CAFOs Affect Neighbor's Property

Study: CAFOs Affect Neighbor's Property, published in The Joplin Globe, May 25, 2008, describes a Barton County (MO) farmer's attempt to explain an unusually high number of twin calves with deformities in his Angus cattle herd. The rural Golden City farmer, Darvin Bentlage, says that his cattle are downstream from a hog CAFO lagoon (owned by Synergy LLC of Lamar). He wonders if waste water has made its way into a creek used by the herd with the excessive number of twins. He explained that "I know hog hormones affect cattle. We do embryo transplants. They use pig hormones to get cows to produce more eggs."
The article references the Pew Commission Report. Bob Martin, chairman of the Pew Commission is quoted as saying that the concern raised by Bentlage about his herd is justified.
The article also describes an effort on the part of Bentlage, and a neighbor, Zach McGuire, to identify the number of CAFOs in Barton County. They have counted 60-Class 2 and 11-Class 1 poultry and hog CAFOs in the eastern two-thirds of Barton County. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) webpage on CAFOs show only six. Bentlage discovered that the CAFOs are all placed next to a creek or stream. "Parking a lagoon right on a creek, well, that's just Russian roulette".

Pew Charitable Trust & Johns Hopkins: CAFOs are Health Risks:

Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production - Save This Link, this is an excellent resource.

Pew Commission Says Industrial Scale Farm Animal Production Poses “Unacceptable” Risks to Public Health, Environment (Washington, DC – April 29, 2008) "The current industrial farm animal production (IFAP) system often poses unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves, according to an extensive 2½-year examination conducted by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (PCIFAP), in a study released today. Commissioners have determined that the negative effects of the IFAP system are too great and the scientific evidence is too strong to ignore. Significant changes must be implemented and must start now. And while some areas of animal agriculture have recognized these threats and have taken action, it is clear that the industry has a long way to go."

USA Today's article, Health Risks Outweigh Farming Cost Cuts reports that "The way America produces meat, milk and eggs is unsustainable, creates significant risks to public health from antibiotic resistance and disease, damages the environment and unnecessarily harms animals, a report released Tuesday says. Representing two years of research by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, the report suggests ways to safeguard the safety and stability of U.S. meat, milk and egg production. A joint project of the non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, it focuses on problems caused by a nationwide move to large, industrial-style animal-feeding facilities." April 29, 2008

The Kansas City Star article, Report Calls ‘Factory’ Farms a Threat "Industrial farms where animals are kept tightly confined present a serious and growing threat to humans, animals and the environment, a private commission reported Tuesday. The facilities can be harmful not only to workers and neighbors but also to others because of pollution and the potential for the spread of disease, according to the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production report. “One of the most serious unintended consequences of industrial food animal production is the growing public health threat of these types of facilities,” the report said. “There is increasing urgency to chart a new course” in agriculture, which has been shifting over the last 50 years from family farms to large livestock meat producers. The report came out of a 2½-year project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit philanthropic organization, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health." April 29, 2008