Bill Berry: Good land use needed as big farms high on hog
Source: The Capital Times, by Bill Berry
July 24, 2007
STEVENS POINT -- In a stellar job of reporting, the Vernon County Broadcaster has uncovered some scary story lines about big hog farms.
As reporters Matt Johnson and Tim Hundt report, certain Wisconsin counties -- including Vernon -- are ripe for expansion of the kinds of hog confinements that drive people who live nearby to fits.
The hog industry is rolling in dough, so to speak, and it's looking for places to expand. Iowa has more than 1,000 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) of at least 2,500 hogs each in the northern part of the state. They came in the past couple of decades, and it's been a bruising controversy. These operations may be very efficient ways to raise hogs, but they tear big holes in the fabric of rural life when they end up in the wrong place.
Vernon County, nestled in the bucolic Coulee region of southwest Wisconsin, may be one such place. Faced with the prospect of at least one hog facility that meets the CAFO threshold and rumors flying about more on the way, county officials took action last week that could lead to a protracted court fight. Two committees of the Vernon County Board voted to recommend a moratorium on large-scale farm operations and move toward an ordinance limiting the number of animal units a farm can have. That action may crash headlong into a couple of state laws, including the right to farm law.
Big hog CAFOs make their counterparts in the dairy industry seem like perfume factories. There are major and growing issues surrounding storage and spreading of waste from CAFOs of all sorts, but hog CAFOs bring with them another whole set of issues and concerns. It starts with the fact that they smell to holy hell, even when operated with best intentions.
They've been associated with air pollution containing gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. An Iowa State University study in 2002 said these gases can lead to a wide range of health complaints ranging from nausea, headaches and diarrhea to life-threatening pulmonary edema.
Other researchers and the hog industry dispute this information, but what can't be argued is that in the wrong place -- among people who must put up with their overpowering odors and other issues -- hog CAFOs are bad neighbors. So are "mini-CAFOs," which skirt environmental laws by operating just under the 2,500-animal threshold.
For neighbors, it's not just the air that smells. A 1999 study by the University of Missouri found that the existence of a large-scale hog farming operation decreases property values of nearby farms by about $100 an acre. A 1997 study found that property values for residences located near large-scale hog farms dropped by 9 percent.
Evil though they seem to many, CAFOs are as American as, well, eggs and bacon. They are a fact of life given the way the animal industry and agriculture in general are heading and are necessary because Americans chomp on about three-quarters of a pound of meat a day. Something has to feed a nation full of carnivores.
Short of a societal sea change in attitudes about CAFOs, we'll have them. There are other options, including free-range animals. But while a growing number of people are willing to pay the higher costs associated with that system, it's still only a fraction of the market. The fact is, most Americans don't give much if any thought to where last night's pork roast came from, and at what cost. Even those who criticize agriculture and its ways are willing to feast on its bounty.
CAFOs are us, it seems. So then what?
First, agriculture is essential to Wisconsin and the world. It must have a place to operate. CAFOs are a big part of agriculture today, though not the only kind of farming by any means. We have to do everything we can to regulate them environmentally, but we're not going to eliminate them.
There's a growing understanding that some parts of the state should be agriculture first and foremost and have the elbow room to operate as it must today. Unfortunately, it's already too late in many cases, where rural areas are like far-flung subdivisions. If you live a mile from your neighbor and something he does on his farm bothers you, are you a country dweller or a subdivision resident?
Second, counties and towns that want to have a say about where these facilities will be allowed to locate have tools. Countywide and town planning is often the difference. Some Wisconsin counties -- Vernon among them -- have chosen to go the Wild West route and spurned zoning or countywide planning. They are now among the leading candidates for hog CAFOs. Watch them scramble now as some of the same people who rejected zoning as some sort of big-government plot now say, "Do something."
Hog CAFOs are extensions of our behavior as humans. So is wise land use planning. Given societal trends, it looks like we'll have to rely on the latter to deal with the former.
Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times.
