Gards time has come and gone, and hopefully with a new Governor.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/08/28/purdue_launches_cafo_web_site/5781/

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Purdue launches CAFO Web site

Published: Aug. 28, 2007 at 4:16 PM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Aug. 28 (UPI) — Purdue University has launched a Web site featuring scientific information about concentrated animal feeding operations.

“We wanted to develop a source of information that is based on science, not sentiment,” said Alan Grant, head of the university’s department of animal sciences.

The Web site is designed to aid zoning boards, planning commissions, agricultural Extension educators, as well as citizens and farmers by covering environmental issues, public health concerns and general information.

“Let’s say a zoning board has to make a decision about allowing a producer to build a CAFO within 5 miles of an elementary school,” Paul Ebner, Purdue Extension expert said, noting much of the information given the board might be biased and based on strong emotions.

“Now, the zoning board can visit the CAFO Web site and read about the environmental and public health issues of animal agriculture that could potentially affect children attending the school and sort myth from fact,” he said.

The Web site is available at http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/CAFO.

CAFO AND SCHOOL STUDIES NOT FOUND ON PURDUE’S SITE:

Asthma Symptoms Among Adolescents Who Attend Public Schools That Are Located Near Confined Swine Feeding Operations
Maria C. Mirabelli, PhDa, Steve Wing, PhDa, Stephen W. Marshall, PhDa,b,c and Timothy C. Wilcosky, PhDa,d

PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 1 July 2006, pp. e66-e75 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-2812)
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/e66

RESULTS For students who reported allergies, the prevalence of wheezing within the past year was 5% higher at schools that were located within 3 miles of an operation relative to those beyond 3 miles and 24% higher at schools in which livestock odor was noticeable indoors twice per month or more relative to those with no odor. Our findings should be used by public health personnel who are interested in understanding possible adverse respiratory health consequences of an important rural environmental exposure.

School Proximity to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Prevalence of Asthma in Students*
Sigurdur T. Sigurdarson, MD, MPH and Joel N. Kline, MD, MSc, FCCP

Chest. 2006;129:1486-1491.)
© 2006 American College of Chest Physicians
http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/129/6/1486

Setting: Two rural Iowa elementary schools: the study school is located one-half mile from a CAFO, and the control school is distant from any large-scale agricultural operation.
Participants: Children, kindergarten through grade 5, who attended either the study school or the control school.
Results: Children in the study school had a significantly increased prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma (adjusted odds ratio, 5.71; p = 0.004).
Conclusions: This study supports a role for exposure to rural environmental toxicants in the etiology of asthma, and suggests a need for further study of this relationship.

I applauded Purdue’s table of contents on their CAFO web site. They have done well to identify most of the central issues concerning CAFOs, but there is no depth to the literature. There also is a real lack in the updating of content on the site, monitor it for yourself. It has hardly changed since its launch several months ago and there is the ever present and perpetual “Coming Soon” banner posted under all topics.

The end effect of this neglect of updating and lack of depth in know published literature, is to leave the readers of the site with the impression that there just isn’t much peer reviewed data out there. This is false.

One example is the issue that was used in promote the web site: Schools and school children and their health in proximity to CAFOs. This issue was cited in promoting the Purdue CAFO site to the public but then was never address in the content of the web site. This leads one to conclude that there must not be any published research on the topic or worse, it is not an issue. This again would be a false impression to give as there are studies that have been published recently in “Journal of American Chest Physicians” and also in the “Journal of Pediatrics”,…. to name a few. I’m proud to say that these are two well respected main stream scholarly journals that are fullfilling the publics’ expectation of full and accurate information on the topic.

Another example of a basic article on the topic of CAFO and Property Values:
The Appraisal Journal
July 2001, Volume LXIX Number 3
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Proximate Property Values
By John A. Kilpatrick
This is a scholarly industry trade journal used to educate Real Estate Appraisers across the country.