Tyson Dumps More Toxins Than ExxonMobil

According to a new environmental report, meat-producing giant Tyson Foods is responsible for dumping more pollutants into waterways—104,468,732 pounds to be exact—than companies such as ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, and the US Department of Defense. In 2014 alone, Tyson unloaded more than 20 million pounds of waste, a figure that doesn’t include the pollution caused by its factory farms. According to analysts from watchdog group Environment America, “Corporate agribusiness is emerging as one of the biggest threats to America’s waterways—contributing to dead zones from the Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Mexico and even threatening our drinking water.” Tyson landed second on the list of the 15 largest polluters of US waterways, of which one third are animal-agriculture companies such as Perdue Farms Inc, Cargill Inc, and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp—the largest chicken producer in the nation.