Now that I have your attention, I trust you won’t be disappointed.
The heading could suggest soil/dirt/fertility/etc. BUT what I have in mind is what could be considered the down side of country/rural living. Huh? Again, the possibilities are myriad: isolation(cultural/technological), having to drive distances for services or to see friends; however, my topic here is CAFOs – Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations – aka “factory farms”. Yikes – there’s a heavy subject…
I moved to Sandhill in 1980 – I’d never heard of cafo and as far as I know, neither had anyone else in this county of 5000. Today cafos are a hot topic in many rural areas – due to the evolution of current American agriculture – others have written about it, notably Michael Pollen, Wendell Berry, etc.
Back to my story: I’d been aware of cafos for 10-15 years, but it became personal 7 months ago when we heard that our county commissioners had rescinded our local health ordinance – so what’s the big deal? We find out that a local health ordinance is the only way residents in Missouri can establish more restrictive regulations on cafos because the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) under a Republican administration is anything but what the name would indicate. So – why did the commissioners rescind the health ordinance? Apparently, the ordinance has been in place for 4 years because some of our neighbors convinced the commissioners we needed it. They rescinded it last September because they felt pressured by both pro and anti cafo proponents. In response, some of us become alarmed and spontaneously form a group to get a health ordinance reinstated. My partner, Gigi, is very active and becomes the focal person in a leaderless group, which has been holding public meetings to educate folks on the health, environmental, and social effects of cafos. We have also been meeting with the commissioners to reinstate a new ordinance.
Here is a message that I posted to our group recently:
This is Stan’s summary of recent events and is lengthy – keeping things short & sweet doesn’t appear to be one of my gifts….
Warning: this may be upsetting – you may want to fix yerself a cup of relaxing beverage, breathe deep, etc
What a tumultuous time we’ve had the last few days – where to begin?
After months of working on a proposed new health ordinance (mostly by Garth, Gigi, Marty, & Rudy), a series of public educational events, and meeting with the commissioners, we thought we were on track with getting the ordinance in place soon – in fact, the commissioners had already scheduled the first hearing; after another hearing and perhaps some minor revisions, the ordinance would be passed. Everything appeared to be going smoothly – we were definitely hopeful.
That all fell apart on Wed night. What happened?
For several days previous, we heard that some producers had concerns about the proposed ordinance and were having a private meeting with the commissioners. That sparked our curiosity and after some enquireies, it appeared that the meeting was called by Mennonite producers and that dairy producers were involved. Gigi talked to Paul Campbell, who assured us that since the commissioners were going to be there, it had to be an open meeting. Tuesday night Gigi calls one of the organizers to warn him that we planned to attend. He told her that we were definitely not invited or welcome there. When she pressed him, he grudgingly conceded that they would not throw us out. Whew! Do we really want to go where people don’t want us? We talk to Marty, Garth, Rudy, etc, and decide yes, we need to be there. At this point, “we” meant Garth, Joni, Rudy, Judy, Marty, Genese, Gigi, & me.
Wednesday morning: someone leaves a message on Dancing Rabbit’s (a neigboring ecovillage) answering machine that feels threatening: “you are not welcome at this meeting. It is being held on private land and is a private event. We know who you are and what you are up to. If you do come, it will be a matter of public knowledge…” Gigi & I assume that the message was meant for us – folks often lump sandhill & dancing rabbit people together and no one at DR is active in this group.
I am outraged and stew about it all day – I was born & raised Mennonite – this does not fit my idea of my heritage….
so what are they hiding and/or afraid of? what could we possibly do to them?
Later in the day, I mention the incident to Marty who mentions it to someone else….. then, Gigi gets a phone call from one of the organizers – saying that the phone call did not come from them (wonder who “them” is?) Then a phone call from Rick Fisher asking where is this meeting?? How did he know (we’d thought this was a private affair). Rick had been told that it was a dairy meeting and that he should check it out. Ok, if Rick is going to be there, it feels less threatening…. at the same time, this may be a bigger deal than we’d thought??
That last sentence was an understatement – it was a big deal. There were more than a hundred there: mostly Mennonite but there were quite a few others as well. Copies of the proposed ordinance were on the tables. The meeting began with a statement from Paul C about the proposed ordinance – general details only. Then followed a series of speakers from the industry: a local dairy producer, representatives from Cargil, nutrient management systems, etc. All of the presentations were anti-ordinance and anti regulation in general.
A major surprise for us: our group had assumed that the ordinance did not apply to the dairy operations; however, everyone there thought it did – gradually it sunk in for us: the way the ordinance was written, it could apply to them. Another realization: I had always separated the hog cafos from the dairies because, after all, cows go out to pasture, right? WRONG! Dairy producers there told me that the general practice is that only dry cows are out on pasture – and only for about 2 months of the year; other cows are in loafing sheds & lots – but not on pasture. Yikes! it appears that the dairies are much more like cafos than I’d thought.
Back to the meeting – how to describe it? There was an energy build up that was anti-ordinance. Not a single positive aspect of regulation was mentioned – rather, we should just all be good neighbors. The speakers used classic scare tactics: “it starts here, then they go after this… and this… etc.” The feeling I get is that anyone advocating this ordinance must be animal rights advocates and anti-livestock (even though all of us there have livestock). The energy peaks with presiding commissioner, Mike Stephenson, apologizing to the group for his role in instituting the first ordinance and that he is against any new one – wild applause! That energy keeps going – there are “testimonials” – local producers lauding modern technology and how it helps them feed the world. It keeps going & going. At various times, one of us raises a question or expresses an alternative viewpoint, but the tide was swamps us. Finally, Garth points out that there is a general spirit of fear pervading the group – raised by outside industry folks; again, the energy swirls around his words and is ignored in the anti-regulation wave – it borders on hysteria.
We are devastated – we keep looking at each other like: we’re dead. period. How could this happen?
After the meeting ends, some of us stay on for another hour or so talking to various folks. Personally, I feel hesitant to go talk to people I’ve known for years – maybe they do not want to be associated with me? On the other hand, several come to me, introduce themselves, and we have friendly conversations that usually ended on a note of: yes, we all want to be good neighbors. Gigi is like a celebrity: she is surrounded by a circle of mostly young men with very spirited conversations.
NOW WHAT??? that’s how we go home. Can we salvage anything? Gigi & I take turns keeping a spark of hope alive.
Gigi had already scheduled a meeting of our group with the commissioners for 9 am on Thursday – the next morning. I am surprised to find 3 of the Mennonite producers there as well (I guess that’s fair: we went to their meeting, they come to ours..). We talk for about an hour and a half – mostly between the cafo folks and us – not the commissioners. A lot of good honest opinions and views are exchanged. Commissioner Paul finally tells us that we need to select several folks from each side and come up with a document that we can all support – because the commissioners will only pass a document that everyone supports.
That is how we left it: Garth is responsible for getting representatives from our group.
Energetically: I felt very discouraged after Wed night’s meeting. I noted that I feel more hopeful after Thursday morning.
However, it also seems that there is a power imbalance: we want an ordinance, they do not. We have to come to an agreement to forge a new ordinance: it seems that we will have to concede whatever they feel strongly about – otherwise, no agreement which means no ordinance.
The reason I am writing this – rather than Gigi: she is a little burned out on this now and is outside in the sunshine being physically active.
Note: the day after this post (yesterday), I posted another message – an invitation to the first monthly potluck/social evening for our anti-cafo group – to reinforce our positive energy!
