Debate Raging Over Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

by Clare Leschin-Hoar, Posted Mar 31st 2011 @ 2:00PM

a CAFO pig facility Photo: Daniel Pepper / Getty Images

It's a particularly tense debate being played out in rural communities across the country, but most recently at a heated meeting in Knox County, Missouri, where residents voiced concerns over local concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) and whether or not the county's health ordinance is being properly enforced.

The conversation is especially timely. Here's a round-up of activity just this month: In Missouri, House Bill 209 and Senate Bill 187 would restrict compensation for damages caused by CAFOs. In Idaho, lawmakers are considering a move to shield data related to CAFOs from the public. In Iowa, lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it illegal for activists to film farm operations while undercover; while a Florida bill was introduced that would make photographing a farm a felony. (That bill has since been amended to target those who trespass on private land.)

Add to that, two weeks ago a federal court of appeals ruled that the EPA cannot require livestock farmers to apply for Clean Water Act permits unless manure from the farms are actually discharged into U.S. waters.

At the same time, concerns over drug resistant bacteria and its connection to antibiotic use in livestock is mounting. That's certainly a worry for Lynn Bradley who attended the Knox County meeting on Monday.

Bradley's neighbor put up a hog CAFO that could house up to 10,000 baby pigs or 4,500 adult hogs shortly after Bradley moved back to her childhood farm a few years ago. There are a total of 13 CAFOs in Knox County.

"If the wind comes from the west, the smell can be horrifying," she says. "I worry about the antibiotics used in the feed and how they're affecting people's health and antibiotic resistant bacteria. They're starting to make links," she told Slashfood.

According to the Herald-Whig, local farmers there say CAFOs are key to their ability to make a living, while state funding limitations have impacted regular unannounced inspections of CAFOs.

"With agriculture the backbone of our economy, I hope the commission doesn't enforce unnecessary laws so we can continue to make a livelihood off our CAFOs," said farmer John Good, quoted in the Herald-Whig story.

Monday's meeting over enforcement of the health ordinance may not result in immediate action, however.

"As commissioners, we'll take that information, but we have more research we need to do on the issues and legalities of it before we amend the health ordinance," Knox County Presiding Commissioner Evan Glasgow told Slashfood.

But, he says, it won't impact existing CAFOs.

Filed Under: Food Politics
Tags: CAFO, Drug resistant, farming, featured, livestock

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-01-2011 @9:15AM patrick said... There will certainly be many posters who defend the right of farmers to 'make a living' by operating these kinds of facilities.

But what happened to the concept of responsibility? As a country, isn't our definition of individual rights limited in cases when they hurt others? Reminds me of the saying, "My individual right to swing my fist ends at your nose."

We saw in the last few years what happen when business---any kind of large business---is given the right to 'police' itself. We saw banks and mortgage companies ruin our whole economy by blocking inspections by regulators; convincing local govenment they could 'police themselves'; and focusing only on how their actions affected their own bottom line---to hell with how they affected others.

And this only deal with financial matters.

Compare that to the importance of the health of our neighborhoods and our children.

I am not a farmer. I don't know anything about CAFO's. In fact, I never even heard of them until this article.

I am also not a PETA member. I enjoy a good BLT or grilled steak just like most of us.

But it is exactly my ignorance of these issues of health, animal hygience, spread of bacteria, cleanliness of ground water, etc., which makes me extremely happy that there ARE agencies which DO know about these crucial things. Agencies which inspect, monitor and enforce laws designed to protect all of us.

It may sound 'invasive' for 'big govenment' to 'snoop around' in the business of farmers.

Until one of our kids dies from infection of swine flu, bird flu, or some other malady which
the farmers and large Agra never 'intended' to happen, but which did happen when the monitoring, inspection and regulation stopped.

To the legislators in the farm states who are 'protecting' their farmer constituents with laws like those reported in the article:

In Missouri, House Bill 209 and Senate Bill 187 would restrict compensation for damages caused by CAFOs. In Idaho, lawmakers are considering a move to shield data related to CAFOs from the public. In Iowa, lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it illegal for activists to film farm operations while undercover; while a Florida bill was introduced that would make photographing a farm a felony.

Please step back and re-read your job description and the oath you swore as an elected representative---"To uphold the laws of this state and tl act to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens".

Patrick
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4-02-2011 @10:30PM SM said... Patrick, if you "enjoy a BLT or a grilled steak," you're part of the problem. 99% of all animal products produced in the United States comes from a CAFO ... so, very likely, animal products YOU use come from CAFOs. In total, more than 10 billion land animals are confined and killed in the US each year to satisfy the desire for dead flesh and secretions.

I'm vegan. I use no animal products at all. I'm healthier now in my 40s than I was in my 20s. And the food is seriously amazing.

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4-01-2011 @8:58PM Leslie Goldberg said... These CAFO's are an abomination from every angle -- the absolutely horrific torturing of animals, the environmental impact, the conditions for workers and what happens to the immediate area when they move in. If anyone thinks there is anything going on that remotely resembles "monitoring," they're living in a fool's paradise. Every time we eat a steak or a hard-boiled egg or cheese, we're saying to these people, "Great! Do it again." When do Americans, as individuals start taking some responsibility? It starts with the simplest: "What is on my plate? How did it get here? Was there suffering involved?
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4-05-2011 @9:38PM carole.hildebrandt said... If all farmers would switch to a bio-mimicry method of farming (ie the way Joel Salatin raises animals) we could get back all the carbon we've lost in as little as 10 years. We'd have no need for manure pools and sick animals. Imagine the healthy food we could eat.
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