‘This has poisoned everything’ – pollution casts shadow over New Mexico’s booming dairy industry

Pollution from Cannon air force base has gone unreported for decades. Now it's threatening the US food supply

For months, Clovis, New Mexico, dairy farmer Art Schaap has been watching his life go down the drain. Instead of selling milk, he is dumping 15,000 gallons a day - enough to provide a carton at lunch to 240,000 children. Instead of working 24/7 to keep his animals healthy, he's planning to exterminate all 4,000 of his cows, one of the best herds in his county's booming dairy industry.

The 54-year-old second-generation dairy farmer learned last August that his water, his land, his crops - even the blood in his body - were contaminated with chemicals that migrated to his property from nearby Cannon air force base.