(quoted from post at 02:38:12 05/22/11) Thank you for any suggestions that you make on this concern. The farm right to the west of me has applied for a permit from the dept. of agriculture state of Illinois for a 10,000+ pig confinement. The owners are the local farmer, Professional Swine Management LLC and 5 out of state investors. The problem is the state is courting mega factory agriculture. The Illinois Epa is successfully by-passed by stating the hog waste will be on site contained. Once permitted the pig factory can increase by 50%.
Unless they need a zoning variance, or you can prove they're going to build in a flood plain or the owners have questionable environmental records in their other business ventures, you can't stop them. You may not have a say at all, depending on where you live and what rules are in place.
These factory farms ruin the environment
A couple have done stupid and illegal things, most don't. Same as with any business, there are people who think they can get away with anything, and those reflect badly on all of the rest.
You're going to have to prove that, too.
Smells like money to me. Some of the best fertilizer ever comes out of animal's backsides. [b:17faf066f2]Where do your emissions and waste go?[/b:17faf066f2] Hog odors beat the smell of a sewage treatment plant in my book every time. You won't be able to stop a livestock operation based on possible/potential/existing odors, and whether those odors enter your property or not.
I always ask everyone who doesn't want one of these mega-animal setups in their backyard where they were and how much support they gave to the smaller family farm setups when they were still around/going under left and right? The answer is always "well, mmmmm, not a whole lot." The fact is that most people could care less where their dinner comes from, so long as there is meat in the butcher case at the store. The "little guys" were taken for granted, and now, sadly, most are gone. Livestock has to be raised somewhere.
State of Indiana recently decided that people who have been spreading manure properly (many for 40+ years) needed to take a "Purdue test" (and some had to pay for the privledge) to "learn" how to spread manure.
County has a whole list above and beyond state regulations, including not being able to have a well within 100 feet of were an animal might take a dump. I'm pretty sure the hydrant has to be 100 ft. away. Do you want to pasture a few steers? Want to raise a dozen feeder pigs? Truck in the water, or buy stock in a garden hose company. Horses are "pets" and not "livestock", so the rule doesn't apply to them. Another strike against the little guy, with little or no scientific reasoning.
Farms with less than 600 hogs in Indiana face no state regulation. They can dump manure on the road or the ditch and there isn't much the state can do to them. You can have 1 million horses, (they don't crap at all, do they?) and face no regulation. Some politicians have small farms, and many have horses, therefore these regulations were obviously set up over those thresholds.
I dislike mega-livestock operations as much as the next guy. They are here to stay until the business changes. Odds are they'll get bigger and bigger. Someday, the system will explode, and take the mega-packers down with it.
I also had smoked pork sausage for lunch today. Very tasty.
AG
