WE’RE SAVED
The Muncie Star Press has a piece up about the big news Andy Miller, head of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, brought to East Central Indiana:
“You’ve seen our strategic plan and know where we see opportunities for the state,” Miller told about 100 people who gathered on the courthouse lawn for the announcement.
Now the state wants to help Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Wayne, Fayette, Union and Rush counties create local and regional strategies.
Now the state wants to help Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Wayne, Fayette, Union and Rush counties create local and regional strategies.
And what does the Director have in mind for us poor folk in East Central Indiana:
“There is a tremendous amount of new opportunity knocking at your door,” Miller told the audience. “Whether that’s new bio-energy plants, whether that’s new food-processing facilities, whether that’s new hardwood opportunities, whether that’s new livestock opportunities, there is a tremendous amount of interest in East Central Indiana … for growth.”
(Okay, emphasis added). I found it interesting that Mr. Miller’s accompaniment for the announcement, Jim Riggle, spokesman for Indiana Michigan Power, outlined the problem as loss of population due to loss of jobs. I found the comments of a local business owner telling on this point:
Gary Moore, co-owner of the Chocolate Moose restaurant in Farmland, attended the announcement out of curiosity.
“Everybody who has a business depends on people living here instead of moving away,” Moore said in an interview. “We need to keep them here and have them move back.”
Would you relocate to Randolph County because of the rapid growth in confined hog farming? Does that sound like an appealing environment to raise your family?
May 11th, 2006 12:35
I’m convinced that the current state administration is doing everything it can to make rural and semi-rural areas less desirable places to live. Guess we should all move to Indianapolis. Or maybe just move on out of the state to locations that place importance on clean water, conserving natural resources, etc.
I’m almost ashamed to be a Hoosier. Or at least, I don’t know how much longer I can stand to live in Indiana.
May 15th, 2006 06:20
Hurray Pila! I also am convinced that our elected officials are doing what they can to run us out of our rural or semi-rural homes.
Indiana needs to tighten up the laws for ag facilities - let’s include air, odor, nuisance, pest and rodent control in these CAFO applications -
If the one in Grant County gets in, we won’t be able to leave our home. With a manure lagoon right outside our back door (literally!) who’d want to buy our home?
May 15th, 2006 12:34
Cathy:
So sorry to hear about your situation! I hope that you are successful in blocking the CAFO.
I really think that the state is taking advantage of the fact that most, if not all, counties do not have sufficient regulations in place to deny CAFO permits or slow the proliferation of factory farms throughout the state. All we have to go by is what IDEM says, and it is pretty clear that they aren’t about to deny any CAFO permits.
I don’t know how it helps the state to turn it into one large manure lagoon sprinkled with a few metro areas.
Thanks to Thomas Kemp for this blog. I have not seen any *comprehensive* mainstream press stories on the proliferation of CAFO’s in Indiana.
May 16th, 2006 05:38
We in Grant County, In. are in for a fight! Anyone in Grant County who thinks these CAFO’s are a good idea need to inform themselves of what theses FACTORY farms consist of because once they are built there is NO going back. If you think that CAFO is miles from me just wait there will be one in your back yard and you’ll be saying “I wish I had done something before this happened!” These are NOT your “family” dairy farm, what’s 220 cows opposed to CAFO’s 2200!!! A LOT more manure, dead animals, flies and rodents then you ever thought could exsist!!!