In Our Opinion...More CAFO Controls Needed

The Joplin Globe's, Tuesday, February 20, 2007, OpEd More CAFO Controls Needed, says it all. They are encouraged by opponents' deterrent strategy of obtaining private appraisals on adjoining property, then threatening lawsuits if their property values diminish, due to their proximity to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO's). Another strategy is requiring green zones around rivers and historic sites as a buffer. The Globe challenges lawmakers to give counties the necessary regulatory tools to protect the quality of life of their residents from unwelcome and potentially damaging animal feeding operations.

The future of rural communities can be bright, for those who have the wisdom and the courage to claim it.

Once rural people have reclaimed their right to a healthy and clean environment, they can begin the task of rebuilding an economic, social, and ecological foundation needed for sustainable community development. The future of rural America is in the land and the imagination, creativity, and work ethic of the people of rural communities, not in the cunning and conniving of outside corporate investors. Now is the time to start reinvesting in a new approach to agriculture and a new approach to rural community development, not a time to exploit both land and people for the sake of short run profits. The future of rural communities can be bright, for those who have the wisdom and the courage to claim it, by John Ikerd, The Questions Rural Communities Should Ask About CAFOs

Missouri Senate Bill 364

It looks like the next Environmental Battlefield will be the Missouri legislature.

Senate Bill 364 Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, state law and regulations adopted by state agencies shall preempt the entire field of and constitute a complete and integrated regulatory plan for agricultural operations in Missouri. This includes the preemption of any local laws promulgated under Sect 192.300, RSMo, that address agricultural operations and their appurtenances. A local law or ordinance is null and void to the extent that the ordinance attempts to regulate the licensing or operation of an agricultural operation or its appurtenances in any manner not identical to the laws of this state and regulations of the department of natural resources. THIS IS BAD FOR FARMERS. THIS IS BAD FOR MISSOURI. THIS IS BAD LEGISLATION

Blunt Hawks Koster's "MegaAgriBiz Protection Bill"; Farm Bureau Does the Bobblehead Routine This bill would essentially invalidate present county ordinances that affect industrial livestock operations as well as denying citizens the right to complain about "odor trespass" from commericial feedlot operations, according to a post on FiredUpMissouri.com. Check out the reader comments, too.

Missouri Senate Bill No. 364 (2007): Proposes to pre-empt local laws (county, health board, township, city) by state laws and regulations regarding agricultural operations. Prepared by the Missouri Agricultural Law Center.

Farmers Outraged by Blunt's State of the State The Moberly Monitor, Friday, January 26, 2007. The headline says it all. In Governor Blunt's State of the State speech, he urged the legislature to pass Senate Bill 364, deceivingly spun as the “Missouri Farm and Food Preservation Act”, which in reality would end local governments' authority to protect the health and well-being of their constituents

Athens State Park (Clark County, MO), Terry Daw Farms, CAFO's & Cargill

Who's Who:

CAFO Operator/Applicant:
Terry Daw Farms, RR#1 Box 40, Revere, (Clark County) MO. 63465
EPA Facility Registration System (FRS): MOR108586, MOG010673
Missouri Stormwater Permit dated 08/11/2006, expires 02/07/2007

CARGILL, operates hog slaughtering plants in Ottumwa, Iowa and Beardstown, IL. They are trying to develop 30 contract feeding operations in northern Missouri and western Illinois, according to Tim Steinkamp, business development manager for Cargill. The two processing plants each can kill and process 18,000 hogs a day, five days a week, according to Mark Klein, Cargill spokesman. Cargill operates a feed mill at Montgomery City (Montgomery County, MO) that will serve farmers who will build the buildings and operate the feeding operations.

Opponents:
The Battle of Athens II - Pigs vs. Parks This is a group of citizens in North East Missouri where Cargill and Terry Daw, are planning to build a 5,000 head hog factory 1.5 miles from Battle of Athens State Park. "It simply does not make sense that the people of Missouri have invested millions of dollars in creating and protecting our parks, and the same DNR that is charged with protecting them freely gives permits to large corporations to damage our parks. You have a voice that can help tip the scale in the direction of protecting our parks and our way of life. We can rise to the occasion and design our futures from the inside out, and not let the state government, unelected bureaucrats, and large companies design it for us from the outside in. We must join together to make our own BIG STINK." Betty Halberstadt

It's not hog heaven near giant farms, Newsday.com, Sylvia Carter describes a Cargill hog CAFO in Scotland Couty, MO.

CAFO splits neighbors, Danny Henley, Hannibal Courrier Post, describes the New London (Ralls County, Missouri) debate over "confined animal feeding operations", and how they are becomingly increasingly contentious across Missouri.

State of Missouri vs. Cargill, Inc. A Copy of the Audrain County Missouri $160,000 Consent Judgement for illegally dumping hog wastes into Loutre River, a tributary of the Missouri River.

Hog Wars: Part 4, The Environment(...and factory farms) This article is taken from the Missouri Rural Crisis Center publication "Hog Wars: The Corporate Grab for Control of the Hog Industry and How Citizens are Fighting Back". It addresses the waste, odor, gasses, air, water, soil, food safety concerns and animal welfare.

National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP)

The Joplin Independent, Monday, February 5, 2007, includes an article about the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP) and a public hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007, at the Inn at Carnall Hall on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus, regarding the public health, environmental, rural community, and animal health impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Inn at Carnall Hall
465 N. Arkansas Avenue
Fayetteville, AR 72701
University of Arkansas campus
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
1:00-7:00 p.m.

Public hearings are one component of the Commission’s 2-year examination of the food animal production model commonly known as intensive or confined animal feeding operations, where hundreds, and often times thousands, of animals are raised in one location. Many issues the NCIFAP is addressing include but are not limited to zoonotic diseases, such as avian influenza, Salmonella, and E. coli; manure and waste disposal systems; chicken litter; air and water pollution concerns; and the use of chicken feed supplemented with arsenic-based growth promoters.

Citizens to Protect State Parks and Historic Sites

Arrow Rock Citizens Launch Statewide Organization To Curb CAFOs, The Booneville Daily News, Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Pig plans spur push for rules , Columbia Daily Tribune, Sunday, January 28, 2007

Blunt: state, not local government should decide rules for farms, The Booneville Daily News, Monday, January 29, 2007

County health board hears about CAFO, The Marshall Democrat-News, Friday, February 2, 2007

Creating a 'halo' - Group wants 5-mile buffer from proposed CAFO, The Booneville Daily News, Monday, January 29, 2007

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO): Arrow Rock proposal/Part 1: The issues/Proposed Arrow Rock CAFO outlined, The Marshall Democrat-News, Wednesday, January 24, 2007

CAFO: Arrow Rock proposal/Part 2: The farmer/Hog farmer tells his side of story/'We try to keep (odor) under control the best we can,' man says, The Marshall Democrat-News, Thursday, January 25, 2007

CAFO: Arrow Rock proposal/Part 3: The debate/Arrow Rock residents want 'buffer zone'/DNR, which controls both state parks and pork permits, should have 'scrutiny,' they say, The Marshall Democrat-News, Friday, January 26, 2007

Who's Who:

CAFO applicant, Dennis & Chrissy Gessling (Arrow Rock, Saline County, MO), filed January 5, 2007

Citizens to Protect State Parks and Historic Sites:
Whitney Kerr
Kathy Borgman
David Finke

Saline County, MO:
Becky Plattner-Presiding Commissioner
Stephen Allegi-Health Department Board
Craig Sullivan-Health Inspector

Barry County, CAFO's and Ozbun Farms, Part 2

The Joplin Globe's front page story, River Runs Near It, Sunday, February 4, 2007, describes developments in the Barry County-Ozbun Farms CAFO application, along with other initiatives in the state to manage development of CAFO's near state parks and historic sites, called Citizens to Protect State Parks and Historic Sites.

The Ozbun Farm, owned by Michelle and Rodney Ozbun is seeking a permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to buildfour pulklet houses. The CAFO, the first of its kind in the Roaring River Watershed, would be 1.5 miles from the park. The CAFO would be operated under a contract with George's Farms, Inc. which operates a processing plant north of Cassville, MO.

Other proposed CAFO's now in the State include: (1) a 4800 head hog operation near Arrow Rock, MO, a state historic site on the Missouri River near Booneville, MO. and (2) a hog farm not far from the Athens State Park, on the Des Moines River, near the Missouri-Iowa State line. Citizen representatives from Arrow Rock and Athen's State Park have contacted the Roaring River group. They are wanting to raise awarenss of the potential environmental issues as well as develop and propose legislation that would create buffers around historic sites and parks to protect them.

The strategy of using County Health Ordinances is being talked about as a defensive/managemnt tool in regulating CAFO's where MDNR won't or can't. This description of the situation says it all, “Let’s face it: The MDNR is much more interested in protecting polluters than preventing pollution,” he said. “But this issue with the state parks and historic sites has really put the MDNR in a bind. It has to balance its protection of state parks against the economic aspect of tourists who come into this state and dump money. “Those tourists don’t visit the Arrow Rock historic site to smell hog manure.” With regard to the geology of the Eagle Rock site, Midkiff said: “I don’t think you should put a CAFO there. ... There are caves, springs and sinkholes all over that area. It is the definition of karst topography. Surface water in that area quickly becomes groundwater,” Ken Midkiff, spokesman for the Missouri Chapter of the Sierra Club.