Dairy Needs More, Not Less Oversight
Editorial, Northwestern (Oshkosh, WI), Dec. 13th, 2009
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20091213/OSH06/912130370
Common sense dictates that if you propose doubling something, the potential upsides and downsides increase at the same level. That is particularly true when the variables involve natural processes that we think we understand, but by no means have mastered to the point where absolutes can be trusted without question.
It is with this in mind one must view the proposal to expand the Rosendale Dairy from 4,000 to 8,000 cows, which would make it the largest operation in Wisconsin. The Department of Natural Resources is currently reviewing a permit application to expand the operation, reduce the frequency of groundwater monitoring from monthly to quarterly if it has no violations after two years and increase the land area it spreads liquid manure from 5,600 acres to nearly 13,000. To read more click here
When It Comes to Agriculture, Size Does Matter -
A Rebutal to the Dairy Business Association (DBA) and the Factory Farm Lobby in WI
By: Tony Schultz
Stoney Acres Farm (Athens, WI) and FFD board member
A version of this op ed was printed in the Country Today, 10/14/09
Last week the executive director of the Dairy Business Association Laurie Fischer wrote a seemingly polite yet defensive editorial to many newspapers and media outlets across the state as a response to the increasing attacks against the rise of factory farming and the environmental issues that accompany them. Although the editorial tried to say “size is not the issue” it continually referred to pollution concerns surrounding larger farms and flat-out stated large farms are better for the environment. This is because no matter how much they use neutral phrases like trying to “keep cows in Wisconsin” or say “regardless of size” they are an organization that represents factory farming and the aggressive expansion of that particular type of agriculture. Much of DBA’s funding comes from corporate donors. Its website says they include Land O'Lakes Purina Feed LLC, Pfizer Animal Health, Accelerated Genetics, Wick Builders, Bayland Building, insurers, financial-service firms and a host of other agribusiness interests that view big farms as big accounts that buy lots of stuff. Anyone questioning or challenging them is told to shut up, get out of the way of the natural course of “progress” and portrayed as an enemy of all of Wisconsin agriculture. To read more click here
The fight against factory farms in Wisconsin
Large-scale operations become focal points of community opposition
By: Roger Bybee 08/14/2009, Isthmus (Madison, WI)
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26640&sid=c0ed71eaf63580bfaa88d12124d1f207
John Peck, only half-joking, suggests Wisconsin's longtime slogan, "America's Dairyland," may need to be updated. The new slogan: "The Land of 10,000 Animal-Waste Lagoons." He also offers this nightmare scenario: "Can you imagine tourists driving up to Door County," asks Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders, a national organization based in Madison, "and having to endure the stench from manure lagoons produced by factory farms?" Peck's vision may sound implausible, like Godzilla rising from Lake Mendota to level the Capitol. Support for small-scale farming seems overwhelming in Madison, with its strong food co-op movement and a thriving Farmers' Market, drawing 10,000 to 15,000 people to the Square to buy fresh produce from small farmers at reasonable prices. But Peck says Dane County, which leads the state in agricultural production, with more than $70 million in sales annually and about 400 farms and 50,000 cattle, faces the specter of an increasingly corporatized and globally based food system. To read more click here
CAFOs Self-Determination And Grassroots Democracy
Keynote Address - FFD Annual Meeting, Westby, WI March 14, 2009
By: John Ikerd,
Prof. Emeritus, Dept. of Agric. Econ., Univ. of MO-Columbia
May you live in interesting times! This supposedly is an ancient Chinese proverb – some say a curse. In the original language, the word for “interesting times” is the same as the Chinese word for crisis that is commonly interpreted to mean both danger and opportunity. Scholars tend to agree on the “danger” half of the word, but suggest the meaning of the other half is closer to “a critical point in time” than to “opportunity.” I like Webster’s definition of crisis as a critical point in time when we are forced to make choices that will fundamentally change the future, for either better or for worse. Living in interesting times may be either a blessing or a curse. Regardless, we most certainly are living in “interesting times” today. To read more click here
