House Bill 1276 passed the Indiana House, says the Pal Item. My previous comments on this provision are available here.

Apparently, the natives up in Benton County are not enthralled with Kokomo’s North Fork Farms’ plan to install a hog CAFO near Boswell:

The crowd of about 250 people at the Fowler Theater, where the 31/2 hour meeting was held, enthusiastically clapped for everyone who opposed the confined animal feeding operation.

“Let North Fork Farms go back to Kokomo and build a CAFO in their backyard,” said Taber Van Slyke, a Benton County resident who testified during the meeting.

Link (Journal and Courier).

The Benton County BZA ultimately decided to stew on the issue for a bit. Rae Schnapp from Hoosier Environmental Council made an appearance as well as several other interested parties.

The US EPA issued a press release today giving recognition to fortune 500 companies that have purchased large amounts of “green power,” including the Midwest’s top user, Kohl’s Department Stores, Menomonee Falls, Wis., with 236 million kWh used. Link.

Kohl’s was ranked 8th nationally in using green power. The EPA says that green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and biogas, as well as low-impact hydropower.  Green power resources produce electricity with an environmental profile superior to conventional power technologies and produce no net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

So, I guess Kohl’s is cutting a pretty green image. Too bad they decided to put their new local store where our arboretum used to be.

Some companies that market dairy products to consumers fearful of the use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) are up in arms about a bill quietly chugging through the Indiana Legislature.

House Bill 1300 amends Indiana Code 15-2.1-2-29.7 to provide that dairy products are misbranded if the labeling contains compositional claims that cannot be confirmed through laboratory analysis or can only be supported by sworn statements, affidavits, or testimonials.

This measure, at least according to ice cream maker, Ben & Jerry’s, would prohibit the labeling of dairy products as “hormone free” or “rBGH free.” This would mean that Indiana consumers would not know whether the dairy products they feed to their families were produced using rBGH - not an issue unless you are someone who thinks this is a problem.

Yeah, we heard: CAFO bill dead this session (Pal-Item). Senator Phil Pflum reminds us that a state commission directed by Lt. Gov Becky Skillman also was looking at CAFO regulations and planned to issue a report in December. . . .

The First Responsible Pork Symposium will be held in Indy on February 5th through the 7th covering issues including “Ethics in today’s modern pork production industry” and “Moving from being a target to being in charge.” Go to www.responsiblepork.com for the details.

On the subject of upcoming meetings, the The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production is meeting this Wednesday in DC for a congressional briefing on the issue of antibiotic resistance and its connection to animal agriculture., including the issue “Why farm animals are given an estimated 24.6 million pounds (8 times more than humans) of antibiotics and other antimicrobials annually” and “What commonly known antibiotics and antimicrobials are becoming ineffective.” Fun stuff. The full Pew report is set to be issued on April 29, 2008.

On the lighter side, it’s nice to know that kids like these are still in the gene pool: Boys bleed after sticking tongues to flagpole

Well, this is getting to be an annual occurrence: Three CAFO bills die in committee (Star Press):

Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, chairman of the Senate Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee, let a trio of CAFO bills die this week, including a CAFO moratorium bill filed by fellow Republican Sen. Allen Paul of Richmond. Thursday was the deadline for bills to come out of committee during the short session. “I will file this again next year,” said Paul, whose district includes Wayne, Randolph and Jay counties, all of which have livestock CAFOs.

See Marcia Oddi’s coverage on CAFO’s starting here, including this link to a Purdue University site with access to CAFO scientific papers, like Manure Storage Systems, The Possibility for Reducing Water Pollution Resulting from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and the Impact of Phytase (PDF), Emissions and Respiratory Health of Neighbors(PDF) or The Fate of Unabsorbed Antibiotics.

Or, if you are tired of CAFO’s and the legislature, you can read about IDEM’s newly issued permit for Duke Energy’s new coal power plant (Indy Star).

Out in Madison County, Iowa, a couple sued their neighbors across the street claiming that the neighbor’s habit of spreading the manure from their 300 hog operation on their fields cause health problems. The case went to Jury trial and the jury ruled in favor of the hog farmers:

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in 2003 seeking damages for health problems they claimed were the result of being exposed to hog manure applied to fields near their home. It is believed to be one of the first cases in Iowa to center on health issues that could be caused by exposure to livestock manure.

Agri News

The case is notable because it is the first application of Iowa’s reworked nuisance law which effectively says, if the farmer follows the state rules, there can be no nuisance. The law also calls for the plaintiffs to pay for the legal expenses of the farmer if they lose the case.

Senate Bill 0314 got the go ahead yesterday by the Committee on Agriculture and Small Business. The measure, introduced by Republican Senator David Ford, now joined by Republican Johnny Nugent, provides for a substantial reworking of the Ag department, far beyond just changing its name.

There is a provision in the proposed bill that would have the state agency work to assist “agricultural businesses in obtaining and preparing the permits required to conduct business in Indiana.” (proposed language for IC15-9-2-5). This broad language would seem to call for the newly names Indiana State Department of Agriculture to assist CAFO’s in getting permits out of IDEM.

The Pal-Item has an article about House Bill 1276, a bill introduced by Rep. Pflum in response to a local murder. It’s a good example of how bad cases make trouble in the law.

Every statutory code, from Indiana’s to the federal code, is choked full of junk that came about because of odd circumstances or one-time interests of important people. The hard thing is that this leads to the rest of having to wade through statutory muck on every routine matter.

Tarra Pickett of Cambridge City, Indiana was murdered in 2007. The man charged with the crime was, at the time of the killing, a convicted sex offender and out on bond for a pending sexual offense. Many people were outraged that a convicted sex offender could get bond on a new sexual offense and blamed the murder on the justice system leaving this man out among us. The trouble is, the man is entitled to bond under Indiana’s constitution, and the setting of bond must be done in a rational matter.

The new bill - if passed - would actually give a benefit to the very people it is aimed at: sexually violent predators. Why? In the basic criminal case, the judge reads the affidavit of probable cause and determines the bond without any hearing. Generally, the bond is set according to a stated schedule, based on the pending charge and other factors. If the defendant does not like the bond, they have to file a motion to modify the bond and wait for the judge to get an opening on his or her calendar to hear it. HB1276 would give people charged with sex crimes and who already meet the requirements for being a sexually violent predator an automatic bond hearing.

Presumably, the judge, in a “public hearing” (what other types of hearings do we have in criminal cases?) will be pressured by the public opinion and impose a high bond, but I doubt the public nature of the hearing will impact a judge’s calculus on this issue. Other than put in the requirement of the hearing, the law does not otherwise alter the standard for the setting of the bond. So in the end, it makes the code a little longer for a pretty rare circumstance, and doesn’t have much practical impact, other than give these “predators” an automatic bond hearing. . . .

The proposed zoning ordinance in Randolph County that would permit the installation of CAFO’s in much of the county continues to be bogged down. The county commissioners rejected the last proposed ordinance, and now the planning commission is working to get another proposed ordinance to the commissioners:

Resending the same ordinance back to county commissioners was one of the few options on the table for planning commission members. Anything else basically results in the planning commission drafting a new ordinance and sending it to county commissioners for review. This ping-pong approach continues until county commissioners approve something. Hanging in the balance is a countywide moratorium that halts the expansion of CAFOs and CFOs (confined feeding operations) in Randolph County. County commissioners approved the moratorium Jan. 7 and said it won’t be lifted until seven issues (water, agriculture parks, housing, odor, manure, setbacks and monitoring) are researched and resolved. The planning commission put Cathy Flatter, its executive director, in the lead role of addressing those issues with county commissioners.

Randolph CAFO ordinance at an impasse (Star Press).

The Star Press also has an article out today that should please many concerned citizens in Randolph County: For years folks have been concerned about that fact that Randolph County Commissioner Ron Chalfant, or people in his immediate family, were allegedly seeking to install a CAFO in Randolph County at the same time the commissioners were deciding the issue of appropriate CAFO regulation. Now the issue gets some press: Randolph commissioner accused of conflict of interest:

Bob McCoy, a Winchester city councilman and new member of the commission, said he was addressing the concerns of many when he asked whether a building permit for a hog barn with Ron Chalfant’s name on it suggested Chalfant has a conflict of interest. A request for a building permit for a finishing barn was filed May 30, 2007. It lists Chalfant as owner, but notes in the margin that it will be transferred to his son, Aaron Chalfant, 24, an agriculture economics student at Purdue University.

Commissioner Chalfant says that the project has always been his son’s and has no connection to the family grain business. His son will raise hogs for Maxwell Farms.

The Pal-Item runs a piece today on Randolph County commissioner Kathy Beumer, an her husband’s apparent spilt with her decision to support a CAFO moratorium:

Two weeks after his wife made a motion to enact a moratorium preventing more CAFOs from coming to Randolph County, Greg Beumer on Monday asked the board of county commissioners — of which his wife Kathy is a member — to rescind that vote. (The board didn’t.) “I realize this puts some of us in a bit of a difficult position. … But I think the perception is a lot worse than it really is,” said Greg Beumer, executive director of Randolph Economic Development Corp. He said he and his wife simply don’t talk about the issue at home.

Link

Well, it’s too cold to go outside, so let’s catch up on some local issues with the Pal-Item this morning:

First, be sure to check out the article on school consolidation that is part of recommendations Justice Shepard’s task force. Basically, the idea is to gain efficiency and save money by consolidating school districts to the size of 2,000 students. Local educators wonder about these claims: the biggest consolidated school around, Richmond Community School, is topped by a high school with a 54% graduation rate (labeled a “dropout factory” in a recent study: example), whereas the small “inefficient” unconsolidated rural schools tend to do quite well by their student: Foes: Where’s the benefit? and Indiana features long history of consolidations. The proposal aims for 2011 for school consolidation. The full plan can be read <here. The print edition of the paper has a nice Q&A with Justice Shepard in which he explains why the committee was unable to provide an accounting for the financial impact of the group’s recommendations, but it does not appear online. . . .

Then, be sure to check out Bob Hansen’s thoughtful article about eating local: Help the local economy by requesting locally grown food. Bob is the business and retention manager for Wayne County’s economic Development Corporation. I have heard him speak in the past and I am impressed that we have someone with his vision in this position:

Using national averages provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans spent an average of about $2,245 per person on food in 2002. Multiply that by Wayne County’s 2006 population of 68,846 and it comes to $154.5 million. If only 1 percent more of Wayne County’s food was purchased from local sources, it would be $1.54 million more staying in the local economy.

IDEM is catching flack over its monitoring of US Steel’s water permit for its Gary, Indiana plant. The US EPA opened the issue up for public comments and over 300 comments: EPA’s U.S. Steel Gary Works page. Included in the comments were criticism of IDEM by the US Department of Fish and Wildlife Services:

In a letter, the Fish and Wildlife Service criticized IDEM for allowing too much cyanide to be discharged according to the proposed permit. The federal agency also urged IDEM to stop U.S. Steel from discharging visible silty materials into the Grand Calumet, saying biologists warned IDEM 20 times in 1993 about the alleged violations of the permit.

“Every time we have visited this outfall site (by land or by boat) over the course of the past 15 years (hundreds of times), visible solids are discharged … into the Grand Calumet River,” Supervisor Scott E. Pruitt wrote in his comments. “These occurrences are violations … and should be ceased.”

Federal agency criticizes IDEM (Post-Tribune).

Now in Randolph County, when the subject of a public meeting is not CAFO’s, its news:

For the first time in many months, CAFOs weren’t the key topic of conversation during a meeting of the Area Planning Commission of Randolph County. In fact, they weren’t allowed to be part of the conversation at all. When the planning commission met Tuesday night, attorney Bob Oliver advised members not to talk about an ordinance and issue that has resulted in hundreds of hours of conversation in the past four years.

Shhh! No CAFO talk allowed (Star Press)

And, it’s Michigan, so it does not help Indiana, but it does deal with the federal Clean Water Act, so it might have broader implications:

The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that the state’s process for permitting large-scale livestock farming operations violates the federal Clean Water Act.
. . . .
The court on Tuesday voted 2-1 that the state’s program for permitting the controversial facilities violates the federal Clean Water Act by letting farmers decide how much manure they will spread onto fields and where. The court also criticized the permitting program, saying it doesn’t give the public a chance to review farms’ nutrient management plans.

Decision voids mega farm permit rules (Detroit News).

The article says the state is still considering whether to appeal the ruling.

An interesting site to play around on: Factory Farm Map of the US

This is a rather unpleasant, but seemingly increasing incident: Neurological disorder Strikes Indiana Pork Workers: “[L]ike the 12 workers at the Quality Pork Processors (QPP) plant in Austin, those in Indiana were using a powerful air compression system to remove brains from pig heads at what is known in the industry as the head table. Blood and brain tissue gets sprayed into the air.”

Statehouse news: It appears that House Bill 1168 (HB 1168), Democrat David Cheatham’s bill was endorsed by the Indiana House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee:

The primary intent of the bill is to require the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to review and act on “good character” information that will be disclosed by the owners of Indiana’s 2200 CAFOs. The disclosed information must include specific details regarding the CAFO’s operational methods. In addition, CAFO owners would become financially responsible for any environmental problems that occur as a result of an operational mishap, or risk revocation of their IDEM permit.

Press release: here

More on this action in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Panel stiffens confined feed rules

“I think we could all get along much better with a bill like this,” said Barbara Sha Cox of Richmond. But Nicholas Ellis of Jefferson County pointed out that the bill does not contain a setback limiting where confined feeding operations can locate. “It’s the pink elephant in the room – location, location, location,” he said. The seven Democrats on the committee approved the bill while the five Republicans opposed it. Several GOP members had concerns about additional regulations on the industry possibly driving up food prices. “This bill is very troubling,” said Rep. Eric Gutwein, R-Rensselaer, who along with others wanted to wait until an agricultural regulatory task force established by Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman finalizes its recommendations. “We believe now is not the time to start adding additional pieces,” said Michael Platt, executive director of the Indiana Pork Producers Association. He noted that his members, too, care about air and water quality, especially because they and their families live and work on these operations.

The bill next goes to the full House for possible amendment.

Whenever the debate comes up about CAFO’s, members of the agricultural community point to their view that CAFO’s are the only way they can provide enough income in the future to keep their kids involved in farming. Tom Philpot over at Gristmill has a different take on this aspect of the issue in the current edition of Meat Wagon. The main focus is on the federal funding for CAFO’s: “[I]n 2006 alone, the program paid out $179 million to CAFO operators, mostly in Iowa, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.”

The second part of the piece focuses on the changes to Iowa’s farming communities as that state as becomes dotted with factory farming operations:

[R]etaining youth in Iowa might require more than tweaking the tax code or forming committees. It might require imposing — and enforcing — serious regulations on a destructive industry. As CAFOs have expanded in size and number, family farms have abandoned the countryside, leaving behind hollowed-out towns and often environmentally devastated landscapes.

Meat Wagon: Factory farms milk the government

Okay. Football sucks.

Allen Paul Talks about his legislative priorities, including his proposed CAFO moratorium.

Benton County “knee-deep” in CAFO’s: Lafayette Journal & Courier

The J & C has a companion piece up discussing the complicated administrative appeals of another CAFO in Benton County that began in 2004, and is still pending before the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication. This story talked about the decision to build when an appeal is ongoing.

Oh yeah, the EPA is proposing(PDF) to do away with administrative reporting of air emissions from animal operations. This has some folks upset: EPA proposal on livestock emissions causes stink (High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal). Ed Hopkins of the Sierra Club claims the agency released the proposal over the holidays to avoid attention: “There’s no evidence whatsoever that ammonia or hydrogen sulfide from confined animal feeding operations are any less dangerous than from any other facility.”

AJ Colley has a lengthy piece up in the Grant County Chronicle-Tribune offering up some reflection on where this Indiana is in the move to factory farming:

Some worry about the environmental effects of them; others are concerned with odors involved with manure. Supporters, though, say CAFO farms are the future and pose no threat to people who live around them.

According to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, one permit is for Jackson Dairy Farms for 820 dairy cows. The other two belong to swine farm operators Jason Sweet and Gary DeDecker, who are permitted to have 5,300 and 4,000 swine, respectively, according to IDEM.

Link.

The Pal-Item is reporting that Senator Allen Paul intends to introduce yet another bill addressing CAFO’s:

We discussed the issue last year, but this is one of the state’s biggest challenges . . . . It’s a highly emotional issue. Once the land is gone, it’s gone. If we had a moratorium for three years and really worked on this at the state and local level, we could address some of the legitimate issues.

Paul to launch CAFO bill

Paul’s proposal, coming a year after his last proposal got funneled into a study commission, calls for a 3 year moratorium starting this July. You can read it yourself, its Senate Bill 0061.