June 9, 2020

Read this if you drink milk

Picture yourself walking through the dairy isle at your grocery store down the block. You’re reaching for the milk carton with the happy cows and the grassy hills on it, the local kind. Local foods are a great thing, aren’t they? And they’re so good for the environment! 

Well, in this case, no. Of course local farming is an important part of our food system and we should support it. But Washington dairies have had countless cases with heavy water- and air pollution. Sure, that makes sense. But I am certain that most of us have never actively been made aware of the issue. And that is what our action group worked on. 

We worked together with the Center of Food Safety on creating ways to reach out to the people of Washington, to educate them on the issue of CAFOs in our state and their effects on the environment and its residents, and to give them opportunities to help better that specific part of our food system. 

Now what exactly is wrong with Washington Dairies? Well, remember the milk carton with the happy cows in the field on it? In almost every case I guarantee you that the cows who produced the milk in that carton aren’t living like that, not even most of the organic ones. The majority of all milk is produced in huge CAFOS, which vacate thousands of cows. And with thousands of cows come thousands of tons of manure, as well as greenhouse gasses. Those gasses, like for example hydrogen sulfide or methane, which have been proven to actively contribute to global warming. The manure itself, when properly stored, isn’t much of an issue. But in most cases farmers dump it in unlined pools where it can easily seep into the ground and contaminate the drinking water of residents all around.

In order to reach out to people, we created social media accounts and sent out letters to the editor to influential local newspapers, calling out the unsafe management of cow manure in our state and urging readers to contact our legislators about the issue. We put together a political toolkit that makes it easy for any resident to reach out to said legislators and push for stricter laws on dairy management. Finally, we created a petition to push for water monitoring and stricter pollution limits.

I know that no issue in our food system is easy to solve, since it exists as a tightly woven net of influences coming from everywhere. I understand that making farmers spend more money on safe manure storing will drive up the dairy prices or affect their ultimate income, and probably have more impacts on the system that I just can’t grasp. But this is about our health, and in this case I truly believe that sacrifices should be made.