Monday CAFO Update
Alright. Lots happening over the weekend:
Do you know someone who runs a CAFO? Think they are doing a wonderful job in protecting water quality? If so, the EPA wants to hear about them, and they could even win an award:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 announced it is seeking nominations for new annual regional awards to recognize concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that make outstanding efforts to protect water quality. The awards are intended to encourage effective environmental management of such facilities.
"Managers of feedlots have an important role to play in protecting water quality," said Jo-Lynn Traub, EPA Regional Water Division Director. "EPA will recognize leaders in the industry who demonstrate exceptional environmental stewardship through innovative pollution prevention and management and treatment of waste at their facilities."
The Water Resources Stewardship Award for CAFOs is open to beef, dairy, swine and poultry concentrated animal feeding operations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. Individuals, agricultural organizations and agribusinesses may nominate potential award winners to the water quality contact at their state environmental agency by mid-January 2007. Award recipients will be selected and notified by EPA by March 30, 2007.
State water quality contacts are:
-
Dick Breckenridge, Illinois EPA, (217) 558-6818, Richard.Breckenridge@epa.state.il.us;
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management;
- Ronda Wuycheck, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, (517) 241-7832, wuychecr@michigan.gov;
- Bob Finley, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, (320) 214-3794, Robert.finley@pca.state.mn.us;
- Cathy Alexander, Ohio EPA, (614) 644-2021, Cathy.Alexander@epa.state.oh.us;
- Gordon Stevenson, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, (608) 267-2759, Gordon.Stevenson@dnr.state.wi.us
Instructions, rules and guidelines for the awards program are posted on EPA’s Web site: www.epa.gov/region5/agriculture/cafo-awards.htm
The New York Times editorializes about the pending purchase of the #2 hog producer by the #1 (Premium Standard and Smithfield, respectively):
There is little or no role for the independent farmer in this landscape. The logic is simple: Why bother to buy pigs from farmers when you can own them yourself? If this deal closes, more than half the pigs Smithfield kills would be pigs it already owns, a percentage that is sure to increase. The hog farmers’ job would no longer be farming. They would be janitors in confinement barns across rural America where the packers’ huge herds of pigs are crammed in stalls to live out their short lives.
In non-CAFO agricultural news, the Pal-Item reports today that the Ohio Department of Agriculture has taken action against a dairy accused of selling raw milk. The dairy operates under a "heard-share" program, where customers purchase an interest in a cow and are entitled to a share of the milk produced. The dairy claims this activity falls under the "consumed on farm" exception to pasteurization requirement, permitting these cow "owners" to obtain raw milk. Ohio Ag said "no," and has jerked the dairy’s license. Link.
Other miscellaneous:
Don’t eat the fish out of Wildcat Creek, E. coli levels exceed the state maximum (The article does not specify which strain).
Anti-CAFO Movement Comes from Neighbors is the title of a piece by Seth Slabaugh in the Star Press, quoting remarks by the head of Indiana’s Pork Producer Association that I cited last week, and providing coverage for the Henry County IDEM meeting last week:
A crowd of those neighbors showed up one night last week at a meeting sponsored by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to discuss the expansion of swine CAFOs in Henry County. Since June, applications have been filed to build four Henry County CAFOs, each of which would house 8,000 finishing pigs.
Retired farmer Millard Goggin of Cambridge City is one of those neighbors. He was unable to attend the meeting, but his wife, Betty, went.
Is Goggin a vegetarian? "Who me? No, no, no — no. I’ve got a meatloaf in the oven," he said in a telephone interview from his residence.
Does he oppose modern farming practices? "No, but my thing is, this is not farming. It’s a hog factory. It’s not a farm as such. The air pollution is more of a concern than anything else. It’s something the state doesn’t have any control over. My wife has a lot of stuff on that. She has MS (multiple sclerosis). So does my daughter, a school nurse. They have a low-immunity problem."
