July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Proposed CAFO bad for county
Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
A typical scene in rural America is usually depicted as a one of rolling cropland and family farms. But right now one of these scenes is being targeted as the future site of a factory farm. A 2.7 million-bird factory farm (J-Star Farms) is slated to be here in Jay County.
Whatever your ethical stand on this method of livestock production, it is important to recognize that factory farms can negatively affect rural historic areas in a number of ways.
•Even though the manure will be housed and then trucked out from the facility, an odor is envitable. Factory farms also emit organic dusts, molds, bacterial endotoxins and gases such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.
•It is estimated that CAFOs nationally generate 1.4 billion tons of animal waste each year, which is 130 times the national volume of human waste. This waste contains pathogen bacteria, including salmonella and E.coli; nitrogen and phosphorous; and millions of pounds of antibiotics. The more than 3.7 million egg-laying hens on factory CAFO’s in Jay County produce as much untreated manure as the sewage from the Columbus, Ohio, metro area.
•Even though the proposed factory farm is not located near a river, what will happen to the groundwater? Groundwater can be contaminated by CAFOs through leaks or breaks in storage or containment units, veterinary antibiotics, as well as elevating levels of nitrates.
•Flooding will be an issue connected with this CAFO. We already experience flooded fields after heavy rainstorms. Building this CAFO will increase the elevation of the surrounding land and force more water our way.
•CAFO’s are large in scale, housing millions of animals, and generally consist of metal buildings. Traditional farm structures and methods have no role in this type of operation. Areas with factory farms also often see an increase in truck traffic, which can have visual and auditory impacts. Approximately 15 loads of feed will be trucked in daily. Ind. 26 will bear the burden of those trucks. That will increase the cost of maintaining and repairing the road.
•This factory farm will not bring a huge influx of revenue to Jay County. The feed will most likely be purchased from Ohio as there is not a mill large enough to service such an operation here in Jay County. The investors in the CAFO do not reside in Jay County, their children/grandchildren do not attend school here, nor are they involved in our community. How are they going to be part of the community and contribute to it?
•Factory farms are poor job-creators for rural America. CAFOs tend to employ fewer people than similarly-sized conventional livestock production facilities. A contract facility making $1.3 million in annual sales generated 9.4 jobs on and off the farm, while an independent operation making the same amount generated 28 jobs. Typically in the area, factory farms of this type hire Amish and Mexicans because the labor is cheaper. We are already a low to middle income area. We don’t need to increase our cheap labor force. There is no corporate ladder in these types of businesses, no career advancement opportunities; a person either owns it or works there.
•Factory farms also negatively affect property values. Many people do not want to live downwind of one of these operations. Property values near CAFOs across the country have fallen a total of about $26 billion. How much will our property values drop? Right now there is no new home building occurring in Jay County. Will constructing CAFO’s in a residential area improve that?
This is not simply a farmer expanding. The sheer size and scale of this operation makes it a factory that belongs in the city, not in a quiet rural neighborhood. I am urging the citizens of Jay County to let the zoning board know that enough is enough. In 2007, we were already in the ‘red zone’ for extreme concentration of layers in Jay County. What color comes after red? We do not want factories like this in the country. No good will come of it — except for the investors who will profit from our problems.
Karen Schwieterman
Portland[[In-content Ad]]
A typical scene in rural America is usually depicted as a one of rolling cropland and family farms. But right now one of these scenes is being targeted as the future site of a factory farm. A 2.7 million-bird factory farm (J-Star Farms) is slated to be here in Jay County.
Whatever your ethical stand on this method of livestock production, it is important to recognize that factory farms can negatively affect rural historic areas in a number of ways.
•Even though the manure will be housed and then trucked out from the facility, an odor is envitable. Factory farms also emit organic dusts, molds, bacterial endotoxins and gases such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.
•It is estimated that CAFOs nationally generate 1.4 billion tons of animal waste each year, which is 130 times the national volume of human waste. This waste contains pathogen bacteria, including salmonella and E.coli; nitrogen and phosphorous; and millions of pounds of antibiotics. The more than 3.7 million egg-laying hens on factory CAFO’s in Jay County produce as much untreated manure as the sewage from the Columbus, Ohio, metro area.
•Even though the proposed factory farm is not located near a river, what will happen to the groundwater? Groundwater can be contaminated by CAFOs through leaks or breaks in storage or containment units, veterinary antibiotics, as well as elevating levels of nitrates.
•Flooding will be an issue connected with this CAFO. We already experience flooded fields after heavy rainstorms. Building this CAFO will increase the elevation of the surrounding land and force more water our way.
•CAFO’s are large in scale, housing millions of animals, and generally consist of metal buildings. Traditional farm structures and methods have no role in this type of operation. Areas with factory farms also often see an increase in truck traffic, which can have visual and auditory impacts. Approximately 15 loads of feed will be trucked in daily. Ind. 26 will bear the burden of those trucks. That will increase the cost of maintaining and repairing the road.
•This factory farm will not bring a huge influx of revenue to Jay County. The feed will most likely be purchased from Ohio as there is not a mill large enough to service such an operation here in Jay County. The investors in the CAFO do not reside in Jay County, their children/grandchildren do not attend school here, nor are they involved in our community. How are they going to be part of the community and contribute to it?
•Factory farms are poor job-creators for rural America. CAFOs tend to employ fewer people than similarly-sized conventional livestock production facilities. A contract facility making $1.3 million in annual sales generated 9.4 jobs on and off the farm, while an independent operation making the same amount generated 28 jobs. Typically in the area, factory farms of this type hire Amish and Mexicans because the labor is cheaper. We are already a low to middle income area. We don’t need to increase our cheap labor force. There is no corporate ladder in these types of businesses, no career advancement opportunities; a person either owns it or works there.
•Factory farms also negatively affect property values. Many people do not want to live downwind of one of these operations. Property values near CAFOs across the country have fallen a total of about $26 billion. How much will our property values drop? Right now there is no new home building occurring in Jay County. Will constructing CAFO’s in a residential area improve that?
This is not simply a farmer expanding. The sheer size and scale of this operation makes it a factory that belongs in the city, not in a quiet rural neighborhood. I am urging the citizens of Jay County to let the zoning board know that enough is enough. In 2007, we were already in the ‘red zone’ for extreme concentration of layers in Jay County. What color comes after red? We do not want factories like this in the country. No good will come of it — except for the investors who will profit from our problems.
Karen Schwieterman
Portland[[In-content Ad]]
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