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AKRON, Iowa (AP) \u2014 In recent years, Fred Zenk built two barns housing about 2,400 hogs between them \u2014 long, white, concrete-and-metal structures that are ubiquitous in the Midwestern countryside.<\/p>\n
The Iowa farmer didn\u2019t follow state requirements to get construction approval and file a manure disposal plan. But Zenk\u2019s operation initially flew under the radar of regulators, as have many others across the United States because of loopholes and spotty enforcement of laws intended to keep the nation\u2019s air and water clean.<\/p>\n
Beef, chicken and pork have become more affordable staples in the American diet thanks to industry consolidation and the rise of farms with tens of thousands of animals. Yet federal and state environmental agencies often lack basic information such as where they\u2019re located, how many animals they\u2019re raising and how they deal with manure.<\/p>\n
The animals and their waste have fouled waters. The enclosures spew air pollutants that promote climate change and are implicated in illnesses such as asthma. The stench of manure \u2014 stored in pits beneath barns or open-air lagoons and eventually spread on croplands as fertilizer \u2014 can make life miserable for people nearby.<\/p>\n
For most of the nation\u2019s history, meat and dairy products came from independent farms that raised animals in barnyards, pastures and rangeland. But the system now is controlled by giant companies that contract with farmers to produce livestock with the efficiency of auto assembly lines inside warehouse-like barns and sprawling feedlots.<\/p>\n
The spread of corporate animal farms is turning neighbor against neighbor in town halls and courtrooms. Iowa, the top U.S. producer of swine and egg-laying chickens, has been a major battleground.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fight for survival,\u201d said Chris Petersen, who still raises pigs in outdoor pens.<\/p>\n
Michele Merkel, a former EPA attorney who quit over the agency\u2019s reluctance to punish polluting mega-farms and is co-director of the advocacy group Food & Water Justice, said the industry \u201chas avoided any effective regulation and accountability for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Industry groups say there are plenty of regulations and livestock agriculture is simply adapting to improved technology, equipment and methods.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re responding to what the market is giving us,\u201d said Brady Reicks, whose company runs numerous large hog structures in northeastern Iowa. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it responsibly; we\u2019re passionate about doing it. It increases growth in rural Iowa and it helps feed the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began to count the nation\u2019s factory farms during the Obama administration but retreated when industry groups sued. Instead, the agency uses state data to produce annual statistics about only the biggest operations.<\/p>\n
As of 2018, the nationwide EPA tally was about 20,300 \u2014 a roughly five-fold increase over nearly four decades.<\/p>\n
Yet it\u2019s a tiny fraction of all confined animal operations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates there are more than 450,000, most too small for inclusion in the EPA count.<\/p>\n
Iowa has 80 million farm animals and 3 million people. Yet in 2017, regulators didn\u2019t know how many livestock farms were in the state. Under federal pressure, the Department of Natural Resources pored over aerial photos, discovering 4,200 previously unknown facilities.<\/p>\n
Zenk\u2019s Plymouth County farm was among them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew nothing about his operation,\u201d said Sheila Kenny, an environmental specialist with the state agency.<\/p>\n
Zenk acknowledged breaking the rules but said no harm was done. He paid a $4,500 fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think you can get by with something once in a while and you can\u2019t,\u201d he said, strolling among his barns, tractor and feed bins.<\/p>\n
To state regulators, such discoveries mean the system works. Critics say the Iowa experience shows how easily livestock operations can escape detection.<\/p>\n
Putting thousands of animals in one enclosure produces huge amounts of manure. Unlike human sewage, which is treated and released to waterways, animal waste is stored, then spread on croplands as fertilizer.<\/p>\n
Farmers insist they are careful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take soil tests, we decide how much manure it needs and that\u2019s how much we apply,\u201d Reicks said.<\/p>\n
Environmental groups say fields often can\u2019t handle the volumes of manure produced, leading to runoff. Such pollution is exempt from regulation under the 1972 Clean Water Act, even though agriculture is the biggest contaminator of rivers and streams, according to the EPA.<\/p>\n