Maybe next year
The Pal-Item reports on the failure of the legislature to pass setback rules for CAFO’s:
Attempts to impose more regulations for confined animal feeding operations died when the Indiana General Assembly adjourned Sunday, with setbacks for the location of the mega livestock farms the primary sticking point.
Rep. Phil Pflum, D-Milton, and Rep. Tom Saunders, R-Lewisville, who authored the original House bill with setbacks, refused to compromise on that issue and couldn’t convince the other House-Senate conferees setbacks were needed.
Link.
It is interesting to note the article’s quote of Farm Bureau president Don Villwock, who said his organization opposed the setbacks because such matters should be left to the counties under the “home rule” concept. Funny though, when one county tried to get involved in a CAFO, the Governor’s agriculture chief wrote them a nasty letter. I guess the lesson is: no regulation at the state level, and no regulation at the local level.
Maybe next year.
May 2nd, 2007 11:12
I’m no expert, but On Tap magazine, which has a connection to the USDA, talks about taking a watershed approach when dealing with small community water systems. Wouldn’t it make some sense for CAFO regulation to be done that way, also, at least in regard to water quality issues? Watersheds don’t begin and end at state and county lines.
(Sorry, I keep breaking my “no commenting” rule.)
May 2nd, 2007 16:35
Well, our state has chose to go with money instead of health issues. Senator Gard tried to blame someone else for the final verdict, but I don’t buy that for one minute. The president of Indiana Farm Bureau needs to quit whining about us attacking agriculture. It is agriculture that is attacking us(CAFOs). There were a few good people out there that tried to make a difference-Senator Paul, Rep. Pflum, and Rep. Saunders to name a few and I thank them. It is going to take a big disaster to get the point across that CAFOs are indeed a menace to our environment. I used to look at cows, pigs, and chickens and think oh country life, now I shutter when I see thousands packed together and creating all that manure. It has to end somewhere and it won’t be pretty.