news1999

HOG NEWS 1999

Return To Previous Page
.....................................................................................................................................................................................

December 21, 1999
Illinois

'Mega' Hog Farm Sued for Polluting Air With Foul Odors

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- A Knox County hog farm smells so bad that it is
harming neighbors and breaking the state's pollution laws, Attorney
General
Jim Ryan alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit accuses The Highlands LLC of creating odors strong enough to
make neighbors gag and develop sore throats and headaches, not to mention
experience ``revulsion'' at being exposed to offensive smells.

The Highlands is a factory-scale hog farm near Williamsfield, about 30
miles
northwest of Peoria. The farm houses 3,650 sows and thousands more
piglets.

The Highlands recently won an important state Supreme Court case
declaring
that so-called ``mega'' hog farms are still agriculture and thus exempt
from
local zoning laws.

Ryan's lawsuit, filed with the state Pollution Control Board, names The
Highlands' owners and Murphy Farms Inc., a North Carolina-based company
that
actually owns the hogs on the farm. Ryan also is going after Bion
Technologies Inc., the Colorado company that created the farm's system
for
disposing of animal waste.

He says the state Environmental Protection Agency has gotten about 230
odor
complaints since January 1998, shortly after the farm opened.

Ryan's lawsuit seeks up to $50,000 for the initial odor violation and
$10,000 for each additional day.

Messages left with a Highlands owner and attorney were not immediately
returned Tuesday.

Locals say it is bad enough hearing the agonising squeals of pigs they believe he kills with a hammer. They also claim that he once ran down a cow in the town's main street. But when he dumped dead animals near the town's water supply, the residents of Rosendal decided he'd gone too far.

Since February, the town has become a stinking mess. The water supply is so polluted that it has been declared unfit for humans. People are even adding bleach to it to try to make it safe to drink.

http://www.suntimes.co.za/1999/11/21/news/news12.htm

Localities nationwide propose hog factory restrictions

November 16 - Many residents across the country who've seen the mess and smelled the odors created by intensive hog operations are now raising a stink of their own. Despite the threat of legal retaliation, groups and individuals in several states are taking on the hog industry.

Industrial or Agricultural? The hog debate in Illinois
Knox County, Illinois is asking the State Supreme Court to declare that mega-hog farms are industries, and that counties therefore should be allowed to regulate them. Such a decision would overturn a lower court's ruling that hog-raising is agricultural, and that localities under state law have no authority to impose regulations. Knox County attorneys told the Supreme Court that the facilities are industries which generate huge amounts of livestock waste which affects air and water quality and property values.
The Supreme Court's eventual ruling in the case could have a huge impact on Illinois agriculture. A decision in favor of Knox County could close down the hog-factory in question and encourage other localities to begin imposing restrictions. The issue could also be sent back to lower courts. Stay tuned!

A Foreign Threat In Texas
In Texas, where traditionally cattle have been king, experts say pigs now outnumber beef cattle in much of the state. That number is expected to keep growing, as foreign pork producers from Spain and Japan bring millions of pigs, along with tons of gallons of their waste, into the Texas Panhandle.
While many localities are willing to close their noses and open their arms to the tax dollars the hog factories generate, neighboring farmers say the pigs are literally making them sick. A group called Active Citizens Concerned over Resource Development has filed several lawsuits against the Texas agency that licenses hog farms, claiming that loose regulations result in a stench that is driving farmers off their land. The group's members tell the Boston Globe that they "plan to keep suing until the pigs stop smelling."

Nightmare In Michigan
Environmental groups in Michigan say factory farms could bring about a pollution nightmare, and they're asking the Environmental Protection Agency to do something about it. The Michigan Sierra Club, the Michigan Land Use Institute and the Michigan Environmental Council have petitioned the EPA to revoke Michigan's authority to administer the Clean Water Act.
The groups claim Michigan Governor John Engler is opening the state's doors to the large factory farm corporations that are shopping for places to locate and pollute. And they criticize the state for trying to enact laws that would keep communities from stepping in to prevent factory farm pollution problems.
"If Michigan continues to protect corporate agri-business interests over
public health, the state is as good as inviting North Carolina's polluters to
Michigan," warned David Knight, state lobbyist for the North Carolina Sierra
Club. "After Hurricane Floyd, the governor of North Carolina has said that
flooded out facilities can't rebuild. They're going to go looking for a
place to land. Don't let it be Michigan."

Virginia Residents Speak Out
As pork producers consider moving their hog factories from flood-ravaged North Carolina, several Virginia localities are trying to make sure they do not become the next relocation targets.
In Campbell County in central Virginia, a recent hearing on proposed hog farm restrictions drew hundreds of residents. Hog farm opponents were outnumbered almost three to one by farmers who fear the livestock restrictions could eventually extend to beef and dairy farms and threaten their livelihood. One farmer, who's promising a lawsuit if the county enacts the restrictions, likened them to "trying to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer".
But hog farm opponents call it a case of apples and oranges, saying there's a much larger health risk associated with large-scale hog factories than with large-scale cattle operations.
Even the local newspaper agrees. An editorial in the November 7th Lynchburg News & Advance reads, "This issue is not about family farms. This issue is about individuals who turn their farms into intensive hog operations designed to accommodate the flourishing pork industry. And the proposed regulations, rather than being viewed as a threat to family farms, should be seen as protection for the county and its residents from a relatively new giant farming industry that cares far more about profits than it does about the land or the people surrounding its operations." The editorial adds that "the time to enact regulations that would strictly control intensive hog farms is before the factory operations come into the county seeking permits. Such regulations will put the factory hog interests on notice that they are not welcome in Campbell, that news of their degradation of rural areas in North Carolina and other parts of Virginia has preceded them and that the county wants none of it."

Just Say Regulate
What are the regulations in question? In Campbell County, they include a cap of 5000-hogs for hog factories, and a minimum land requirement of 100 acres for intensive livestock facilities.
It's a similar situation in Lunenburg County in southside Virginia, where a moratorium on new and expanding factory hog farms has been in place for the past two years while officials studied the issue. After taking comments from hundreds of residents at a series of public meetings, officials earlier this month revised the county's intensive livestock zoning ordinance to place more restrictions on hog farms: Hog farms must be at least three miles from towns, and at least 3000 feet from schools and parks, and hog waste must be disposed of at least 3000 feet from a water source.
But regulations like those in Lunenburg and Campbell Counties come with a big risk: already, supporters of the Right to Farm Act are threatening lawsuits over regulations they think are too strict.

Risking Lawsuits
In Halifax, Brunswick, and Charlotte counties in southside Virginia, some farmers have already taken legal action. In Halifax County, two local landowners have filed lawsuits totalling $10 million. One of them claims the county violated the Right to Farm act and deprived the farmer of his land and investment opportunities by not allowing him to accomodate more than 11,500 hogs on his property.

Halifax County officials are fighting back by asking that the complaints against the county be dismissed. They argue in part that the farmers' proposed hog farm facilities, and the way they intend to dispose of waste, do not comply with Virginia's environmental laws.

What's next?
Environmental groups believe the efforts to keep hog farms out will stand up in court. The Southern Environmental Law Center says counties may write stringent zoning ordinances concerning Confined Intensive Animal Feeding Operations without violating the Right to Farm Act. To do that, the SELC says the ordinances must have strict provisions, including a total cap on the number of swine at individual facilities; minimum acreage requirements that increase as the number of swine increase; and setback requirements that apply to all conceivable structures, waterways, neighborhoods, and wells.
Still, many groups anxiously await court rulings. Will the zoning regulations be enough to keep the hog factories out? Or will those regulations be overpowered in court by the Right to Farm Act? Stay tuned to "Hot Issues" on Greenwaveradio.com for the answers!

http://www.greenwaveradio.com/iss.shtml
...........................................................................................................................................................................................

November 16, 1999. Campbell County, Virginia. Proposed factory hog farm regulations. Threat at Public Hearing.

Campbell Co. bracing for livestock lawsuit

By Amy Frazier
The News & Advance
RUSTBURG — Threatened with a lawsuit, the Campbell County Board of Supervisors will not publicly discuss its stance on a proposed intensive livestock ordinance.
The Supervisors voted to take the issue to a closed meeting Monday.
During the Board of Supervisors’ meeting, County attorney David Shreve said open discussion would hurt the Board if a lawsuit were filed.
The county is establishing restrictions on where and how large-scale farms may operate. Currently, the state monitors intensive farms. But some Supervisors say that’s not enough protection.
The county ordinance would include minimum setbacks, or distances the farms may operate from homes, streams, churches and towns. It would set limits on how many animals a facility may hold.
Some citizens oppose large-scale hog farms, saying they are a source of pollution of water and air.
Others say state restrictions on farmers are tight enough, and the county would be unnecessarily step on farmers’ rights if they pass a strict ordinance.
The Supervisors are nearing their self-imposed deadline for enacting an ordinance.
This has meant fiery presentations from both sides of the issue.
But the discussion took a turn at a public hearing this month when Rustburg attorney Frank Wright Jr. said he would sue the board on behalf of Warren Teates and other local farmers if the proposed ordinance passed.
Wright suggested modifications to the ordinance, including reduced setbacks and limits on the number of animals.
He also suggested eliminating lagoon bonding. The proposed bonding would require farmers and the corporations they work with to take responsibility for the maintenance and clean up of manure ponds.
The Board was to discuss the comments made at the public hearing Monday, but instead made brief mention of the possible lawsuit.
“Litigation has been threatened on an ordinance you will vote on, on the sixth of December,” Shreve said. That clearly gives the Board the right to privately discuss the matter, he said.
Board members would not comment on the ordinance after the closed meeting, saying they must wait until Dec. 6.
In other business....

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

Nebraska, LINCOLN, Restrictions on import of Minnesota hogs are lifted: November 12, 1999

Nebraska officials lifted restrictions on hogs from Minnesota suspected of being infected with pseudorabies.
In March, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture announced it would enforce increased health requirements on all pigs entering the state from Minnesota following an outbreak of pseudorabies.

Humans do not get pseudorabies, and meat from animals with the disease is safe to eat. But it can kill hogs and other animals such as cattle, horses, dogs and cats.

In the first three months of the year, the number of hog herds in Minnesota under pseudorabies quarantine increased from 144 to more than 230.

http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/2/news/docs/032114.htm

............................................................................................................................................................................................

Companies Should Pay For Lagoon Switch, Official Says November 1999.
By DENNIS PATTERSON,
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH (AP) - Big hog companies, not taxpayers, should pay to switch animal waste lagoons to new technology, and they should do within the next five years, Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker said Wednesday.
But a spokesman for pork producers said the technology that would allow hog lagoons to be phased out is not even available yet.
"At the same time that our North Carolina hog farmers have suffered record low prices, the companies have raked in record profits," Wicker said at a news conference. "I believe that the companies, and not the farmers, should pay for the cost of converting to new technologies."
Wicker, a candidate for governor in next May's Democratic primary, said the costs of eliminating waste lagoons could run from $200 million to $600 million. Gov. Jim Hunt and others have proposed using state funds to help farmers eliminate the lagoons.

http://www.gazettevirginian.com/storyfour.html [link expired]

At the 4M farm, the manure is dry. Liquid waste from the 1,000 hogs drops into slats in the floor and falls into the first floor of the barn. There, bedding often in the form of wood chips or corn cobs absorbs much of the urine.

Fans blow air continuously through holes in the floors and dry the manure and urine even further. The waste waits in piles on the floor until it can be spread on fields.

Hogs are more complicated. That is why the bedding is used to absorb most of the urine while the fans dry the other waste.

"Hog manure is typically handled as a liquid. It has no value because 95 per cent of it is water," Tom Menke, one of four founders of the farm, said.

The barn has 3,200 holes through which air is forced to dry the manure. Air is pushed through pipes in the ceiling and circulates throughout the giant room, where hogs stand and lie in a series of pens.

One person works at the farm about an hour each day. Everything, including barn temperature, is controlled by computers. The hogs are given food and water through an automated system.

Three barns modeled after the 4M farm, which opened last year, have been built. Richard Murlin in Mercer County plans to build eight double-length high-rise barns for his new 8,000 hogs.

Visitors from around the country, including big hog states such as Iowa, visit the farm weekly.

Mr. Menke listed the benefits of the farm: Dry waste is easier to handle and spread on fields. Few people are needed to run the barn. Some of the waste is absorbed so less is left in the pit, meaning it doesn't need to be spread as often. It has less of an odor, and is less likely to spill into streams and creeks because it is in a solid form.

Even in the pit full of manure, the smell isn't overwhelming.

"If we were standing in a traditional liquid manure pit, we'd literally be falling over dead right now," said Greg LeFevre, who works with the 4M farm.

The barn is more likely to be accepted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which grants permits for large farms after hearing concerns about odor, flies, and spills from citizens.

"Six or seven years ago odor wasn't the problem it is today,'' Mr. Menke said.

But the high-rise barns are more expensive.

Mr. Murlin said each barn will cost 12 to 15 per cent more than the liquid manure barn he has now. A traditional barn would cost about $160,000, he said, meaning a high-rise would cost about $184,000.

"We'd like to think we're part of the solution. We're not doing things the way they've always been done," he said.

Phil Hawkey, a Mercer County planning commissioner who had spoken out against the Murlin farm, visited the 4M facility. The smell, a major concern for the Mercer County farm, was not strong.

"I was very favorably impressed," he said.

http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/news/9k21odor.htm

.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Ohio: November 1999.
Floyd Weyrick said he lost $15,000 in one year on hogs. "These big farms are killing us," he said. "I could lose it all because of megafarms. I have all these buildings, and I can't afford to put a hog in them."

The debate here over whether and how big farms should grow is tense and personal. That is because this, like no other place in Ohio, is livestock country. Darke County and its neighbor to the north, Mercer County, vie yearly to be the state's top livestock producers. Seventy - more than half - of the largest farms in Ohio are in these two counties on the Ohio-Indiana line.

Richard Murlin, a Mercer County farmer, recently received approval to have 9,320 hogs, up from approximately 1,000 hogs he raises now.

http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/news/9k21drak.htm

The state health department cannot do anything unless cases of illness being transmitted by the flies to people are documented, Mr. Heiselman said.

Large-scale farms have grown faster than the laws that oversee them. The EPA regulates the operations in terms of protecting state waters, but supporters and critics say most parts of big agriculture aren't governed at all. And with several state and local agencies playing a small role in ruling the farms, critics claim no one is ultimately in charge of watching the hen and hog houses.

http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/news/9k23farm.htm

SUE JARRETT, Rancher: On the days where the wind is right it comes down this valley right through here, and I can walk out my back door to come over to feed my animals, and I will have a headache, and I will feel sick to my stomach.

TOM BEARDEN: But the Jarretts worry that application of fertilizer isn't always done responsibly. Last year, they filed a complaint with the Colorado Health Department, who found D&D farms had, in fact, put too much manure on surrounding crops.

This summer environmental groups and family farmers teamed up to collect 100,000 signatures for Amendment 14, a ballot measure that would further regulate the hog industry. Amendment 14 requires big operators to get a state permit, limit odors, perform pollution tests, and post a bond in case any pollution is found.

So pork producers struck back against the proposed amendment. They gathered enough signatures to get on the ballot, themselves. Their proposition, called Amendment 13, would force the state to apply any new regulations to all livestock. If passed, Amendment 13 would make enforcement of Amendment 14 illegal. Gregg Gilsdorf of National Hog Farms supports the idea.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/july-dec98/pig_11-2.html

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

Alabama, By JOHN PECK Times State Capital Correspondent 11/23/99

MONTGOMERY - Major hog operations in Jackson County face closer scrutiny under a bill passed here Monday by the Alabama Legislature.

The Alabama Senate gave final approval to legislation that would allow the Jackson County Commission to determine whether the noise, stench, runoff or other consequence of any mass-production hog farm merits asking a court to shut it down.

Gov. Don Siegelman is expected to sign the bill into law.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/Nov1999/23-e6295.html

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

North Carolina. Environmentalists are charging that plans to allow farmers to get rid of flooded hog wastes by essentially spreading the toxic overflow more widely will threaten the state's drinking water supplies. The state's Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is trying to referee the slugfest between the two sides.

http://www.salonmagazine.com/news/feature/1999/10/26/floyd/index.html

.............................................................................................................................................................................................

North Carolina: Hurricane Floyd Photos: October 3, 1999,
floodwaters loaded with pollution make their way past Johnson Point on the south shore of the Neuse River below New Bern. The normally clear water can be observed along the shoreline in contrast to the polluted brown muck.

http://www.neuseriver.com/floyd.html

Sludge: November 1999:
There is no Europe-wide ban on the use of treated human sewage as fertiliser, and Sweden is believed to be the first country to have banned its use earlier this month in a response to growing public concern.

http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/11/02/stories/03020009.htm

............................................................................................................................................................................................
Oklahoma, Ruckus raised over massive hog farms as residents cite odor, health problems.
November 1999.
STEVEN H. LEE
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

GUYMON, Okla. -- Delmer Elliott used to make propane deliveries to the giant hog farms that dot the plains of the Oklahoma Panhandle. He doesn't anymore after the companies had him removed from his route.
"I'd see dead hog bodies lying all over the place," Elliott says. "Sometimes, there'd be 15 to 20 of them in the wintertime. And I took pictures of them," he says with a chuckle, explaining why his welcome was revoked.....

http://www.ardemgaz.com/today/biz/D1bswine8.html

.............................................................................................................................................................................................

The following excerpt is from The Progressive, Hog-Tied, by Christopher D. Cook, September 1999, page 31.

North Carolina, PORK COUNCIL ROOTS OUT RESEARCHERS

Living next door to thousands of hogs may be bad for your health. But the pork industry would rather you didn’t know this. And it’s using some unusual tactics to intimidate its critics.

Steve Wing, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, headed a study released this May that found daily whiffs of hog factory waster appear to cause sinus problems, excessive coughing, headaches, nausea, and diarrhea. Now North Carolina’s booming $1.8 billion pork industry is pressuring Wing and his assistant Susanne Wolf to identify the community-and, by association, the people-that participated in the research. The North Carolina Pork Council has hired a powerhouse law firm, Hunton & Williams, to secure the researchers’ records-including documents that could be used to identify study participants who were guaranteed confidentiality.

"We released our study at 10 a.m. and by 5 p.m. we had letter from the industry’s attorney," says Wing. In the letter, attorney Charles Case also raised the possibility of a defamation lawsuit-a threat that brought the hog industry some bad press and, Case says, has been dropped.

Case, who also works as a lobbyist for the American Plastics Council, says the industry wants "to see if the results are reproducible" and "does not wish to receive any information that discloses…the identity of the people they interviewed." But Wing says the hog industry’s reaction is "unprecedented." He says he has been informed he could be arrested if he fails to turn over correspondence, community maps, and other data that would reveal the community he studied-information "not restricted to things that would be considered necessary in academia to replicate the study." Wing has turned over most of the documents, but has so far resisted the industry’s "harassing" demands for detailed community maps and demographic data that would reveal the town he studied.

Apart from his interest in protecting academic freedom, Wing says he is worried because of the hog industry’s history of threatening people. "I have spent many years building trust and relationships with people in eastern North Carolina," he says. "I’m obligated to protect them from having their identity revealed to an organization that has a history of intimidating people. If they want to know personal information about these communities, forget it."

His worries may be warranted. In June 1998, attorneys for a North Carolina hog farmer threatened to sue Elsie Herring, a black woman in her nineties who had complained to state water quality officials about the farmer’s alleged overspraying of hog manure near her home in the town of Wallace. In a letter to Herring, one attorney promised to sue her for compensatory and punitive damages-and impose a restraining order-if she continued filing "false and groundless" complaints. "If you violate any such restraining order," the lawyer warned, "we will ask the court to put you in prison for contempt."

Christopher D. Cook is an award winning investigative journalist, and can be reached at cdcook@igc.org

......................................................................................................................................................................................

Montana, Neighbors Want Factory Hog Farm Shut Down
03/13/1999 -- NPRC today announced ...

Because of ongoing flagrant violations of public health laws, neigbors of Montana's first corporate, industrial hog factory are calling on the Governor to shut it down. They say Governor Racicot's Vision 2005 plan for dramatically increasing production at industrial hog factories is fast becoming a nightmare.

They also are calling on the Governor to abandon his efforts to repeal public health and environmental protections to entice multinational agribusinesses to site such hog factories in the state.

Members of the BigHorn Resource Council (BRC), a local citizens group, have sent a letter to the Governor urging him to shutdown the Agri-Systems' hog factory. In the letter, BRC charges that Agri-Systems has never been in compliance with its permit since it was granted in May of 1998. BRC bases this charge on two videos that members of the group took of the operation, and the findings of follow-up state and EPA inspections triggered by the videos. The alleged violations include:

• Two documented cases of Agri-Systems' tanker trucks illegally dumping hog waste into state waters. One BRC video, submitted to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in February, showed where trucks have been dumping into an irrigation ditch. A follow-up joint DEQ/EPA inspection documented—and Agri-Systems' Manager admitted—that Agri-Systems had ordered its truckers to hook up plastic tubing to their tankers, and dump hog waste directly into a pipe that feeds into an irrigation system. This irrigation system drains through at least four culverts directly into the Little Bighorn River.

• Another video—submitted to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in December of 1998—showed an Agri-Systems' tanker truck remaining stationary as it dumped hog waste on farmland. Agri-Systems was violating its permit by not evenly distributing the waste at an acceptable "agronomic rate", i.e., at a rate that would allow spring crops to use up the nutrients in the hog effluent before it would run off and pollute surface water, or seep down and pollute ground water. In response to this video, DEQ told BRC in January that it would initiate an enforcement action against Agri-Systems. However, two months later, DEQ has still not taken any action.

• The March 2nd DEQ/EPA inspection documented that Agri-Systems has continued to dump hog waste at elevated rates in excess of the agronomic rate allowed in its permit. During the inspection, Agri-Systems' site manager admitted that Agri-Systems has no established method for calculating agronomic rates for dumping hog wastes, despite this being a condition of the permit. So by its own admission, Agri-Systems apparently has been violating its permit since its authorization letter was issued on May 20, 1998.

• Finally, the March 2nd inspection documented—and Agri-Systems' manager again admitted—that Agri-Systems had continued dumping in excess of an acceptable agronomic rate, despite being told by DEQ to stop dumping in such a manner after BRC had submitted the first video.

"BRC believes that Agri-Systems' flagrant, ongoing violations warrant swift, decisive action from DEQ," said BRC President Bruce Hammond in the group's letter to the Governor. "We also ask that DEQ further investigate whether any of the above violations warrant criminal penalties." The letter said that Agri-Systems should remain shutdown until Agri-Systems can demonstrate full compliance with its permit, and an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the permit is completed.

"BRC appeals to you, Governor, because DEQ has refused to respond to our repeated requests for an EIS under the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) for the Agri-Systems permit," Hammond continued. " This hog factory has already caused significant adverse impacts to the environment. It continues to pose additional threats into the future. These violations may have been avoided if DEQ had required an EIS under MEPA."

Hammond said that an EIS would have provided a public review of the proposed method for ensuring land application of hog effluent at an acceptable agronomic rate, and that, "We need not have had waited ten months to discover that the company has no method of calculating agronomic rate."

"Your administration seeks to invite industrial scale hog factories into Montana, yet at the same time you advocate repealing public health and environmental protections that could provide Montana citizens with minimal protections against the substantial threats to public health and the environment posed by these operations. Our experience with Agri-Systems completely contradicts your claim in Vision 2005 that confined industrial hog factories 'can be environmentally friendly'." The letter appealed to Racicot to shift his position and oppose two bills pending in the legislature—HB142 and SB413—that would "eviscerate" the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA).

"Given the clear failure of your administration to keep Agri-Systems—a comparatively small hog factory—in compliance with state laws," the letter continued, "BRC requests that you reconsider your proposal in your Vision 2005 document of recruiting and subsidizing corporate hog factories to Montana.

"BRC members fail to see the wisdom in squandering tax dollars on corporate welfare for predatory multinational agribusinesses. All this approach does is accelerate the vertical integration and monopolization of the hog industry through exploiting captive supply contracts. This system encourages predatory pricing that drives smaller family-owned and operated hog farms out of business, and turns them into serfs on their own land. We also fail to understand why you would advocate flooding the meat market with more corporate hog production. This will simply take market shares away from family-owned cattle ranchers, who represent one of the most important segments of Montana's economy," the letter concluded.

Contacts: Bruce Hammond, President

Matthew Redden, BRC member

NPRC has a long history as a successful organization.

For Further Information Contact:
[Northern Plains Resource Coucil]
[2401 Montana Ave., #200 * Billings, MT * 59101]
Tel: [406-248-1154]
FAX: [406-248-2110]
e-mail: [info@nprcmt.org]
URL: [http://www.nprcmt.org]

http://www.nprcmt.org/media/19990313pr.htm
...............................................................................................................................................................

Maryland, Hog farmers get treated differently October 31, 1999.
By Julia Robb
Fredrick News-Post Staff

Not all hog operators get the same attention.

Robert and Dennis Willard are raising hogs on Stottlemyer Road and their farm is relatively unknown, although they have unhappy neighbors.

Last year, four complained that the smell from the Willard's hogs has badly affected their lives, and even their health.

Her teenage son can't even bring his friends home, due to the smell, one neighbor complained.

But the Willards have escaped attention from the state because they have less than 2,500 pigs.

Only when a hog operator exceeds 2,500 animals does the state force that operator to have a wastewater discharge permit, according to MDE employee Mike Eisner.

If problems developed on the Willard's property, such as hog waste leaking into state waters, the state might force the Willards to get a discharge permit, he said.

Frederick County has no say about the Willards because it doesn't even require permits for farmers beginning a hog operation, said Michael Chomel, assistant county attorney.

A zoning certificate is needed before an agricultural building can be built on an agricultural parcel larger than 25 acres, he said.

That certificate only verifies the building will be used for an agricultural purpose and the building complies with zoning setbacks.

In contrast, Karen Kuhn and Bonnie Dancy have been relentless in their campaign to force Rodney Harbaugh to stop hog farming, bringing Mr. Harbaugh numerous problems.

The women filed a nuisance suit against Mr. Harbaugh last summer, charging his hogs have diminished the enjoyment of their property. They also claimed large numbers of swine pose a health risk.

Mrs. Kuhn, Ms. Dancy and their supporters also complained to the state Department of the Environment about Mr. Harbaugh's hogs.

"They didn't even know about the hog operation until we complained," said Mrs. Kuhn.

As a result, the state is forcing Mr. Harbaugh to apply for an individual wastewater discharge permit, which forces him to meet requirements.

Among other things, Mr. Harbaugh has had to produce an odor control plan. Mr. Harbaugh won't know for sure if he has the permit until after Nov. 15, when the state announces its decision.

The women also helped organize a forum on the dangers of large hog operations at Mount St. Mary's College, and have met with state delegates about the smell coming from Mr. Harbaugh's pigs.

Due to the women's efforts, Mr. Harbaugh has been the focus of much media attention, including a recent story on Maryland Public Television.

The women say they have no intention of halting their fight against Mr. Harbaugh's hogs.

"If I want to breathe, I have to continue to fight," said Mrs. Kuhn. Moving is out of the question, she added, "This is my home."

Got a comment?
Let us hear about it.

Today's front page news...

· Cybersex case winds up here · Hog farmers get treated differently · Charges filed against farmer · Special shop sells good point · Partnership with private sector could revitalize public housing · Writer collects ghost stories ·

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/display.cfm?storyid=3352

...........................................................................................................................................................................

Maryland, Charges filed against farmer October 31, 1999
By Julia Robb
Fredrick News-Post Staff

A property dispute between hog farmer Rodney Harbaugh and two neighbors has resulted in charges being levied against Mr. Harbaugh in county District Court.

Mr. Harbaugh has been charged with two counts of trespassing on private property and two counts of destruction of property valued at more than $300, according to court records. A trial has been set for Dec. 15.

Mr. Harbaugh, a resident of Old Frederick Road, has quarreled with neighbors Richard and Karen Kuhn and Bonnie Dancy over the smell from Mr. Harbaugh's barns and over a neighborhood access road. Sections of the road are owned by several families, and five families use the common right of way.

Mr. Harbaugh needs the right of way for tractor-trailers that take his hogs to and from barns and for tank trucks that supply him with hog feed. The access road is located 43 feet from Mrs. Kuhn's home and she believes the trucks are trespassing 16 feet onto her land.

On Oct. 21, Mrs. Kuhn had a Jersey wall, made of large sectional concrete blocks, built on her land to prevent the trucks from using her property.

The tractor-trailers and tank trucks can't get to Mr. Harbaugh's hog barns without trespassing on her property because the road is too narrow, she said.

Mrs. Kuhn asked that Mr. Harbaugh be charged after he and a friend, on Oct. 22, tore down the Jersey wall with a skid loader.

Mr. Harbaugh said Friday he did move the wall with the skid loader, but "We didn't destroy anything, all we did was pick it up and move it. It's a portable wall."

Mrs. Kuhn placed the wall on the blacktop, he said, and the blacktop is "a right of way and we've been using it since I can remember."

His trucks are not leaving the blacktop, and "where the property line is has nothing to do with the right of way," he said. "The right of way crosses all kinds of property lines.

"I'm not the only one who uses that right of way and two others who use it asked me to move the wall."

"I guess we're trying to defend ourselves. I don't think I done anything wrong. My lawyer says I was right in moving it," he said.

Yes, she placed the wall on part of the blacktop, said Mrs. Kuhn. But she said the blacktop has been widened and extends beyond the 25-foot legal right of way, at the entrance, and that portion is on her land.

"I actually gave him several inches by not putting it at the 25-foot mark," she said.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/display.cfm?storyid=3352
..........................................................................................................................................................................................

KENANSVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
October 17, 1999
New York Times

.....For years, farmers had been free to build hog and poultry operations as big as they wanted and wherever they liked. They were allowed to dig huge pits for animal waste, without regard to the water table or the health and sensibilities of neighbors. .........

.....frequent complaints. Becky and Danny Lancaster, who operate a rural welding supply business, live within a mile of three farms they call offensive. Mrs. Lancaster, the mother of two teen-agers, said: "You don't plan birthday parties outside. You no longer plan things. You plan around the odors and flies."

She keeps a log of odors that waft her way. In September, she made entries on six days. "Nasty, musty, stifling odor in the air," she wrote on Sept. 9, a humid and rainy day. "Difficult to breathe. Feel like suffocating. Like an old outhouse." On Sept. 23, she wrote, "Smell of urine strong in air."

She produced another log she used to keep of the flies she swatted in the office. On May 22, 1996, she said, "I killed 1,192. The next day I killed 1,100. The next day it was 1,140." Flies appear in January, too.

Hurricane Reveals Flaws in Farm Law

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/101799floyd-environment.html
.........................................................................................................................................................................................

Virginia, Lunenburg Co. Stiffer hog farm regulations adopted, Friday, October 15, 1999

BY JAMIE C. RUFF
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

VICTORIA -- After two years of debate, the Lunenburg County Board of Supervisors yesterday adopted more stringent regulations of hog farms.

The revised regulations require hog farms to be at least 3,000 feet from mobile home parks, public schools and recreation areas and three miles from towns and that hog waste be spread or disposed of at least 3,000 feet from a water source.

The supervisors had maintained a moratorium on the establishment of large hog farms while they were reviewing current regulations. Last night, the board voted 6-1 for the new rules after meeting with the county's Planning Commission at Lunenburg Middle School in Victoria. Minutes before the supervisors' vote, the commission had recommended approving the changes.

Earlier this year, representatives of Lunenburg's two towns, Kenbridge and Victoria, had asked the supervisors to make sure that no hog farm is established within five miles of them.

About 140 people attended last night's meeting, many of them urging the board to approve the new regulations.

Don Webb, a North Carolina man who said he has seen the hog farming industry pollute his home state, urged Lunenburg officials to protect their county.

"You have a beautiful place," he said "Don't let them stink it up. It happened to my state. Don't let it happen to your state."

Another speaker, Nick Davis, said his family moved to Lunenburg a year and a half ago to live in a quiet, clean place.

"I've been to North Carolina where they have hog farms, and Lord have mercy, it burns the hair out of your nose five miles out," he said. "I don't want that every day."

But Everett Gee, an Atlanta lawyer with an organization called People for Concerned Farmers, warned the supervisors that if they adopt regulations that are too stringent, they could face legal action: "I've been hired and we're going to sue."

In July, there was a similar scene when about 150 residents met in the same cafeteria to voice their opinions on changing the county's intensive-livestock zoning ordinance and on the prospect of large hog farms locating in the area. Supervisors had called the meeting to get some guidance from the public.

During that meeting, the Organization for Concerned Citizens of Lunenburg County, which has led local opposition, suggested regulations, including the following:

that hog farms be at least five miles from existing homes, churches, schools, rivers, towns and county-owned buildings;

that lagoons or storage facilities be enclosed;

that dead hogs be disposed of in a way approved by the county's Health Department;

and that anyone who wants to establish a hog farm be required to use certified mail to notify all property owners within two miles of the farm, and provide a contact person with a mailing address and phone number.
Hog farming has become an issue across Southside as various counties review their regulations. Opponents have maintained the hog farming operations are trying to migrate into Virginia from North Carolina, and have consistently raise concerns about air and water pollution and the smell as reasons for resisting what they have taken to calling "hog factories."

Farmers, on the other hand, insist large-scale production is the only way they can make money and retain their family farms. Farmers have filed lawsuits in Halifax, Brunswick and Charlotte counties.

http://gatewayva.com:8100/rtd/dailynews/virginiaarch/lune15.shtml

........................................................................................................................................................................................
North Carolina, July 8, 1999
Farmers Accused of Torturing Pigs
Undercover Video Leads to North Carolina Indictments

By Valerie Kalfrin

Worker attacks pig with pipe wrench.

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (APBnews.com) -- After viewing graphic videotapes by an undercover investigator, a grand jury has issued the state's first felony animal cruelty indictments against three hog farmers who allegedly tortured the pigs they raised for slaughter, authorities said today.

Raymond Sanchez, Kelly Brown and Russell Crawford face up to 15 months in jail if convicted, authorities said. A misdemeanor charge carries a penalty of only 120 days in jail.

"It's still a misdemeanor if it's negligence," Assistant District Attorney Mike Johnson told APBnews.com.

Cases of more egregious cruelty -- including, in this instance, the skinning and dismembering of a live sow -- are eligible for the more serious charge, he said.

Not 'normal course of business'

Scene from the undercover videotape
RealVideo: 28.8 56k T1

An employee of Williams Farms of North Carolina Inc. started an investigation by contacting the Norfolk, Va., advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in November 1998. The employee reported that several workers at the Belcross division were beating pregnant sows with metal gate rods, officials said.

PETA sent someone undercover to pose as an employee and surreptitiously taped Sanchez, Brown and Crawford over three months. In February, the group gave District Attorney Frank Parrish a formal complaint describing the incidents, testimony from five veterinarians and the videotapes, narrated by James Cromwell, the actor who played gentle Farmer Hoggett in the film Babe.

The district attorney's own investigator reviewed the evidence and "determined this was not a part of the normal course of business for a slaughterhouse," Johnson said.

North Carolina is one of the top five pork-producing states in the United States, along with Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri, PETA says.

Details of bludgeoning

The men -- who have not yet been arrested following Tuesday's indictment -- are charged in three separate incidents that occurred in January, after the felony law went into effect. A fourth man, breeding technician Robert Alexander, was identified in a December incident involving beating a lame sow and slitting her throat, but he was not charged, officials said.

Crawford, the facility's assistant production manager, was charged for allegedly forcing an injured sow with a broken shoulder to walk about 60 feet to an incinerator on Jan. 12, where authorities said he then struck her with a 20-pound metal pole and dumped her into the device. PETA experts argued that he could have killed the animal with the more humane captive-bolt gun he'd left in his truck less than 100 yards away.

Breeding technician Sanchez was charged in two incidents. On Jan. 13, investigators said, he allegedly put two pregnant sows into a stall designed for a single animal and then prodded one of them with a 3-1/2-foot-long pole.

Sanchez also was charged for allegedly killing, quartering and butchering a lame sow for "a personal supply of meat" with Brown, the farm manager, on Jan. 16 -- an act that violated company policy, investigators said.

Sanchez allegedly bludgeoned the animal with a 15-pound pipe wrench, and Brown cut her throat with a razor blade and skinned her while she was still conscious, officials said. According to the PETA investigator's report and the videotape, Brown also sawed off the animal's leg while she was still kicking.

A trial date will likely be scheduled when the county's superior court is next in session, on Oct. 15 or Nov. 18, officials said.

Farmers' actions 'typical'

PETA officials said they are pleased with the charges and hope the farm's management will ultimately be held responsible.

"Even if these animals are being raised to be slaughtered, it doesn't justify any cruelty that occurs along the way," PETA spokesman Cem Akin told APBnews.com. "This sort of behavior is typical. It's the process behind what you see in the supermarket."

Dr. Fred Cunningham, the veterinarian and manager of Williams Farms, was unavailable for comment today.

Valerie Kalfrin is an APBnews.com staff writer (valerie.kalfrin@apbnews.com).

http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/specialfeatures/animals/1999/07/08/hogs0708_01.html

Wednesday, March 15, 1999

BY JAMIE C. RUFF
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer [Richmond Virginia]

SOUTH BOSTON -- About 700 people turned out last night as opponents to large hog farms and the farmers who say such operations are necessary got what may have been their last chance to plead their case to the Halifax County supervisors, who are reviewing the county’s intensive-livestock zoning regulations.

The meeting was held at the Halifax County High School auditorium to accommodate the crowd.

Hog farming has become a heated issue in Southside, and last night county officials asked the audience to “display courtesy and respect to all speakers.”

The changes being considered by the supervisors include:

pushing setbacks for lagoons and animal confinement buildings from a highway’s centerline, property lines and major streams to 1,000 feet;

requiring the farming operations be two miles from any of the county’s towns and the former town of Clover;

requiring that for every additional 500 animals above 750 swine, the setback increase by an additional 1,000 feet;

setting 5,000 swine as the maximum number of animals in any one intensive livestock facility.

Saying they wanted to make a strong showing before the meeting, Southside Concerned Citizens, the lead opposition group, held a rally -- with speakers, singing, a clown and balloons -- at the football stadium behind the Halifax County Middle School. About 350 people marched from there to the high school chanting “No more hogs.”

Spurred by growing public anxiety and recent requests to either locate or expand such operations in different localities, several Southside boards of supervisors have decided to review their regulations. Hog farming has become the region’s most contentious issue.

Opponents call the farms “hog factories” and raise concerns about air and water pollution and the smell. Farmers and their supporters counter that large-scale production is the only way they can make money and retain their family farms.

Last night’s meeting was no different. Ruth Link Wilkins said she lives within two miles of a hog farm and a substance coats the windows of her house. “The odor is unbearable,” she said, and asked that the supervisors approve the changes.

But H.R. Martin, a contract hog farmer, said the operations have been misrepresented. The farms do not cause illness, adversely affect property values or detour new industry from a locality, he said.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m proud of what I do and how I do it,” Martin said. “Please use good judgment instead of emotion.”

http://www.timesdispatch.com/testing/hog311.shtml

........................................................................................................................................................................................
November 30, 1998
Time Magazine, Special Report
The Empire of the Pigs, A Little-known Company is a Master at Milking Governments For Welfare
Kansas/Oklahoma

EXCERPTS:

The company [Seaboard] already operates huge hog farms in five southwestern Kansas counties, where it accounts for more than one-quarter of the state's 1.5 million pig population. The pigs are raised in Kansas until they are ready for slaughter and are then trucked to the processing plant in Guymon. Kansas issued $9.6 million in industrial revenue bonds to help Seaboard develop the farms.

Actually, the term farm is a misnomer, for corporate hog farms bear no resemblance to traditional family farms. Instead, they are massive industrial operations. Call them pig factories.

In a long barn that houses about 1,000 animals, the hogs spend their days jammed next to one another, eating constantly until they grow from about 55 lbs. to 250 lbs. They stand on slatted floors so their wastes drop into a trough below that is flushed periodically into a nearby cesspit. The number of cesspits is exploding. From 1990 to 1998, the Oklahoma pig population soared 761%, jumping from 230,000 to 1.98 million, with Seaboard accounting for about 80% of that number.

It is not pleasant living amid this. Just ask Julia Howell and her husband Bob. The couple live on a farm near Hooker, about midway between Guymon and Liberal, where four generations of Howells have grown wheat and raised families. Now feisty Julia Howell, 69, talks about her "40,000 neighbors" and explains why she seals the farmhouse windows, stuffs pillows into the chimney and seldom ventures outdoors without a face mask.

It's the ever present stench--the overpowering smell from Seaboard's 40,000 hogs closely confined in 44 metal buildings, where exhaust fans continuously pump out tons of pungent ammonia, mixed with tons of grain dust and fecal matter, scented with the noxious odor of hydrogen sulfide (a poisonous gas produced by decaying manure that smells like rotten eggs), all combined with another blend of aromas wafting from five cesspits each 25 ft. deep and the size of a football field. They are, in effect, open-air sewage ponds, and 75 ft. below lies the Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking and irrigation water for much of that part of the country.

Think of all that waste this way: imagine that you are sitting on the front porch of your farmhouse on the prairie, surrounded by four Washington Monuments, each filled to the top with pig manure. And then there are all the dead pigs lying about. By law, the carcasses are supposed to be deposited in Dumpsters with the lids tightly closed, and the contents disposed of daily. But with hundreds of thousands of hogs dying before their time each year, Seaboard often falls behind in disposing of them. Sometimes the overflow from Dumpsters is stacked nearby. Sometimes dead hogs are piled up beside barns, sometimes at the side of the road. And sometimes they lie about so long that the flesh rots away.

After issuing repeated warnings to Seaboard, the Oklahoma agriculture department fined the firm $157,500 in December 1997 for improper disposal. After an appeal, the company paid the state $88,200 for the infractions. In all, the Seaboard death toll reached 48 hogs an hour in 1997--420,000 for the year. And the carcasses are picked up only once a day--assuming the dead-pig truck is on schedule. Sometimes it isn't. Which is why at any given moment during the day there are hundreds of dead hogs lying about the fields of Texas County.

For the past two years, Julia Howell has recorded in a diary life with the blended smells from rotting hogs and cesspools and the breezes from hog barns:

"We thought we were at the point that we could retire. And, of course, the rhetoric from Seaboard is, 'Well, my goodness, your land, your home, it's worth more than you ever dreamed because of us coming in next to you...' Our kids couldn't sell this if they needed the money to bury us with. It's just devaluated to nothing as far as the market's concerned."

The story is much the same for Vancy Elliott and her husband Delmer, who live about three miles from Guymon and whose land abuts a Seaboard hog farm. "We have to put flytraps out in the summer," says Elliott. "But we even have flies occasionally in the winter now, and we've never had that before. Rats and mice are a real problem because they have so many pigs that are dying."

To help staff its hog-processing plant and farms, Seaboard has re-created the corporate model employed by the coal barons of the 1800s, whose workers lived in company-owned houses and shopped in company-owned stores.

In Guymon, Seaboard and local business leaders invested in an apartment complex and trailer parks to house the company's employees. Rent is automatically deducted from the paychecks of Seaboard workers. So, too, is the cost of meals that they eat at the plant. A two-bedroom apartment goes for $420 a month; for three bedrooms, $485. A Seaboard worker earns about $300 a week--before Social Security and income taxes are deducted.

"The people never see this money," said Carla Smalts, a rancher who campaigned against corporate hog farming while at the same time waging an ultimately losing battle against cancer. "It comes off the top of their paycheck right to Seaboard," she told TIME in December 1997. "By the time they pay Seaboard their rent and the meals are taken off out at the plant--and most of them eat at least one or two meals out there--they don't have a whole lot left. There's no way these people are going to buy houses." Carla Smalts died in August 1998 at age 52.

Bringing Home The Bacon

Let us recount, for a moment, some of Seaboard's corporate welfare in the 1990s: Minnesota provided more than $3 million in economic incentives; Kentucky, $23 million; Kansas, $10 million; and Oklahoma, $100 million. The Federal Government's OPIC provided $25 million in insurance for business ventures abroad. As for the financial burdens imposed on other taxpayers by virtue of Seaboard's presence, no one knows the cost. It is in the tens of millions of dollars. And all this for jobs that pay little more than poverty-level wages.

All this welfare has helped propel Seaboard into the front ranks of American pork producers. As recently as 1989, the company did not own a single hog. This year it's the No. 5 producer in the country--and about to vault higher. Seaboard plans to build yet another processing plant, capable of slaughtering 4 million hogs a year, thereby doubling its output.

So who really profits from all of this? A secretive Boston family of millionaires.

Seaboard's stock is traded on the American Stock Exchange, and last week it closed at $387 a share. Some 75% of that stock is owned by another company, called Seaboard Flour Corp., and 95% of Seaboard Flour is owned by brothers H. Harry and Otto Bresky Jr., their sister Marjorie B. Shifman and family trusts. All told, the family's stock in Seaboard is worth $425 million.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/981130/special_report.corporat2e.html

Pork Producer Settles Suit As Pollution Rules Tighten
By DIRK JOHNSON

With hog manure fouling streams in the rolling countryside of northern Missouri, the giant pork producer Premium Standard Farms has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a suit accusing it of violating the state's Clean Water Act....

National Desk , 1212 words
www.nytimes.com

.......................................................................................................................................................
Lawmakers Look at the Role mega-Hog Farms Play

Opponents of megafarms in Ohio, including the Ohio Environmental Council, have called for a similar ban on new large farms in Ohio until regulations are passed. Government officials have said they have no authority to do so. Megafarm supporters say banning new facilities will stunt the growth of agriculture in Ohio.

In Kansas, county officials who want to bring in a swine facility must ask voters for approval. Nearly every time, they've said "no."

"We still have some work to do. There are still some issues here," said Mary Fund of Kansas Rural Center. "But it's a start."

This law applies only to swine. There is still a potential for large poultry and dairy farms to come, Ms. Fund said.

In Colorado, Amendment 14, which went into effect last spring, set up water and air quality regulations for farms with 800,000 pounds or more of swine. The law states that anaerobic lagoons, which store swine waste and break down bacteria, must be covered. It also requires soil sampling to make sure manure isn't leaking into the water.

The laws set standards for how much odor can be detected at the farm's property line and how much can be found at nearby homes, schools, or businesses.

In Nebraska, residents passed a law in 1982 with 56 per cent of the vote after intense campaigns by both sides that restricts corporations from setting up farms in the state. It bans farms run by a cooperative. The law does allow partnerships, but they are not shielded from liability for spills and other problems that may arise.

The idea is to keep corporate farms out of the state so they don't create unfair competition for family farms, said John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union. It makes it illegal for livestock processors to raise then own animals, thereby shutting out other farmers.

http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/news/9k22far2.htm

........................................................................................................................................................................................

U.S. News and World Report
United States deep in manure January 12, 1998

Farm animals excreted 5 tons of waste last year for every American citizen. That's 130 times more manure than Americans produced themselves. A hog facility now under construction on 50,000 acres in Utah will potentially produce more sludge than all of Los Angeles.

Farm animal production has increased by about 25 percent since 1980. Most of this growth has occurred in large operations that gain efficiency by raising animals in controlled indoor environments; manure is pumped into huge holding tanks. But spills and runoffs of manure have killed hundreds of thousands of fish and contaminated drinking water and soil with harmful microbes, according to a Senate report released last week. Look for Congress to take up the issue this year.--Warren Cohen in Chicago

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/980112/12bizb.htm

....................................................................................................................................................................................

Hog farms without lagoons

http://www.enviro-remediation.com/

......................................................................................................................................................................................

Texas, Boston Globe Online, Nation World, Pigging Out in Texas

But when temperature changes stir the ponds every spring and fall, and the wind is blowing just right, the odor of the manure can permeate everything downwind for 15 miles. Even hog advocates say they keep their windows closed, while neighboring farmers say the fumes are so bad that it's making them sick.

Still, an organized group of farmers opposes the pigs. They have filed multiple lawsuits against the state's hog-farm licensing agency, contending that regulations are too lax and results in a stench that is driving them from their properties. They plan to keep suing until the pigs stop smelling.

''Hog operations are ridiculous; they use water to wash out the waste, then it sits in these open cesspools and stinks,'' said Jeanne Gramstorff, secretary of the group Active Citizens Concerned Over Resource Development.

In response, Myron McCartor, a former county commissioner and economic development chairman, says manure is manure.

''When Nippon said they wanted to locate here, I said, `Great! That's what this area is about. We raise stuff,''' said McCartor, who sought McGlone's help in attracting hog farms. ''Never in my wildest dreams did I think a bunch of farmers would raise hell over another farm.''

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/318/nation/Pigging_out_in_Texas+.shtml
...................................................................................................................................................................................
IOWA, 1997
Justice opposes hog lot near home

Associated Press

DES MOINES (AP) - An Iowa Supreme Court justice said Wednesday that his battle to stop a hog farm from being built near his house will likely cause him to abstain from future hog-related cases before the court.
"As it stands now, I might never participate in a hog case again," said Justice Jerry Larson, who has been on Iowa's highest court for 19 years.

"I wouldn't want to do anything to compromise my objectivity. Being objective is very important to a judge, and I take my job seriously," he said.

On the other hand, he said, "I didn't give up my right to protect my property when I went on the bench."

Larson, 61, said he has an apparent conflict of interests in hog farm cases because he has signed a petition urging a Missouri man not to locate a 2,000- to 3,000-hog operation about 11/2 miles from Larson's acreage near Harlan. It would be the biggest hog operation in Shelby County.

Larson said he is concerned about odor from the farm, which prevailing winds would carry to his house.

"I'm directly in line" of the smell, he said.

Large hog farms have become hot issues in Iowa over the last several years. Opponents argue that the operations are not only smelly, but environmentally risky because of accidents in handling manure. Backers say the farms are more efficient than family operations.

The controversy has made its way to the Supreme Court several times.

Larson's decision means that just eight justices will hear future hog farm cases, including a long-awaited appeal from Humboldt County scheduled next month. If the judges split 4-4, the lower court decision would be upheld.

In that case, farmers are appealing a ruling by a district judge who said Humboldt County's effort to control large-scale hog farms did not violate state law. Among other things, producers would have to post a bond to cover cleanup if the facility is abandoned.

An attorney for farmers in the case, Eldon McAfee of Des Moines, declined comment on Larson's decision.

Larson said he and most of his neighbors are trying to persuade Gary Weis, of St. Charles, Mo., not to locate a facility near Harlan.

"This is a fairly dense concentration of homes for this area. Shelby County has a lot of open spaces, but this isn't one of them," Larson said.

Larson said the proximity to the hog farm would greatly decrease the value of his home.

"I've told him (Weis) of my investment in my home and that I strongly resist" plans for the hog farm. "He's a nice guy to talk to and we've had civil conversations on the phone," Larson said.

Larson said he will keep his promise to Weis to visit a hog producer in nearby Audubon County, where neighbors are apparently learning to cope with a factory-style hog farm. Larson also said he is searching for another location for Weis' operation.

1997 Associated Press

http://www.thonline.com/th/news/091897/iowa/75775.htm

..........................................................................................................................................................................................
North Carolina, Mention hog farms and what immediately comes to mind are the odors from lagoons and production houses. Recently, swine odors have caused quite a stink among hog farmers and their neighbors.

http://www.coe.ncsu.edu/news.releases/hog.sniffer.html
.............................................................................................................................................................................

Return To Previous Page