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The Weekend Desk Report

By Steve Rhodes

For completists, there was no column on Friday.
“A central Illinois pork-processing plant last year discharged more nitrogen from animal waste into waterways than any other slaughterhouse in the country, according to a report published Thursday,” the Tribune reports.

In an assessment of water pollution produced by 98 large meat-processing facilities across the United States, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project found that a plant in Beardstown, Ill., owned by meat-processing giant JBS released about 1,850 pounds of nitrogen on average each day into a tributary of the Illinois River. That’s the amount contained in raw sewage produced daily by a city with the population roughly the size of Evanston, the report says.
The facility, about 240 miles southwest of Chicago, is within its permitted discharge limits under the Clean Water Act, but the disclosure raises questions about the stringency of federal water pollution standards surrounding meatpacking plants.
Illinois is the fourth-largest producer of pork, and it shoulders a significant share of environmental problems as a result. A Tribune investigation found that between 2005 and 2014, pollution incidents from hog confinement operations killed at least 492,000 fish and impaired 67 miles of the state’s rivers, creeks and waterways.

From JBS’s website:
“At JBS USA and Pilgrim’s, how we leave the planet in a better condition than which we found it is at the heart of each environmental, economic and social decision we make.”
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FYI, via Wikipedia:
“BS USA Holdings, Inc. is an American food processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of JBS S.A., a Brazilian company that is the world’s largest processor of fresh beef and pork, with more than $50 billion in annual sales as of 2017. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company . . .
“JBS USA’s operations can be traced back to 1855, when 16-year-old Gustavus Franklin Swift founded a butchering operation in Eastham, Massachusetts. Its early origins on Cape Cod, led to later Brighton, MA, Albany, NY, and Buffalo, NY locations, and in 1875 Swift and Company was incorporated in Chicago.”
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Interesting:
“In December 2006, six of the company’s meat-packing facilities in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Iowa, and Minnesota were raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, resulting in the apprehension of 1,282 undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan, and Ethiopia, and nearly 200 of them were criminally charged after a ten-month investigation into identity theft.”
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Also, bribery investigations.
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And:
“The USDA has added more stores to the retail distribution list in the JBS Tolleson [a unit of JBS USA] ground beef Salmonella Newport outbreak. The case count still stands at 57 people sick in 16 states,” Food Poisoning Bulletin reports. “More than 30% of those patients have been hospitalized because they are so ill. Almost 7 million pounds of ground beef and ground beef products have been recalled.”
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The USDA had previously complained of “egregious” practices at the Tolleson facility.
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In July, the Cass County Gazette named JBS the Business of the Month.
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New on the Beachwood . . .
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #221: Are The Blackhawks Back?
Sort of, but not really. Plus: Chili Cook-Off; MLB’s Final Four; Non-Jew Tarik Cohen And The Bears Taking Their Talents To South Florida; Jimmy Hollywood vs. Toledo Thibs; 2018 Bulls Should Get Sponsorship From Elon Musk’s Boring Company; and Golf At The Grate.
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Conway Barbour And The Challenges Of The Black Middle Class In 19th-Century America
Despite an unconventional life, Barbour found in each place he lived that he was one of many free black people who fought to better themselves alongside their white countrymen.
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Recall! Malone’s Pork Head Cheese
These items were shipped to retail locations in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin and were also sold via internet catalog sales.
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Weekend ChicagoReddit
Good Hedgehog Vet In Chicago?
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Weekend ChicagoGram


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Weekend ChicagoTube
Sweet Home Chicago / Blues Club Art Tokyo

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Weekend BeachBook
A sampling.
“Bob Smith” Was A Black Lives Matter Sympathizer With Lots Of Facebook Friends. It Turned Out He Was A White Undercover Police Officer.

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Avocados And Almonds Are Not Vegan.

Is anything, really?
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Chicago Man Makes 500th Blood Donation.

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Weekend TweetWood
A sampling.


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The Beachwood Tip Line: 20 percent.

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Posted on October 14, 2018