Another Court Rules Against Large-Scale Livestock Farms

By Protect The Harvest Advisory Committee Member, Gary Baise | Sep 20, 2021

The United States is home to 21,000 large-scale livestock farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. According to an appeals court opinion handed down Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco once again ruled for the environmentalists against these farms.

The case is no. 20-71554 and was brought by Food and Water Watch against EPA. (No agriculture group was involved!!!!) The opinion has to do with a general NPDES permit granted by EPA to Idaho. Reuters, in its story about the victory for the environmentalists, succinctly stated the issue: Idaho’s “…National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES) lacks sufficient safeguards to ensure that pollutants from CAFOs, typically manure from the thousands of animals raised in the facilities or litter, would not end up in nearby waterways.”

The opinion was written by Judge William Fletcher. Two other Court of Appeals judges joined him. Judge Fletcher is a Bill Clinton appointee. Judge Fletcher has no agricultural background and in 2020, according to some reports, he was concerned that the U.S. Forest Service was cutting trees for monetary gain. He has ruled that Arizona’s policy of not counting ballots filed in the wrong precinct is unconstitutional.