BRAYTON, Iowa State natural resources officials say as many as a thousand pigs may have been destroyed by a fire at a hog confinement building in southwest Iowa.

Fire officials say an automatic fire alarm sounded at the Natural Pork Production building located two miles west of Brayton at about 3 a.m. today.

Firefighters from Brayton and neighboring counties fought the flames for 4 1/2 hours before getting the fire under control.

The wood-framed metal building was built in 2002. It is one of five hog production facilities in Iowa that houses as many as five thousand sows.

Antibiotics are commonly added to animal feed as supplements to promote growth of food animals. However, absorption of antibiotics in the animal gut is not complete and as a result substantial amounts of antibiotics are excreted in urine and feces that end up in manure. Manure is used worldwide not only as a source of plant nutrients but also as a source of organic matter to improve soil quality especially in organic and sustainable agriculture. Greenhouse studies were conducted to determine whether or not plants grown in manure-applied soil absorb antibiotics present in manure. The test crops were corn (Zea mays L.), green onion (Allium cepa L.), and cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. Capitata group). All three crops absorbed chlortetracycline but not tylosin. The concentrations of chlortetracycline in plant tissues were small (2–17 ng g^–1 fresh weight), but these concentrations increased with increasing amount of antibiotics present in the manure. This study points out the potential human health risks associated with consumption of fresh vegetables grown in soil amended with antibiotic laden manures. The risks may be higher for people who are allergic to antibiotics and there is also the possibility of enhanced antimicrobial resistance as a result of human consumption of these vegetables.

So, at least for me, there is a new question to ask at the local farmer’s market.

Nearly 100 Shideler residents turned up for the hearing that determined the rezoning for an 806-acre agricultural bio-enterprise park. Delaware County Commissioners Larry Crouch and Tom Bennington approved the rezoning, while Commissioner John Brooke made a motion to delay voting. Brooke did not want to vote on the issue until “adequate ag-park regulations” were passed by commissioners.

Well, that is at least what the boy’s mother believes. In Re: Paternity of T.X.J., The Court of Appeals takes on the mother’s request to raise the support obligation of Dale Davis, an Indiana Pacer. The title of this post is actually what the mother told the trial court in her bid.

The Court of appeals ultimately rejects the bid (reversing the trial court that had almost triple Dale’s support), but not before authoring this jewel:

At this point, the argument seems like a slam dunk for Davis. But Knafel attempts a block by pointing out that MacLafferty is distinguishable on its facts.

Ouch.

In the comments to this post, Bob Sexton, one of the folks fighting a pig CAFO down in Jackson County, asked for a pointer to an online version of the proposed Wayne County CFO regulations. I looked around and could not find one, so I went down to the local planning office and the director was helpful and gave me a copy.

This is the current version, the one that has already incorporated changes requested by the county commissioners, and the version that will be re-presented to the commissioners for consideration (i.e. Adoption). Note the changes are indicated by underlines (additions) and strikethroughs (deletions): Proposed Wayne County Regulations.

My $.02? The proposed regs only deal with potential groundwater contamination, specifying required setbacks from water wells and residences. The changes in the regulations reduce the setback requirements when manure is to be injected into the ground as opposed to sprayed. There is nothing in the proposed regs to deal with the air quality issues, nor the humane treatment of animals issues.

My question: Does anyone have a bead on other local CFO/CAFO regulations? Have any local counties dealt with either the air quality issues or the humane issues?

Look over here for more info on Jackson County’s struggle.

After the meeting, [county commissioner] Walker said he hoped that Miller “understands where we’re coming from, that he knows we are not opposed to CAFOs in this county. But we have issues on locations of those CAFOs.

“The commissioners have been very supportive of agriculture in the past and will continue to be in the future. But we realize that issues will come up in the future that have to be addressed with discussion from both sides.”

Organic food has become a very big business, with a 20 percent annual growth rate in sales in recent years. But popularity has come at a price. Ever since 2002, when the Department of Agriculture began its program of national organic certification, there has been a steady lobbying effort to weaken standards in a way that makes it easier for the giant food companies, which often use synthetic substances in processing, to enter the organic market.

That’s exactly why many organic farmers greeted the U.S.D.A.’s organic seal with real trepidation. They know that the one thing the department has always done especially well is to capitulate to the lobbying pressure of big food and big agriculture.

Imagine it - the excavation construction is only about 30 yards from the border of the Jasper/Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area game reserve …only about 3 miles from the center of the reserve’s major fresh water lake/pond into which most all the surrounding tributaries and ditches feed.

The appointees are:

Stan Hurt, Chairman, Arts Council of Indianapolis, appointed by Governor Mitch Daniels

Douglas D. Church, Managing Partner, Church, Church, Hittle & Antrim, appointed by Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard

Judge Sarah Evans Barker, United States District Court, Southern District of Indiana, appointed by Attorney General Steve Carter

Dr. Bobby Fong, President, Butler University, appointed by Attorney General Steve Carter

Berkley Duck, Chairman, Save the Prairie, Inc., appointed by Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge Judith S. Proffitt

Judge Thomas G. Fisher, Indiana Tax Court , appointed by Earlham College Board of Trustees Chairman Mark Myers

Morris Mills, Earlham College Board of Trustees, appointed by Earlham College Board of Trustees Chairman Mark Myers

The Foundation is one of the two new nonprofit boards established by the Conner Prairie Agreement reached last July between the Attorney General and Earlham College. Hamilton Superior Court Judge William Hughes approved the agreement in September.

The Attorney General is asking Judge Barker to lead the Foundation in its first organizational meeting. Carter is also asking board members to begin their work immediately with a first priority to appoint the initial members of the Museum Board.

The Conner Prairie Foundation Board will be responsible for managing the endowment assets, while the Conner Prairie Museum Board will be responsible for operating the museum.

The Museum Board of Directors would consist of eleven members selected by the Board of the Foundation. At least one Director would be selected from nominees made by each of the following organizations and officeholders:

· The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners

· The Mayor of Carmel

· The Town Council of Fishers

· The Governor of the State of Indiana

· The Mayor of Indianapolis

· The Board of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association

· The Board of the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau

· The Conner Prairie Alliance; and

· Earlham College (this is a direct appointment)

The Board of the Foundation would select two of its members to fill the remaining two directorships.

Ethanol is not a catch-all solution to our energy problems. It is just one of the many innovative alternative fuels being developed today that will evolve over time.

Angry residents were fighting the proposed farm of 2,496 hogs because they say the operation could lead to air, water and land contamination.

Residents, who collected nearly 1,000 signatures in about 10 days, protested the plans by DeMotte-based Belstra Milling Co.

The Belstra Group includes the feed mill in DeMotte, five Pig Improvement Co. gilt multipliers made up of 7,000 sows in Northwest Indiana and the 160-head boar stud operation in Kankakee County, Ill.

Roy and Bonnie Reese said they live within a mile of the operation and understand hog farming.

“There could be water contamination from the spreading of waste, odors from the buildings,” Roy Reese said. “I’m afraid with an operation that size, the water could be depleted. We have a rental house next door, and we can’t rent that because we don’t have enough water.”

Bonnie Reese said they are not against hog farmers because many of them have raised hogs at some point.

“We are against these big corporations coming in and taking over and destroying our water, soil and air,” she said.

To protect water quality there are a number of conservation practices producers can use to safely store and treat manure and apply it to land at rates that provide crop nutrients without harming groundwater. The Natural Resources Conservation Service will share the cost of many of these practices through the initiative, with the producer and the agency each paying half.

 

Some of these practices include manure storage; manure treatment such as composting and other forms of digestion; manure transfer; storm water control features such as berms and diversions; nutrient management; irrigation practices; and land treatments such as manure runoff control.

After arguments that lasted about two hours, Superior Court I Judge P. Thomas Snow pledged to work “with all deliberate speed” to resolve the case. 

The two sides argued the points of the case, including the neighbors’ claim that the city plan commission improperly used the planned unit development (PUD) ordinance for rezoning the land and that the plan commission failed to properly address or vote on nine findings of fact as required by the PUD ordinance.

They also argued that the neighbors’ property values would suffer because of additional traffic, light and noise from the development.

Jennings Water Inc. filed a petition to reverse the approval of an 8,000-head hog operation approved by the Jackson County Board of Zoning Appeals in October.

The petition for a writ of certiorari, filed Tuesday on behalf of the company by Columbus attorney Pete King, calls for Jackson Circuit Court to reverse the BZA’s approval of Talara Lykins’ request for a special exception. It also accuses the BZA of violating Indiana Open Door Law during the Oct. 11 meeting at the Vallonia gymnasium, saying members held an “illegal executive session.”

Robert Sexton, a member of Families Against (CAFO) in Reddington, a collection of residents opposed to Lykins’ operation, filed a petition against the BZA on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Jackson County clerk’s office. 

Drinking water wells test high for nitrates, and this causes local government to voice concern over how local dairy operations deal with waste:

Newton County Councilwoman Sharon Miller, former Newton County Commissioner Roxanna Hanford and Newton County resident Carla Orlandi are concerned that nitrates from animal waste applied to soil could contaminate northern Newton County’s drinking water.

“Your health is at risk because your drinking water is at risk,” Orlandi said. “Even with the best management practices, studies have shown that it is a very real potential that the manure being land-applied will leach.”

Orlandi said cows at Fair Oaks Dairy Farm, in rural Newton County, excrete more than a million pounds of manure a day.

“We’re not against the dairy or any confined animal feeding operation,” Orlandi said.

Orlandi has taken up a fight against the local dairy which is already the largest East of the Mississippi and wants to get bigger:

IDEM issued a general permit which Orlandi is fighting. She says IDEM should issue an individual permit, which allows the permit to be site-specific and calls for a public hearing. An individual permit could also allow IDEM to take into account the sandy soil in northern Newton County.

According to Steve Jann of the EPA, there is a risk that the sandy soil could allow nitrates to leach into ground water. He said the best way to control that problem is by only allowing nitrogen to be applied to plants growing in the farm field.

A proposed confined animal feeding operation in Owen Township cleared its final hurdle Tuesday night during a Jackson County Board of Zoning Appeals meeting.

That approval, however, for a request from Tom and Linda Hallow for a special exception for the 8,000-head operation on County Road 100S, west of County Road 50W, didn’t come without opposition.

Jim Davers, president of the Medora Town Council, for instance, said he had some concerns about how the operation might affect the town’s water supply.

“We want you to take a good, hard look at this,” Davers said.

Davers’ concerns focused on the potential for floodwaters crossing ground where manure from the Hallows’ hog operation might be spread. He said those same floodwaters flow near wells that supply drinking water for about 400 customers in the town.