Hey, what’s that smell?
Dec 7, 2007 farming
Having immersed myself in pigs over the last two months I’ve been following a sweep of news stories coming out of Southwestern Missouri regarding hog CAFOs.
Apparently the stench of these facilities is a problem in many Southern Missouri areas, and State Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin is filing a bill to toughen the regulations of new and existing CAFOs. “He said that if his pre-filed bill gets through the Agriculture Committee in the upcoming session — as he predicts it will — the measure will become ‘the CAFO bill.’ ”
“Rumors about a large hog farm coming to Dade County in southwest Missouri have prompted county commissioners to pass a health ordinance” to establish standards about how animal waste is handled as well as create “setbacks of from one-quarter mile to one mile” based upon the size of the operation and their location relative to homes and businesses.
In Barton County a lawsuit was trying to stop a just completed CAFO, Kenoma (“a farmer-owned company that contracts with Synergy, a pork-producing company with offices in Lamar and Sully, Iowa”), from swinging into production on the basis of it’s violating their laws based on animal density rather than locality.
However the Kenoma lawsuit ended this week when Judge Carl Gum filed in favor of Kenoma.
“Kenoma plans to house 2,400 hogs in three barns on 30 acres of land. The township’s zoning handbook prohibits concentrated livestock operations or feedlots where at least 800 hogs are raised on less than 160 acres. The regulations require that all sewage lagoons and concentrated animal feeding operations be at least a mile from any homes, and that they be screened from public view.”
“Gum also ruled that the township’s zoning handbooks are void and unenforceable because the board allegedly violated the Sunshine Law and couldn’t prove that it had met the requirements for notification of public meetings.”
Another town, Arrow Rock is apparently some sort of “Williamsburg of the Midwest” and the people their are concerned about a 2800 hog CAFO being built within a 1/4 mile of many historic sites in their town will hurt tourism as
“The 4,800 hogs will be confined in two buildings. The urine and feces will fall through slatted floors into concrete pits where it will be held for up to a year before it is spread on nearby farmland.
“The hogs will produce up to 2 million gallons of manure annually.”
Former Missouri Tourism Board director has hopped on board and spoken out:
“This state is big enough — 68,674 square miles — that factory farms with thousands of confined animals don’t need to set up next to state parks, and above trout streams,”
The Missouri DNR has responded to critics about Arrow Rock specifically.
And this article, about The National Trust for Historic Preservation angle, has a really interesting statistic:
“there were 388,000 hog farms in 1985, today there are just 73,000. Nearly half of the hog production in the United States occurs on just 110 factory farms.”
Animal rights and husbandry aside, there are local economic implications to this sort of Wal-Mart like desimation of farming as well.
Historic rural communities and Main Street businesses suffer because factory farms employ fewer people than small farms, and typically purchase feed and supplies from sources outside the community.
I leave you with what Kenoma owner, Francis Forst said:
“The reason we do this is because you can get a pork chop for $2.50 a pound. Out on the little dirt lot you can’t afford to do that. The feed is going to cost you the same, the labor is the same, but you won’t be able to make it.”
Perhaps we’re eating too much meat.
Tags: cafo, hogs, stinky-manure
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