Thursday CAFO Tour

Some comments on CAFO’s are up today across the state:

Mary Ellen Davis of Randolph County tells the Pal Item that serious questions should be answered before operations are permitted to go forward:

Will the farmers be penalized for improper manure application if they let the CAFOs put too much manure on the land?

What will happen to the local hog operations? Will they just go out of business?

When CAFOs come into our county, will they have negative impacts to our communities?

I feel that we, as taxpayers, need to know where this is heading. All sides need to be addressed.

Link.

Up in  LaGrange County, Barbara Hedges says her the location of a mega-dairy a mile and a half from her "dream home" on the lake has created a nightmare:

We cannot let something like this happen that can potentially do grave harm to so many for the large financial benefit of a few. Even with the best management practices, we cannot be guaranteed that our health will not be jeopardized or our groundwater and wells polluted with the placement of this CAFO at this location.

She urges the local authorities to adopt rules to assure that local concerns are addressed in the CAFO approval process. Link  (Journal-Gazette)

Finally, Brownfields has a new piece on the recent CAFO tour up in Randolph County:

Giving the public the opportunity to learn about management practices and the role of farmers today is important, says Tom Chalfant, President of the Randolph County Farm Bureau. “All of these dairy and hog farms are owned by individuals. They partner with large corporations in different ways to make it happen, but they are also local farmers who are tying to make a living.”

Chalfant explained that in order to bring family members back to the farm, many farmers must find ways to expand their businesses that are both profitable and safe for the environment. He said that people tend to be misled about modern agriculture but learn otherwise when seeing a farm first-hand.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 3:20 pm and is filed under environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.