In a recent letter to Kewaunee Cares, six researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future wrote to express their concerns about some of the public health and environmental concerns associated with the generation and management of manure from intensive livestock operations.
Conclusion: For thousands of years, manure has been valued by farmers for its roles in building soil quality and increasing crop yields. Producing livestock such that they generate more manure than can be utilized by nearby cropland is not only a waste of this important resource, it is also a public health and environmental problem. A growing body of evidence has implicated the generation and management of manure from intensive livestock operations in the spread of infectious disease (including antibiotic-resistant strains), the introduction of microbial and chemical contaminants into ground and surface waters, impacts to air quality, and the wide range of adverse health, social, ecological and economic outcomes that result from these events.
Read the entire 12-page letter in the pdf file attached here: 2014-03-27 Manure from intensive livestock operations-1
Kewaunee Cares 