USA: Eggs-tremely Disgusting: Inspectors Uncover Factory Farm Filth in Iowa

By Susan Levin, M.S., R.D

Information: PCRM

September 2010

Could it get any worse? Answer: YES.

At first, I listened with only half an ear to a radio report about federal inspectors discovering yet more disturbing conditions at one of the egg facilities at the center of the salmonella controversy.

I was already saturated with disgust. It’s become more and more clear that a callous disregard for public health is at the root of the contamination, which has sickened more than 1,500 people across the country.

But then I delved into the Food and Drug Administration’s actual inspection report. I began to realize there are levels of filth that I cannot imagine. Like a script setting the scene for a horror movie, here was a seven-page document painting a gruesome picture.

Some of the lowlights I read twice, in case I misunderstood the inspectors’ notes. The following findings stood out:

Chicken manure piles up to 8 feet high.

“Dark liquid” manure seeping through the concrete foundations of the hen houses.

Over two dozen live rodents spotted and counted in the hen houses by inspectors.

Live and dead flies “too numerous to count.”

Live and dead maggots “too numerous to count.”

Wild birds living among the egg-laying hens (if “bird flu” rings a bell, then you may know why this could be catastrophic)....

Source: Eggs-tremely Disgusting: Inspectors Uncover Factory Farm Filth in Iowa
Author: PCRM

Link: Cleaning the Hen House


Other EVANA-articles about this topic:
USA/Iowa: Farms off limits for undercover activists (en)

USA/AETA: Eat your steak and stop asking questions! (en)

USA: How Egg Industry Greed Caused the Salmonella Outbreak (en)