Editor,
Thank you for your wonderful newspaper and for publishing local.
I read recently that a turkey CAFO is being proposed that will impact Dry Ford Creek, the Kings River and then downstream as she goes. And it’s been duly noted by others that karst is not bedrock!
It seems, from the numbers, that there could be up to 180,000 birds produced and cramped together, and hatched a year, in a total of three 700 ft. long houses.
In my opinion, I think the folks with power to make decisions might take note that less than 1 percent of the water on planet Earth is clean enough to drink even though 75 percent of Earth is covered water. The freshwater creeks and rivers of Arkansas are a rare and precious resource to protect, and not pollute more.
Another trend is the move away from consuming animal products altogether because of the well-documented history of antibiotics, steroids and hormone use, and abuse in factory-flesh animal production.
Savvy operators, like Burger King, thrive now selling a vegetarian burger called the Impossible Whopper.
To illustrate the trend on a bigger scale, my husband was just in Hong Kong airport noticing changes. Hong Kong and China, in their prosperity, have had high meat consumption habits. He noticed in his several hours wait that the new veg burger was selling like gangbusters! It’s no wonder. It really does taste like a decent burger.
The trend is accelerating. Costco is coming out with a vegetarian burger soon and stores, like Trader Joe’s and Wholefoods, are thriving selling The Beyond Burger and Praeger’s California Burger. Countless other varieties of vegetarian and vegan meat substitutes are out there that provide plant protein to our diets. When you think of it, plant protein is adequate for elephants, manatees and giraffes, so it’s definitely adequate to humans despite the propaganda out there.
CAFO are dirty and polluting and one has to only look at news from North Carolina that had reported animal wastes pouring into rivers and streams after the last few floods occurred. The same will happen in Arkansas.
Susan Pang
Garfield, Ark.