New Mexico's nickname = "Land of Enchantment"

National Public Radio (NPR) recently reported a story regarding the "Manure War" being waged between milk farmers and New Mexico's non-dairy public.

http://tinyurl. com/ydot7rt

A few quotes from that story:

"A factory farm with 2,000 cows produces as much sewage as a small city, yet there's no treatment plant."

"Everyday, an average cow produces six to seven gallons of milk and 18 gallons of manure. New Mexico has 300,000 milk cows. That totals 5.4 million gallons of manure in the state every day."

"The New Mexico Environment Department reports that two-thirds of the state's 150 dairies are contaminating groundwater with excess nitrogen from cattle excrement. Either the lagoons are leaking, or manure is being applied too heavily on farmland."

"On Dairy Row along Interstate 10 between Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, Texas, more than 30,000 cows live in 11 farms located one after the other."

"Homeowner Herbie Rodriguez says he has been buying five-gallon bottles of water to drink and cook with, though his family still washes with contaminated well water."

"'On a white, brand-new T-shirt, you can wash it in the water, brand-new, it would come out brownish, beige. That's how you could tell how bad the water was.'"

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk. com