State Senator Beverly Gard Faces CAFO Fallout
Greenfield republican senator Beverly Gard, a long-time friend of big agriculture, faced off against her primary challenger Terry Michael - a deputy township assessor in Fishers - according to New Castle Courier Times reporter Matt Hrodey. The 2 tussled over many issues, including CAFO’s:
Speaking specifically to Henry County, Michael promised to call for an immediate moratorium on all confined feeding operations (CFOs) to wait for proper inspections and a decline in the “saturation” of the Indiana pork market. “The smaller farmers who have relied on this for their lives are losing money,” he said.
Decisions on land use, Gard argued, shouldn’t be handled by the state. “Those decisions should be local decisions,” she said. That would leave CFO moratoriums up to county government, a move the Henry County Commissioners considered in 2007 but opted against.
Link. Gard served as the chair of the senate Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee and presided over the death of 3 CAFO bills in the last session, including Allen Paul’s bill (Link to prior coverage).
