It’s no surprise that the Chesapeake Bay Program won’t meet the deadline to reduce pollutants for the third time (”2025 deadline for Chesapeake Bay cleanup could be pushed back, EPA says,” Oct. 5).
Authorities have failed to address our intake of chicken and dairy as among the leading causes of the bay’s high pollutant concentrations. These pollutants originate from animal waste and nutrients eroded from feed croplands. Significantly reducing how much we eat of these foods is crucial to generating real progress in making the Chesapeake Bay the cleaner, healthier place we know it can be.
The climate crisis will only increase storm intensity, runoff and pollutant loads. So we can’t waste any more time catering to a fundamentally dirty industry. Federal and state authorities must hold factory farms accountable for polluting our bay, and set deadlines they can stick to. And we can take responsibility for the part we play as individuals, as well, simply by choosing to eat less chicken and dairy. As watershed stakeholders, we can make the choice to modify our diets as an essential step to improving the Chesapeake Bay’s water quality.
— Mark Rifkin, Baltimore
The writer is senior food and agriculture policy specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
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