Op ed by Andy Douglas in PC 8/15/2018
Driving through the corn-lush countryside one summer day, I pass a long building, vents protruding from the roof. The air stinks, so I quickly roll up my car windows. I can’t imagine living up the road from this place.
What I passed, of course, is a CAFO, or concentrated animal feeding operation, and though some might consider them a way for struggling farmers to survive, the big picture is more complicated.
I’d like to see local farmers thrive, but raising hogs for agribusiness slaughterhouses doesn’t seem like a sustainable approach. Lots of recent research demonstrates that where CAFOs are built, property values drop. Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, the raw waste of hogs, sits in concrete pools for months. Later, the manure will be spread on neighboring farms. Neighbors who breathe in the stink report health issues like asthma, nausea, diarrhea, tightness of the chest, and neurological effects.
Fly infestations can occur. And, since hogs are routinely fed antibiotics, there’s the possible spread of antibioticresistant bacteria, a public health threat.
Not to mention the basic treatment of the animals themselves.
I don’t have to tell you what shape Iowa lakes and rivers are in. Iowa has more than 10,000 factory farms annually producing 22 billion gallons of manure. Once this manure is spread on fields, there’s the possibility of it leaching or spilling into groundwater. More than 800 manure spills have been documented since 1996, leading to fish kills, algae blooms, and E. coli contamination.
“The commons” is that area of our community that belongs to and affects us all, whether physical space, ideas or relationships. Civilization is about balancing individual rights with serving the common good and stewardship for future generations.
CAFOs, it seems to me, do not serve the common good. Surely farmers can provide for their families, protect the air, water and land, and feed the public in ways that don’t damage the environment? The problem is that industrial agriculture has skewed these relationships.
Scholar John Ikerd writes that the ag establishment has mounted a multimillion- dollar public relations campaign to persuade the public to trust modern agriculture.
But “industrial agriculture is very different from traditional family farms,” he notes. “The corporations that control CAFOs through comprehensive contractual arrangements are driven by the economic bottom line, not by traditional farming values.”
Though tasked by the EPA to step up its clean water compliance, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources still has not inspected 5,000 new facilities, does not have enough resources to oversee this industry, and “has failed to issue a single Clean Water Act permit to a polluting hog factory farm,” according to Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.
Astoundingly, factory farms are able to claim a tax exemption for their manure pits as “pollution protection devices,” according to the Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture (IARA).
The growth of CAFOs is driven by expansion of large hog processing concerns, like Iowa Select. Iowa CCI identified at least 27 factory farm applications associated with Iowa Select in the past six months, representing more than 137,000 hogs. Such CAFOs are regularly built with just under the number of hogs (2,500) that would require more regulation.
Approval of CAFOs depends on calculations via something called a Master Matrix, a point system regulating distances from businesses, homes, churches and schools.
But as one county supervisor told me, Master Matrix standards are virtually meaningless. However, they do require a public hearing, which allows citizens one good chance to weigh in on factory farm construction. The county also has some ability to regulate land parcels under 40 acres, and the number of animals allowed thereon.
However, state law broadly prohibits counties from regulating agriculture, and if challenged in court, the county would likely lose.
Given all this, a movement is afoot, sponsored by CCI, the IARA, and others, for a statewide factory farm moratorium. To learn more, go to cleaniowanow .org.
Writers Group member Andy Douglas is author of “The Curve of the World: Into the Spiritual Heart of Yoga.”