Tyson polluted Illinois and Missouri waterways, report says [Video]

MISSOURI, USA — It takes literal tons of water to make hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken nuggets, according to United Nations data.

Meat processors pump a portion of that water, along with pounds of toxic pollutants, directly back into the rivers, streams and lakes it came from, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports. The meat industry’s water usage generates millions of gallons of wastewater and is one of the largest sources of industrial nutrient pollution in the country, damaging human and environmental health.

Tyson Foods dumped more than 371 million pounds of pollutants directly into the nation’s waterways between 2018 and 2022, a large chunk of which were in Illinois and Missouri, according to a recent report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. 

The Union of Concerned Scientists …