Md. Environmental Group Targets Agribusiness

A Maryland environmental group wants state and federal regulators to protect the nation's waterways from so-called corporate agribusinesses.

Environment Maryland has joined forces with Environment America to call on regulators to get tough with corporate agribusinesses.

"Corporate agribusiness refers to companies like Purdue and Tyson that have a large share of the market for the animals they raise in those cases poultry is one of their biggest products," says Tommy Landers of Environment Maryland.

He says farming isn't necessarily a polluting activity, but corporate agribusiness practices make pollution more likely.

"Most of the food in this country comes from these large multi-national companies that make billions of dollars every year, and we think that they should spend more of their money to pay their fair share to clean up America's waterways which they've been contaminating for decades," Landers says.

The environmental groups are also calling for a a ban on concentrated animal feeding operations. Their efforts come as states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are refining their bay restoration plans, as part of a new federally led bay restoration effort.