NEWS AND EVENTS

Check out the Old Man River - Promo
by Brett Rogers. It is an expedition to support the mission of the Lower Mississippi RiverKeeper (www.lmrk.org )
 

U.S. Reps. Don Manzullo (R16-Ill.), Tammy Baldwin (D2-Wis.) and Bobby Schilling (R17-Ill.) met Feb. 3, at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, IL, to discuss a new 11-county initiative to improve the Rock River eco-system, promote eco-tourism and market recreational opportunities along the river corridor. Read the Press Release

Press Release: December 13, 2010:

Quad Cities Waterkeeper Settles Water Enforcement Case against Milan Polluter.
Waterkeeper letters prompt Illinois EPA to take enforcement action against 3 others.

Thanks to Oquawka Boats for building the Quad City Water keeper's new boat! Quad Cities WATERKEEPER  is now excepting donations toward our new outboard motor.

Click here to read out to reduce your taxes and help buy a clean motor
at the Rock River Times

QCW is now a non-profit  organization and can give a tax deduction to those that donate to this important cause. QCW and it's members are raising funds that will go towards the purchase of a fuel efficient four-stroke outboard motor for the organization's official patrol boat. While more expensive, four-stroke marine engines are among the cleanest outboard engines on the market. Inside the four-stroke engine, the intake and exhaust valves are never open at the same time, this prevents unburned fuel from escaping the combustion chamber and entering into the environment. Also the four-stroke engine are the most fuel efficient marine engines available, four-stroke engines run on straight gasoline and do not require consumers to mix oil with the gas.

Quad Cities WATERKEEPER will use this boat while conducting regular pollution patrols, environmental research, documenting discharge areas, and bringing very important guests such as the media, volunteers, and community stakeholders out on the river. On these trips the Quad Cities WATERKEEPER staff members, will educate passengers with their knowledge of the river, wildlife, environmental laws, and pollution threats to the Mississippi and Rock rivers watersheds
Click here for more photos

PROTECT LAKE MICHIGAN NEWS
Cargill and the Illinois River: New Environment Illinois Report Documents Agribusiness's Industrial-Scale Water Pollution
See Article | View Photos

Chicago, IL--With Illinois EPA under recent federal pressure to improve its faltering factory farm regulatory program, Environment Illinois today released a report examining the role of corporate agribusinesses across the country--including Cargill's slaughterhouse in Beardsville, IL--in the pollution of America’s waterways like the Great Lakes and Illinois River.

In one of 8 national case studies, the report, Corporate Agribusiness and America’s Waterways, examined Cargill’s Beardstown facility, which discharges directly into the Illinois River.

September 30, 2010 Quad Cities WATERKEEPERUpdate:
EPA finds Illinois in serious noncompliance with Federal Clean Water Act requirements for factory-farms

After a two and a half year investigation, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Region 5 has found the State of Illinois in serious noncompliance with the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA).

The investigation was spurred by a petition filed by the Illinois Citizens for Clean Air & Water (ICCAW) and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) claiming that the Illinois EPA was failing to adequately implement and enforce the CWA against large-scale industrial livestock operations, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or factory-farms.

Among the investigative findings, "USEPA Region 5 finds that the Illinois EPA NDPES program for CAFOs does not meet the minimum threshold for an adequate program." According to ICCAW attorney, Danielle Diamond, "This thorough review by Region 5 validates what citizens have been saying for some time. The citizens of Illinois deserve to have clean water for their children and grandchildren."

Illinois has one of the largest concentrations of hog CAFOs in the nation. A large share of Illinois waters have been polluted and state reports indicate that CAFOs are a significant contributor. Just this month the largest industrial dairy in Illinois became the primary suspect in a major pollution event that occurred in McLean County killing an estimated 40,000 fish along a 9 mile section of the Lone Tree Creek and Sangamon River.

The known water contamination threats from CAFOs coupled with a weak regulatory environment does not bode well for citizens in Jo Daviess County facing the prospect of the largest mega-dairy in the state. According to Jo Daviess County citizen Matthew Alschuler, "This report demonstrates that our concerns about the proposed mega-dairy CAFO in our area are right on target and the lack of adequate regulatory oversight is irresponsible and reckless."


The ICCAW petition urged the USEPA to strip Illinois of its authority to issue pollution control permits for the state's rapidly growing number of CAFOs because of ongoing failures by the Illinois EPA to appropriately regulate them.

In a response this week, USEPA Region 5 issued a letter and an investigation report to Illinois EPA Director, Douglas Scott. The investigation report validated claims made by citizens and was blunt in directing state agency action, stating that "Illinois EPA must issue NPDES permits to CAFOs that discharge or are designed, constructed, operated, or maintained such that a discharge will occur."

The letter to Director Scott gives the Illinois EPA 30 days to respond to USEPA with a description of the actions that will be taken to bring its program into compliance. If the Illinois EPA fails to adequately respond to USEPA's directives, the State of Illinois could risk federal withdrawal of Illinois' entire CWA permitting program. This would affect all industries, not just CAFOs.


* ICCAW is a state-wide coalition of family farmers and community groups advocating for sound policies and practices that protect the environment, human health, and rural quality of life from the impacts of large-scale, industrialized livestock production facilities in Illinois. A majority of its members are family farmers and rural residents that live near large-scale livestock facilities that have been adversely impacted by the problems they create.

Triumph Used Its Own Immigrant Workforce and Out-of-State Contractors to Build its St. Joseph, Missouri Plant. No Local or Union Workers were employed by the project.

The mayor of St. Joseph, MO is David Jones, he took office in April 2002 he and former council member John Shea, Sr. (the lone council member voting for the Seaboard plant just two years prior 1) were instrumental in bringing Triumph Foods to town. Just two years before the city said "NO HOG KILLING PLANT" within a hundred miles of St. Joseph, now the city is throwing more money at Triumph than you can imagine.

Article Title :"Mayor's re-election funding on track" Dated 7/16/05:
The mayor's campaign is "shocked" by it's fund raising success.Turns out that the 2005 second-quarter filings showed that two-thirds of his campaign funds came from people and business not located in St. Joseph. In May the existence of a letter from none other than Mr. Rick Hoffman became public. The letter? Mr. Hoffman was soliciting donations from contractors that were working on his new plant in St. Joe. Well okay, but the contractors were local contractors and appreciated what the mayor had accomplished - not so fast - maybe not....

Article Title: "A promise worth keeping" (date didn't print - will be posted)
TIF or Tax Increment Financing (the city gives up a significant portion of future property taxes) - supporters, which the mayor was a big proponent of, promised that the two big TIF projects - one of which was Triumph foods was a good trade off to offer because their large construction budgets would mean more jobs for the city. However, Triumph brought in their own immigrant workforce using out-of-state contractors! The local unions complained "It's
not doing the union contractors any good, it's not doing the non-union contractors any good, it's not doing the economy any good. There's no money staying here off of the project." The St. Joseph Building and Trade Council complained that the workers were sending the money back home. So, out-of-state contractors brought in by Triumph and solicited by Triumph's CEO Rick Hoffman, swell Mayor Jones' re-election campaign coffer and won't
benefit by the mayor's re-election because they will be gone by then. It appears that the beneficiaries of this are just two - they Mayor David Jones and Triumph's Rick Hoffman.

The July 16th article sited above seemed to indicate that the funds that were being raised might intimidate potential opponents.

Three days earlier a July 13th article "Keeping this secret in the bag" says it is no secret that Mayor Jones wants to raise $75,000 and then parenthetically states "with Triumph Foods CEO Rick Hoffman leading the campaign" for the mayor's next election. There's another mention of scaring off the competition and stating the voters better be a little worried.

 

The Triumph hog slaughterhouse story has spread to the West coast in the LA Times:
 

Hog-slaughterhouse plan stirs controversy over how meat is made
The uproar in an Illinois town reflects an intensifying national debate over how we raise, slaughter and process the livestock we consume.

August 31, 2010 | By Monica Eng

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE

SWINE FACTS

COMPARING SWINE WASTE TO HUMAN WASTE

from:

http://www.riverlaw.us/realhogfacts.html

The swine industry often states that hogs produce 2 1/2 times the waste of a human. But what they fail to reveal is exactly what is being compared as "waste".

FACT: According to a study of Dr Mark Sobsey, Kenan Distinguished University Professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health and Director of the School's Environmental and Virolgy and MicrobiologyLaboratory, mark_sobsey@unc.edu, a hog produces 10 times the fecal waste of a human. Based on his findings, the swine in eastern North Carolina are producing the same amount of feces each and every day as would be produced by 100,000,000 people. That feces is stored in open sewage pits and left to cook in the hot summer sun of eastern North Carolina. What will nature have to say about this? Who will suffer the consequences?

Dr Sobsey's specific comparative findings are as follows:
Per capita swine produce about 10 times as much feces as humans

adult swine: up to 4 pounds per day
humans: up to 0.4 pound per day

A swine farm with 5,000 animals produces as much fecal waste as a city of 50,000 people

a 5,000 animal swine farm is equal to Carolina's largest cities in waste production.

Treatment and management requirements for swine waste are primitive compared to those for human municipal waste
 

Coming in September: Author David Kirby.
Details coming soon.

"Animal Factory"  follows three families and communities whose lives are utterly changed by immense neighboring animal farms. These facilities, known as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations,” or CAFOs, confine thousands of pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under stressful conditions, and generate enormous volumes of fecal and biological waste as well as other toxins.

Tuesday, August 3rd from 7:30-8:00am
Area citizens stood at the Scott County Administrative Center at 600 West Fourth Street, Davenport to voice their opposition to the proposed expansion to a Scott County confined animal feeding operation (CAFO).
 

View the Full Press Release for More Details.
 

For more information or to schedule an interview contact:
Caroline Vernon, PACG
563-676-7580
carolina1961@gmail.com 

Photo of the Neuse River after Smithfield slaughterhouse opened up in NC. Each read dot is a CAFO. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. I received this photo from Mr. Rick Dove.

Visit our Facebook page for the latest updates and news on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Clean up or Visit:

http://saveourgulf.org/

One of the founders of the Waterkeeper Alliance, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., with Quad Cities Waterkeeper Art Norris after he spoke at the University of Wisconsin - Platteville on March 26, 2010.
More Photos | View the Speech from our Facebook pageRobert F.

Mr. Kennedy gave an awesome inspirational speech to 1500 people and gave special recognition to our one and only Quad Cities Waterkeeper, Art Norris.

BREAKING NEWS - OBAMA TO HOLD NATONAL RURAL SUMMIT - This is great news! http://animalfactorybook.com/?p=483

On Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Animal-Factory-by-David-Kirby/140683072316?ref=nf

Check out a new book, "Animal Factory" by David Kirby that features Waterkeeper friends, Rick Dove and Karen Hudson.
In this thoroughly researched book, David Kirby follows three families and communities whose lives are utterly changed by immense neighboring animal farms. These facilities, known as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations,” or CAFOs, confine thousands of pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under stressful conditions, and generate enormous volumes of fecal and biological waste as well as other toxins.
Learn more at our Resources page

or www.animalfactorybook.com
Watch the Youtube video:

New help sought for Triumph project

Tyson Fresh Meats released 3 million pounds of toxic chemical waste into the Rock River, a Mississippi tributary, in 2007, ranking it Illinois’s largest reported polluter of toxic chemicals in 2007—and the twelfth largest nationally.

More photos of this site are on the link provided HERE.

Your poor Rock River. Please join me in stopping this unnecessary project from moving forward. Please read below on Tyson Foods discharge into the Rock River in 2007. Also! let's not forget the fish kill just last year on the Rock River from just one ethanol spill.

The photograph below is the proposed Triumph Foods site. Photo taken by Quad Cities WATERKEEPER (Art Norris). This photograph was taken on March 19th, 2009. With this photo and many other photos we can prove most of this area is an Illinois wetland. By using the Corps own gauge and the charts provided below, and the date of this photo, anytime the Rock River has been over thirteen feet, there has been water flowing to the Rock River at this location. Therefore several months out of the last few years there has been a direct connection to the Rock River and qualifies this as a Illinois wetland.

Also the strong possibility of an underground aquifer in the center justify's another look at this area. Another demand for an (EIS) Environmental Impact Statement should be done here with this newly discovered evidence.

More photos of this site are on the link provided HERE.



Rock River near Joslin, Located in Rock Island County, IL. on the right bank downstream side of the bridge on State Highway 92, 1.8 miles east of Joslin and 14.5 miles downstream of Rock Creek.

Chart titled, Rock River near Joslin, IL From 03/01/2009 To 03/31/2009

Environment Illinois - Restore Clean Water Act Protections

http://www.environmentillinois.org/home

Tyson Fresh Meats released 3 million pounds of toxic chemical waste into the Rock River, a Mississippi tributary, in 2007, ranking it Illinois’s largest reported polluter of toxic chemicals in 2007—and the twelfth largest nationally

Lake Michigan is only as healthy as the small streams and wetlands that feed and clean it, but those source waters are under attack.

Some developers and polluters want to throw out three decades of Clean Water Act protection for these smaller waters, leaving polluting industries free to dump into our streams and pave over our wetlands without asking for permission.

That’s why Environment Illinois is asking Congress to protect Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes by passing the Clean Water Restoration Act.

Please let's work together on the common goals of saving our rivers. They desperately need our help and protection.
Sincerely, Art Norris
309-721-1800

The Triumph Story:

Concerned Citizens

1600 concerned citizens signed sworn affidavits, demanding an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) be done on the Triumph Foods proposed site on Barstow Road in Illinois. These U.S. citizens and your registered voters demanded that an EIS be done on the Triumph Foods proposed site, but to no avail. Our demand for an EIS with 1600 sworn affidavits was met with a laugh as if it was some kind of a joke by the Army Corps of Engineers. Instead of an EIS being done an Environmental Assessment (EIA) was done. The Corp's refused to even look at the sworn affidavits. So Triumph Foods was allowed to move forward without even a 404 permit being required. http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/wetlands/regs/sec404.html

Triumph Foods then hired McClure Engineering, McClure Engineering in turn hired Terracon, an environmental engineering firm to do the EIA, instead of an EIS which is a more in-depth study that should of been done here to protect the public from the possibility of an environmental disaster being created on an already problematic Rock River. For instance, an EIS would have calculated the discharge in the area and if the Rock River and Mississippi River could handle 3.4 million gallons of discharge daily at these locations.

I would think now in light of Hurricane Katrina, wetlands that could have saved hundreds of lives, exposure to the Swine Flu and West Nile viruses found in swine, and 85% of Iowa's water listed as impaired you would realign your thinking. Just the location of this project in cattails, on the Rock River, in a residential area I would think would be enough. But I will show you more.

http://www.spoke.com/info/c5kiXTp/McClureEngineeringAssociatesInc
http://www.terracon.com/

Below are several serious environmental and economic reasons why this project should not be financed or located on the Rock River. For one of many reasons it already has damaged the property value of existing homes in the cities of Barstow, Carbon Cliff, Silvis, and Green Rock. I know this first hand. I have our home listed fifty thousand under appraisal price before Triumph Foods announced they were coming, and no one will even look at it. So the old or asthmatic patients or your voters that can't escape this monster are trapped there. Then Triumph Foods just kept announcing they are coming. Similar to how they treat their employees and livestock.

Also please keep in mind that Tyson Fresh Meats will be just up stream from Triumph Foods, if Triumph Foods facility is allowed to build at this location.

Just to note on the proposed location of Triumph Foods facility:
Industries like to nest together, so when the environmental damage occurs, they can say, “how can you blame us?” This is another good reason not to support the Triumph Foods location.

Wasting our Waters:

Wasting our Waters: Toxic Industrial Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act

Wasting-Our-Waterways-vIL.pdf

News Release

Excerpts from this study below:

Of the dozen waterways ranked highest in the nation for toxic discharges, four are in Illinois: The Ohio River ranked first in the nation with over 31 million pounds, the Mississippi ranked third with over 12.7 million pounds, and the Illinois and Rock Rivers ranked 11th and 12th, respectively.

Tyson Fresh Meats released 3 million pounds of toxic chemical waste into the Rock River, a Mississippi tributary, in 2007, ranking it Illinois’s largest reported polluter of toxic chemicals in 2007—and the twelfth largest nationally.
 

VIEW PHOTOS HERE

Defending Illinois Wetlands

Let me explain the reason we are having trouble defending our Illinois wetlands. The main reason is because of these two bad cases listed below. These cases have created an excuse for the Corp's not to take jurisdiction over jurisdictional waters. So industry and development are filing in Illinois wetlands at an amazing pace. These cases aren't even close to the situation here on the Rock River. These cases show no connection to any river. That is not the case here. Please bring up and vote on the Clean Water Restoration Act.
http://www.environmentillinois.org/home
http://www.environmentillinois.org/action/protect-lake-michigan/cosponsor-email

Protections for Small Waterways

A series of recent court decisions, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in the case of Rapanos v. United States, have threatened the protection that intermittent and headwaters streams and isolated wetlands have traditionally enjoyed under the Clean Water Act. These waterways play important roles in local ecology, while protection of headwaters and intermittent streams is critical for maintaining water quality downstream. The Rapanos decision left unclear exactly which waterways do enjoy protection under the Clean Water Act. Navigable waterways and those that cross state boundaries, along with their tributaries, retain their traditional protections. But the Supreme Court’s unusual 4-1-4 ruling in the Rapanos case has left the courts and EPA torn between two different standards for

Wetland Destruction

Additionally, the US Army Corps of Engineers has drastically reduced wetland regulation. This is in part due to confusion over the agency’s jurisdictional reach as a result of a recent Supreme Court decision. The rationale for strong wetland regulation under the CWA is that wetlands can perform critical functions, such as pollutant trapping, flood control, and runoff storage. However, wetland protection is hard to ensure because hydrology is often hard to prove. Because of this, the US Army Corps of Engineers has failed to actively take jurisdiction over jurisdictional waters. These regulatory failures have led to an influx of industrial polluters and pollution in the Mississippi & Rock River watershed.

The wetlands within the Mississippi and Rock River Watershed, taken together, significantly affect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of both rivers. The Rock River is one of the main tributaries of the Mississippi. The filling and pollution of wetlands throughout the Mississippi and Rock River watershed will, without question, significantly degrade surface water quality and municipal water supplies. It will also increase sedimentation, increase flood flows, and decrease fish and wildlife habitat in the Mississippi and Rock River.

David G. Jenkins, Scott Grissom, and Keith Miller, from the Department of Biology, at University of Illinois in Springfield, Springfield, IL 62794–9243, U.S.A., submitted a report entitled “Consequences of Prairie Wetland Drainage for Crustacean Biodiversity and Metapopulations” in September of 2001. The study focused on Illinois wetlands and said that Illinois had only one million acres of wetlands left at that time, down from ten million acres. Much of Illinois was once wet prairie, dotted with ancient (ca. 10,000-year-old) ephemeral wetlands. Most wetland habitat (85%) was converted to agriculture over a span of about 100 years (ca. 1850–1950).

Why do you suppose Iowa has 85% of its lakes and streams listed as impaired? 19 million hogs in Iowa might have something to do with it, would you not agree? If a hog makes five times the waste of a human being, then Iowa is putting out as much animal waste as a hundred million people. The statement five times the waste of a human being is low. I have heard as high as nine times as much, five is the low end.

Why would Illinois want the same problems as Iowa?

Below is a photograph where Triumph Foods wishes to slaughter 4 million hogs a year. Think about this: 16.000 hogs slaughtered daily. 244 semis visiting this site daily, 3.6 million gallons of water usage daily, 3.4 million gallons of discharge into our rivers daily.

VIEW PHOTOS HERE

I truly do not understand this after all that has transpired

It was reported Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is working on a $25 million loan for the project, U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., said Friday morning. Triumph Foods -- the company behind the proposed plant -- needs $40 million in loans to move the project ahead.

Please see the photo below. The USACE took jurisdiction over the small pool to the left of the curving stream, but would not take jurisdiction over the stream saying there was no direct connection to the Rock River and therefore never requested Triumph Foods to get an EIS done or a 404 permit.

This photograph below is of the proposed Triumph Foods site. Photo taken by Quad Cities WATERKEEPER (Art Norris). This photograph was taken on March 19th, 2009. With this photo and many other photos we can prove most of this area is an Illinois wetland. By using the Corps own gauge and the charts provided below, and the date of this photo, anytime the Rock River has been over thirteen feet, there has been water flowing directly to the Rock River at this location. Therefore several months out of the last few years there has been a direct connection to the Rock River. Therefore this is without a dought, an Illinois wetland.

Also, the strong possibility of an underground aquifer in the center justifies another look at this area. Another demand for an (EIS) Environmental Impact Statement should be done here with this newly discovered evidence.

Rock River near Joslin:
Located in Rock Island County, IL. On the right bank downstream side of the bridge. On State Highway 92, 1.8 miles east of Joslin and 14.5 miles downstream of Rock Creek.

On the 19th of March 2010 the Rock River level was just a little over thirteen feet. The Rock River has been over this level for months out of the last several years.

IDNR Releases Preliminary Data on Rock River Fish Kill.

Fish kill event one of the largest in Illinois history.
Rock River fish kill: Official update - Stray Casts
Jun 30, 2009 ... Below is the release: IDNR Releases Preliminary Data on Rock River Fish Kill. Fish kill event one of the largest in Illinois history:

Read the story in the Chicago Sun Times

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8263203@N05/sets/72157620091324877

http://www.distill.com/materialsafety/msds-eu.html

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/fishadv09/fishadvisory09.htm

In light of the recent article from Environmental Illinois, do you really think we need this project on our Rock River? Triumph Foods will be just a few miles down stream from Tyson's Foods? Please read below.

Environment Iowa & Environment Illinois

Are in a joint campaign to aid in the passing of the Clean Water Restoration Act

http://www.environmentillinois.org/home

Environment Illinois and Environment Iowa are members of a federation of state-based groups, Environment America, which has tens of thousands of members nationwide and offices in Chicago IL. Des Moines IA, and Washington DC.

Due to recent weakening of the Clean Water Act, Illinois has lost nine million acres of wetlands in the last ten years. Restoring the Clean Water act will allow us to protect areas like the Triumph Foods proposed site.

Pork Industry Bailout Request Full of Fat

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wayne-pacelle/pork-industry-bailout-req_b_276983.html

The National Pork Producers Council wrote to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, asking for $250 million, and governors from nine large pork-producing states (Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin) chimed in and requested a similar government bailout.
 

Top Priority

Restore Clean Water Act Protections

Lake Michigan is only as healthy as the small streams and wetlands that feed and clean it, but those source waters are under attack. Some developers and polluters want to throw out three decades of Clean Water Act protection for these smaller waters, leaving polluting industries free to dump into our streams and pave over our wetlands without asking for permission. That’s why Environment Illinois is asking Congress to protect Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes by passing the Clean Water Restoration Act.

More than 50 cities and 18 million Americans depend on the Mississippi and its tributaries for drinking water. For communities along its 2,300-mile course, the river is a vital economic, recreational, and natural resource.

Another reason Triumph Foods shouldn't be allowed in the QC:

Keep in mind the projected semi traffic of 244 semis a day to Triumph Foods facility.

Particle reading could trigger pollution reduction requirements in Quad-Cities

http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/article_fe7d6da8-641c-56d5-8c85-b464463794e4.html

High levels of fine particle pollution in the Quad-Cities region will trigger a chain of events that could force reductions in emissions from industry, transportation and other sources, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources spokesman said.
That could mean limits on new or existing industries to expand or limits on new transportation projects that could spew more particulate pollution into the air, said Jim McGraw, environmental program supervisor for the DNR.

There are about 150 cups (8oz.) of grain in a 60 pound bushel of wheat (1 bushel = 0.352 hectolitres in volume, 1 hectolitre = 3381.4 US fluid oz.).
When converted to flour these 150 cups of kernels produce about 300 cups of flour. About 3 cups of flour are required to produce a single 1.5 pound loaf of bread. Therefore 1 bushel of flour produces about 100 loaves of bread each weighing 1.5 pounds (24 oz.) Or, in other words, a bushel of grain berries (kernels) produces about 150 pounds of bread.

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

Ideally, pigs should have been on a grain ration for at least two ... to keep the pig satisfied while avoiding having so much feed ... (3 lbs. of feed per day for a 60 lb. pig) while older market hogs weighing 200 lbs. may only eat 3% of their body weight per day (6 lbs. of feed

So let's do the math. 60 lbs of grain make one bushel. An average hog eats 1750 Lbs of grain. So lets divide 1750 lbs. of grain by 60 lbs. that's Roughly, 29 bushels of grain. Lets take that figure times the figures mentioned above. 29 Bushels of grain, times 100 loaves of bread. That's 2900 loaves of bread verses a 200 lbs. hog that dresses out at 80%. So for 160 lbs. of pork we are sacrificing 2900 loaves of bread at 1.5 lbs. each. That's 4350 lbs of bread for 160 lbs of pork. Are we feeding the people or a bad habit? Also keep in mind we export a-lot of this pork and we get the waste.

All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing.

Let's work together on the common goal of saving our rivers. They desperately need our help and protection.

Sincerely, Art Norris
309-721-1800
Quad Cities WATERKEEPER®
http://quadcitieswaterkeeperuppermississippi.org