A Few Notes About Factory Farming
[Plan Commissioner Pete] Wagoner said changes were needed to give county zoning administrator Dale Huffer “guidance about how to proceed.” APC vice president and leader of the April 25 evening meeting in the absence of president Bob McCain, Wayne Chapman concurred with Wagoner. “If we had something in writing, it would make Dale[Huffer]’s job easier.” Wagoner said to rely on the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for local regulations was not advisable. “IDEM is not concerned with our infrastructure or development,” he commented.
However Flora resident Dave Lambert disagreed with Wagoner. He said IDEM looks at all aspects of construction for production purposes before issuing permits. “They aren’t going to let you build something that will leak into the ground,” he said. He also did not agree there should be a differentiation made between small and large operations. Lambert said a reasonable setback is 750 feet. That number is 250 feet more than the current regulations demand.
“Hog production drives this county. Look at the taxes produced,” he stated. He urged commission members to explore the consequences of their actions before changing the requirements. Travis Flora of Bringhurst concurred with Lambert. He also said he thought IDEM did an adequate enforcement job.
Link. (Carroll County Comet)
Meanwhile, folks up in northern Wayne County and all of Randolph County are still upset about the new CAFO’s going into that region. One resident on a “traditional” farm wrote in a letter to the Pal-Item this week:
Hog factories are a short-run solution that will create more long-run problems.
We need to think far ahead because our very community is at stake. Our open spaces, clean air and clean water that we enjoy will not be here for our children and grandchildren.
Quality of life will deteriorate. Jobs just aren’t enough compensation for turning a community into a “dump.”
Comments of Mary Ellen Davis. State Senator Allen Paul’s victory in the Republican primary was confirmed this week. As noted by the Muncie Star Press, Paul has been a vocal critic of expanding CAFO operations in the state without putting more stringent requirements and enforcement into place. Paul only won his home county (Wayne) by 22 votes, but Randolph County, the site of many new and controversial CAFO’s, assured his victory.
Factory Farming in the organic dairy industry continues to generate debate. In March, the Cornucopia Institute issued a report ranking organic dairy producers based on several factors, most of which related to whether the milk was produced in confinement lots, or traditional grazing operations. Some are calling for a boycott of bogus organic milk brands and last month, Samuel Fromartz published his new book on this issue as well as others: Organic, Inc. : Natural Foods and How They Grew. Also of interest in the area of food production, you should check out Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals.
Recently, the organic standards advisory board for the USDA held a symposium on toughening organic standards. The board is recommending that cows get at least 30% of their “dry intake” from grazing. As I’ve said before, current regulations only require that the cows have “access” to pasture, which turns out to be a gray enough standard to drive a CAFO through.
But the agriculture industry is gearing up to oppose laws aimed at restricting CAFO growth on both the national and local stage: AGRICULTURE SECTOR FORMS LOBBYING GROUP TO PUSH CAFO EXEMPTIONS is the lead off an Inside the EPA article (paid registration required):
The group has hired a lobbying firm headed by former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Livingstone (R_LA) to lobby on its behalf. The industry recently formalized the coalition, which had previously existed in an informal sense, to “have Congress clarify its intent” with respect to the regulation of manure under Superfund and EPCRA, one industry source says. The source says the group is seeking congressional action on a bill Rep. Ralph Hall (R_TX) introduced that would exempt manure from emergency reporting requirements and from the definition of a hazardous substance under Superfund. The source also says the group is “exploring its options” in the Senate.
Among the group’s members are the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattleman’s Beef Association and other major agricultural groups representing pork, dairy, egg and other producers in the sector.
The industry source says the group decided to formalize its existence because it sought congressional action on the issue during the last session of Congress but was unsuccessful.
(Thanks toBarbara Cox for the lead on this information).
