Welcome Henry County to the CAFO Party
Henry County currently has about 11,500 hogs. If 3 new CAFO’s move forward with plans to construct facilities there, that population will increase to about 35,500:
Halcomb Farms of Spiceland, Tim and Matt Chapman of Springport, and Symons Creek Swine of Straughn each sent the county a notice of intent to build a CAFO to confine 8,000 pigs at three separate locations.
All three operations would produce finishing pigs on contract for North Carolina-based Maxwell Foods. Maxwell has bought a feed mill in the Wayne County community of Hagerstown and applied for or already obtained permits to build CAFOs in Randolph County for 57,600 nursery pigs and 17,526 sows
Link. (Star Press)
The article also has a report from Randolph County resident, and CAFO opponent, Wendy Carpenter:
Wendy Carpenter, one of the directors of Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Randolph County, spent this past Saturday at the Hoosier Environmental Council’s state conference. The keynote speaker was economist William Weida from the non-profit GRACE (Global Resource Action Center for the Environment) organization, which opposes the spread of factory farms.
"He said that Iowa, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and North Carolina have strengthened their regulations, so they’re coming here now," Carpenter said. "They’re looking for the place of least resistance, and we’re one of them. We’re no resistance. We’re inviting them in."
One of Gov. Mitch Daniels’s goals is to double Indiana’s pork production.
"What’s happening in other states is massive pollution problems," Carpenter said. "One reason pollution is a huge problem is it leads to negative health effects. Consolidation is another concern. The more consolidated the industry becomes, the less responsive it becomes to local communities."
North Carolina imposed a moratorium on construction of new hog houses in 1997 because of manure-management concerns.
In gagging local response, the Star Press talked to a golf course manager near a proposed site who is concerned about the smell, but the reporter (Seth Slabaugh) also talks to the family which is bringing the CAFO in. Matt Chapman notes that the move to a CAFO is to enable his family to generate enough income for another generation of the family to support themselves on the farm:
Our current operation nets enough for one family to live on. As far as me staying here, and my brother having a chance, we need to look elsewhere, and this enterprise presented itself to us.
