California livestock industry grows more concentrated, toxic; who will pay?

“As America and the world gird to become green, they're finding that ecology and economy sometimes don't stroll hand in hand into an unpolluted sunset,” writes Jonah Owen Lamb of the Merced Sun-Star. The environmental costs of an increasingly consolidated livestock industry are staggering – in Merced County alone in 2007, cows produced 29 million tons of manure. Improper waste management and lack of industry-specific regulations lead to life-threatening problems like nitrate leaching out of unsealed ponds and groundwater contamination. Full story: The Merced Sun-Star