blog 6

In the second chapter of Samantha MacBride’s Recycling Rediscovered she gives a brief history of Earth Day and its original impact. I thought this was really interesting and I guess I was always unaware of how new Earth Day is.  On page 55, there was a phrase that really stood out to me, “the right to produce is not the right to pollute.”  I think that this line often gets blurred when it comes to large manufacturers.  In fact, it seems as though most manufacturers have lost sight of this idea completely and lose all sense of morals in the pursuit for money.  This reminded of a recent controversy in Missouri.

In August of 2014, the state government was looking to add a “Right to Farm” provision.  This law states that “the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state.” The law was introduced for industrial farms to protect them from Missouri laws created to protect the environment.  The only people or businesses that would benefit from this would be huge industrial farms.  The law basically allows these farms to do whatever they want.  If that means allowing hog manure to run off into crops then so be it.  Or using dangerous pesticides next to large bodies of water or residential areas.  This is an insane law and anyone with an ounce of common sense should be against such a law.  Neither consumers nor smaller local farms benefit from such a law.  Partly laws like this get passed because many citizens are ignorant or indifferent about the source of their food.  This is a good example of when education of the public would be helpful.  If people were more aware of where their food is coming from I think that they would become smarter consumers and dangerous practices used by large industrial farms would eventually die out.

It is just very difficult for me to understand why such a law would ever even be considered.  This makes me very pessimistic about any future in sustainability.  It is clear that larger companies such as these industrial farms really do not care about morals and that they are only after money and servicing their own agendas.  

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2014/07/right-farm-right-pollute