Tyson Foods dumped millions of pounds of toxic pollutants directly into American rivers and lakes over the last five years, threatening critical ecosystems, endangering wildlife and human health, a new investigation reveals.

Nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil and cyanide were among the 371m lb of pollutants released into waterways by just 41 Tyson slaughterhouses and mega processing plants between 2018 and 2022.

According to research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the contaminants were dispersed in 87bn gallons of wastewater – which also contains blood, bacteria and animal feces – and released directly into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands relied on for drinking water, fishing and recreation. The UCS analysis, shared exclusively with the Guardian, is based on the most recent publicly available water pollution data Tyson is required to report under current regulations.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240430115519/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/30/tyson-foods-toxic-pollutants-lakes-rivers

  • arglebargle
    link
    fedilink
    English
    98 months ago

    Thank you for posting.

    I am not surprised they did this, but I am surprised people are willing to eat Tyson foods. They have been awful for as long as I can remember.

    • @Blackmist@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      38 months ago

      I don’t think most people know.

      They mostly sell food to other food suppliers, caterers, restaurants and so on.