Toledo Algae Crisis Puts Spotlight On Animal Waste

The Toledo algae crisis has mobilized animal rights activists, who are framing animal farms as a major cause of algae. 

"What do a no-drink order in Toledo and a backlash against factory farming have in common? A lot, as it turns out," according to Care2, a news and social platform for activists. 

The connection between algae and farming is not obvious to the public, according to the advocacy website.

"The chain between factory farms and contaminated drinking water is a long one. It starts with confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where animals are kept in close quarters in order to maximize production. This generates a huge volume of waste, which is stored in massive lagoons...That waste isn’t treated, however, and when those lagoons overflow or contaminate groundwater, the result is a release of waste filled with a variety of potentially infectious organisms — and nutrients that algae and plants love to feed on," the site said. 

Animal rights groups took steps to drum up support for their cause after Toledo.  

“To have less pollution and begin cleaning up the lakes, we must have fewer factory farms and begin returning to a more traditional system of agriculture where animals are treated like more than mere production units. Our water, the animals, our health and our rural communities will all be better off for it,” said Bill Miller, Humane Society advisory council member and vice president of the Ohio Farmers Union, in a Humane Society press release. 

Some advocates against factory farming are calling for stricter regulations. 

"It’s becoming obvious that the growth of animal agriculture and its resulting animal waste, compounded by ineffective discharge regulations, contaminated water will continue to be a concern," one observer wrote in a letter to the Herald-Times Reporter. 

The Toledo incident put farmers of all kinds "on the defensive," according to NPR. The public "shouldn't be placing all the blame onto us," said Ron Schimming, a soybean and corn farmer, per the report. 

Schimming said farmers work hard to minimize pollution. 

"We put the minimum [amount of fertilizer] on that we can put on because the crop can only absorb so much, and you're wasting your money completely," he said in the report. "If you put an extra two pounds on you've wasted your money because it just does not use it."

For more on policy and politics, check out Water Online's Regulations & Legislation Solution Center. 

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