Judicial Ruling Stops Cafo Construction In Missouri

[wily]

article in today's joplin globe -- looks like at least one person has some balls. and according to the story -- the ruling should affect all counties in Missouri...including the chicken CAFO near Raring River.

hopefully, it will be retroactive and someone will force the DNR to honor the ruling.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/cnhi/joplinglob...eadpicturestory

[flyfishmaster]

I'm glad I'm not a farmer in Missouri, becasue this ruling is totally BS!

I was born in the country and have lived around hog operations most of my life. I worked on a small dairy CATO (that was located within the city limits of a small town). Plus I have been in many hog CATOs in Southwest Illinois. So I don't get the 15-Mile radius ruling.

With this ruling, a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) is not allowed within a 15-mile radius of a Missouri state park or Missouri historic site. So lets take a closer look at this, get out a map of Missouri, pin point all state parks and historical site, then take a compass that is setup to the 15 mile radius and start drawing your circles. After you are all done. How much land is left? Was this judge pulling the info out of her rear orphus?

But wait there is more, the decision to prohibit CAFOs from transporting or disposing waste from their operations within a 15-mile radius of a state park or historic site was also included. If the farmer has to change a route to transport the waste because of this 15 mile radius, guess what the price for meat, dairy and eggs will all go up.

I may be thinking out of the box here, but the judge has made a huge mistake and this will cause this industry to move out of the state of Missouri.

I can understand that a "bubble" should be created for these state sites, but not 15 miles.

Later,

FFM

[denjac]

These operations are already regulated to death. The DNR watches these and only issues permits if they are in compiance with lagoons and have to be so far away from any stream. What next 15 mile radious for RV parks.

[wily]

i hope all the CAFO's move out of state -- I'm for family farms not factory farms.

You can say that the judge made an outlandish decision but the DNR bends over backwards to help business -- i doubt it's in their original charter to provide an atmosphere that is conducive to business. to create jobs for missourians...that's all a politician has to say and all is forgiven.

you see it all over the place. the corporations get the tax relief...and the government promotes it as an opportunity to improve missouri. but in reality it's just a transfer from the individual to the corporations...with the politicians lining their pockets in the process.

i say that it's Hogwash -- the bottom line is we're trading our tax dollars or our clean air/water to an outsider with the hopes that this outsider will improve our plight...but at what cost is too great?

it's about time somebody made a stand and held DNR accountable for their actions.

[mosouthpaw]

blame your county officials and your fellow county voters. CAFOs could be blocked via countywide zoning.

[Snow Fly]

If you enter CAFO in the "SEARCH" box located on the first screen on this site you can look at all the old post when this subject came up in 2007. A very good topic with lots of good info on what was really taking place by some (one in particular) State Senators and what corporations were involved and some of the bills past to STOP local counties and cities from passing their own ordinance.

[Guest]

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[Al Agnew]

Yeah, if you think CAFOs are "regulated to death", you don't know the MO DNR. DNR has only a handful of inspectors to cover the whole state. You think they are keeping close tabs on CAFOs? Not to mention that under the current administration, DNR has been pretty quick to rubber stamp anything that is agribusiness friendly. CAFO sewage lagoons fail. And their contents, like water, flows downhill. Just because it isn't near a major stream doesn't mean the stuff doesn't get to the major stream.

[CMAC]

How do you propose we feed the nation and the world?

[Al Agnew]

The unpleasant truth is, that in this as in a lot of issues like this, we are "avoiding" the true costs of "feeding the world". We like to pay lower prices at the grocery store, but those lower prices don't reflect the true costs because growing our beef and pork and chicken and eggs in CAFOs is more economical, but costs a lot more in pollution. The people living in the areas around improperly regulated CAFOs pay THOSE costs all by themselves, in polluted water, ground water, stench, etc. If we avoided industrial scale CAFOs, they wouldn't have to pay those costs. If we were REALLY as strict as we should be about regulating them, we'd ALL pay the true costs because the price of groceries would be higher.

But feeding the world isn't the right question to ask. Very few countries eat the amount of beef and pork and other domesticated meats we do. It could easily be argued that if we ate less beef and pork and put more of our agricultural efforts into growing grains and vegetables to feed US and not to feed cattle and pigs, there would be plenty to go around to "help feed the world". I like eating meat as much as anybody, but I'm willing to eat less of it both for health reasons and for helping make those CAFOs a bit less necessary. (And by the way, my wife and I eat mostly beef and pork raised by her brother, raised to finish on his own farm, no growth hormones and antibiotics. I can't remember the last time we bought chops, steaks, roasts, or hamburger in a grocery store. I know non-CAFO raised meat is more expensive, but if you can afford it, it's a lot healthier and better tasting.)