Factory Farms in my Backyard

The effects from factory farms are all around us in Georgia. Georgia is a mostly agrarian state and has been for almost its entire history. The recent influx of factory farms in our state is polluting our air, water, landscape, and the quality of the food being produced. I remember going to Lake Lanier one summer when I was younger and seeing the water with a brown, oily tinge to it and filled with garbage. As my family floated through the lake on our friend's boat, we saw a car tire coated in what looked like animal feces bobbing up and down in the water. I kept wondering why the lake had gone from blue and clean to filthy and brown in just one summer? After reading that article and watching Food, Inc., I believe that the reason why our state is becoming more and more polluted is because of factory farms in our backyards. The sewage being pumped into a small pond affects not only that pond but the surrounding environment and the small streams that stem from it. These streams will carry the pollution downstream and eventually end up in our major rivers (Chattahoochee) and our reservoirs (Lake Lanier, Lake Allatoona, etc). The fact that our environmental agencies have been doing little to nothing to prevent or correct this pollution is disturbing to me, but unfortunately not surprising.