Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to Speak on Legal
Action to Stem Factory Farming's Threat

Press Conference 10:00 a.m. December 7, 2001
Heritage Room in Buntrock Commons Building,
St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.

Contact: Nicolette Hahn 914-490-9893, Diane Halverson 507-645-2735,
Ted Winter 651-296-5505

12/3/01
NORTHFIELD, Minn.—Citing the dangers of factory farming practices to the environment, family farms, and public and animal health, 63 Minnesota and Midwest citizen organizations are inviting Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President and Founder of Waterkeeper Alliance, to St. Olaf College. Kennedy will describe the broad legal assault against giant animal factories being brought by Waterkeeper Alliance and the team of all-star private bar attorneys and law firms Waterkeeper has assembled.

Kennedy will speak at 10:45 on December 7 in the Black & Gold Room of the Buntrock Commons Building at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. This event is free and open to the public.

Waterkeeper Alliance has filed multiple legal actions against Smithfield Foods, Inc., the world's largest hog raiser and processor, charging that the company has for years knowingly and systematically violated environmental laws. Lawsuits have been filed under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the federal Clean Water Act, the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (the federal solid and hazardous waste law) and North Carolina state law.

"By saving money through illegal manure disposal practices, hog factories have artificially lowered their costs of production, driving hundreds of thousands of family farmers off the land. They have destroyed thousands of miles of public waterways and aquifers and treated millions of animals with unspeakable and unnecessary cruelty," said Kennedy. "We have taken the unprecedented step of launching national litigation against the factory hog industry. Now they ought to know that the marshal has come to Dodge."

Paul Sobocinski, a hog farmer and Land Stewardship Project member said, "Land Stewardship Project members throughout Minnesota are fighting and stopping factory farms. We went to the trenches to stop a factory farm dairy with a seven and one-half million gallon manure lagoon in the karst area of southeast Minnesota this year. We welcome Waterkeeper Alliance to Minnesota to join us in the fight against factory farms and to support our efforts for family farms."

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly called RICO, is a powerful tool to rein in outlaw industries. One of the themes of the RICO complaint is that Smithfield's operation is funded by its illegal pollution-based profits. In violating environmental laws, which is an intended part of its business strategy, it is unlawfully shifting the cost of handling its pollution to the American public.

The Waterkeeper Alliance's legal undertaking, and the Whistle Stop Tour to broadcast its purposes, are forming an unprecedented relationship between some of the nation's most formidable lawyers and beleaguered, often forgotten, farm families and citizens of rural America whose rights and communities the legal team now seeks to defend. The Northfield event is the culmination of a Whistle Stop tour by Waterkeeper Alliance Southeast Representative Rick Dove and Senior Attorney Nicolette Hahn through Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota that began
December 1.

"One of the goals of the event in Northfield is to raise awareness of what has happened to independent hog farmers and to the environment in states that opened themselves up to industrial-scale hog farms," said Minnesota State Representative Ted Winter. "There are important lessons for Minnesota to learn from the bad experience of North Carolina, and that's why we have invited the Waterkeeper Alliance to our state."

Kennedy will be joined by Rick Dove at 10:45 a.m. Dove will discuss with video the factory hog operation onslaught that has caused environmental, social, human health and animal welfare disasters in North Carolina. Representatives of several Minnesota organizations fighting animal factories will join Kennedy at the 10:00 a.m. press conference and again at 10:45 a.m.

Local sponsors of the Northfield whistle stop are the St. Olaf Boldt Chair in the Humanities, the St. Olaf Political Awareness Committee and the Rice Count, Minn., Feedlot Front, a citizens' organization.

Minnesota groups supporting the whistle-stop tour include the Land Stewardship Project, Clean Water Action, Minnesota COACT and others. National groups include the National Farmers Union, National Farmers Organization, Animal Welfare Institute and Sierra Club.

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Waterkeeper Alliance is the umbrella organization for the 79 Keeper programs located throughout North and Central America and Europe. The Waterkeeper movement is among the fastest growing grass-roots environmental movements and is quickly becoming a unique force for environmental change. It is an environmental "neighborhood watch" program, a citizen's patrol to protect communities and the waters on which they depend. It is based on the philosophy that protection and enjoyment of a community's natural resources require the daily vigilance of its citizens. For more information visit the Waterkeeper Web site at http://www.keeper.org.

For further information, or if you are planning on attending, contact Paul Sobocinski 507-342-2323 or Bobby King 507-523-3366 at the Land Stewardship Project.