CAFO outcry comes from farmers
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, May 29, 2009
(http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/may/29/cafo-outcry-comes-from-farmers/)

You know all of those claims by proponents of agribusinesses about how “urban move-ins” are filing the lawsuits against concentrated animal feeding operations because they aren’t accustomed to smelling fresh country air?

It is all made up, a total fabrication, stemming from the fertile imaginations of public relations people in the employ of agribusinesses such as Smithfield/Premium Standard Farms, Tyson, Seaboard and MOARK/Land O’ Lakes.

The lawsuits are being filed — and won — by longtime rural residents, most of them farmers.

Demographics show the trend has been for folks to move from rural to urban areas, not the other way around. Although there are, no doubt, a few who buck the trend and move from, say, St. Louis County to Putnam County, these folks are the exception, not the rule.

In addition, because of their status as “newbies,” they don’t file lawsuits. And, as far as they’re concerned, the country air is supposed to smell like that.

Not so with those who have lived in the area for a long, long time and know the country air isn’t supposed to smell like thousands of hogs or millions of chickens.

Terry Spence has lived on his farm near Unionville for his entire life, about 55 years, and his farm was handed down from Terry’s father, who got it from his father — the farm has been in the family for three generations. But in the early ’90s, Premium Standard Farms — now owned by Smithfield — moved near him with facilities housing thousands of hogs. Terry is not a move-in; he was there long before the hog operation. Premium Standard Farms was the move-in, not Terry.

Rolf Christian is originally from Switzerland, but many years ago he bought a 1,300-acre farm in Sullivan County. Not long after his purchase, this farmer noticed Premium Standard Farms was building giant confined hog barns upwind from his farm. He once opened his windows to catch a summer nighttime breeze. But now he closes his windows because of the smell. Rolf now relies on an air conditioner to keep cool and rails against those who “stink me out.”

Rolf joined with other farmers, sued and won. The judge declared Premium Standard Farms to be a “continuing nuisance.”

Darvin Bentlage is a farmer in Barton County and active in promoting Angus cattle. He prefers farming his way, which doesn’t involve raising hogs that are owned by an agribusiness. Along with about 30 others, mostly farmers, he has sued to keep out a large CAFO. His township is involved in a separate lawsuit trying to maintain a vote in which more than 60 percent of mostly rural voters cast ballots to keep CAFOs out of the township.

Kathy Borgman, who owns and operates a bed-and-breakfast in Arrow Rock and has lived in that small town for many years, objected to a proposed hog farm a mile of so from town, saying that folks come to Arrow Rock to view historic structures, not smell hog manure. She joined others, sued and won.

Jim Reidel lives down in Barry County, not too far from Roaring River State Park. He has lived there a long, long time and took great exception to a massive chicken CAFO (65,500 pullets), not only for the odor but for fear that the Roaring River spring outlet would be contaminated. He, along with others, appealed the construction permit, which contains the restrictions. The hearing officer agreed with the appellants and issued a stay order, but the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Ozbuns, owners of the CAFO, ignored the stay, construction continued, and DNR issued an operating permit that allows the CAFO to function.

Gigi Wahba lives on Sandhill Farm near Memphis, Mo., in Scotland County. Recently, Cargill announced that it was planning 30 new hog CAFOs in northern Missouri. Gigi doesn’t think this is a good idea, as the scent might stink her out and CAFOs have a way of polluting water supplies and have a detrimental effect on human health. She has organized her neighbors, and they are pressuring the county commission to enact a protective health ordinance aimed at CAFOs.

By now, the point should be clear: It is farmers and longtime rural residents that oppose CAFOs, not urban move-ins.

As Lynn McKinley, a farmer and former pork producer, says, in reference to the CAFO next door, “That is no way to treat a hog.”

Or, as Terry Spence says, “Sure, I raise my calves to be killed and eaten, but I don’t torture them in the process.”

But that’s what agribusiness is all about. Confining thousands of hogs or millions of chickens in a small space, pumping them full of drugs and treating them as so many units of production. Intelligence and the ability to feel pain mean nothing in this system.

CAFOs are not farms. They’re factories, using the industrial model. Farmers are not factory workers. It is not farming that farmers object to, it is the industrial methods used to raise hogs and chickens and to produce eggs and the resulting harms to clean air, clean water, and human health.

Hog and chicken growing? Staying on the farm? The contract spells out everything. As an Iowa farmer said, “When you sign a contract with one of the big boys, they control your every move. You are no longer a farmer; you’re a janitor.”

But urban move-ins filing lawsuits? Doesn’t happen.