating meat. Never let perfection be the enemy of good and purity tests are only for the infantile mind.

The world is a mess. Do better.

Daft_ish,

I don’t know man. You moved that goal post so fast you might have scored a point on yourself.

Viking_Hippie,

purity tests are only for the infantile mind.

Eating meat is not only abhorrent morally

So which version of your self-aggrandizing babble do we go by? Or are you trying to say that you have an infantile mind yourself?

Daft_ish, (edited )

Edit: derp, derp, derp

Viking_Hippie,

Nah, just quoting you describing you match what you described in your next comment as infantile 🤷

Daft_ish,

I’m very confused… I may have responded to the wrong comment

Viking_Hippie,

Yeah, looks like it! And I thought you were the infantile one from before at first lol, so the mistake is mutual 😄

disguy_ovahea, (edited )

The topic is Tyson Foods. You claimed that you don’t give them your money. If you live in the US, unless you live exclusively off of your own garden, I’m saying that’s unlikely.

disguy_ovahea, (edited )

Two words: Chevron Deference. Forty years ago, SCOTUS ruled that a court defers to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, as long as the judge finds the interpretation to be reasonable.

Basically, Chevron said, “Trust us, what we’re doing is ok. We should know, because we’re experts in this field.” and the Supreme Court agreed. So now if the EPA brings up a corporation on charges, the corporation is its own expert witness in court.

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