January 29, 2002
The End Of An Industry?
"This threat is greater than that in Afghanistan. This is not only a threat to the environment, it is a threat to the American economy and democracy."
Osama bin Laden? al-Qaeda "dirty bombs"? No -- the American hog farming and pork industry, according to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Kennedy's group and their "high-powered set of lawyers" threaten hog farmers with lawsuits filed under racketeering laws meant to nab mobsters -- with the goal of, in Bobby Jr.'s words, putting "an end to this industry."
It's just the latest recklessness by Kennedy. It's not our word: Robert Boyle, founder of Riverkeeper (the core group of what grew into Waterkeeper) and Kennedy's onetime mentor, has said Kennedy "is very reckless. He's assumed an arrogance above his intellectual stature." And as an attorney who has worked with Kennedy has put it, Kennedy "separates himself from good science at times in order to aggressively pursue an issue and win."
Bobby Jr. has now turned that aggression on meat producers. He's said of the pork, poultry, and beef industries: "We're starting with hogs. After the hogs, then we are going after the other ones."
