By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Indiana livestock producers, rural residents and county officials have been dealing with the controversies of Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) for years.
“Community Impacts of Confined Animal Feeding Operations,” a video seminar presented by Purdue University, will answer questions tomorrow night (June 18) from 7-9 p.m. at 16 locations around the state.
“The purpose of this meeting is to provide information to enable people to be more knowledgeable about what is going on with Confined Animal Feeding Operations, since this likely will be the future of animal production in our communities,” said Janet Ayres, an agricultural economist and Purdue Extension land use specialist.
Those attending a meeting broadcast can ask questions of Ayres and her fellow study team members: Larry DeBoer and Roman Keeney, agricultural economists, and Tamilee Nennich, animal scientist. A series of Purdue Extension publications will be produced based on study findings and posted on Purdue’s CAFO website at http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/cafo/
Purdue initiated an in-depth study of 50 swine and dairy CAFOs in Benton, Cass, Huntington, Jasper, Jay, Randolph, Wabash, and Wells counties in 2007-08. In addition to a detailed interview of CAFO owners and operators and local officials, tax data was collected from county offices for each operation and environmental violations were examined.
"We conducted hour-long interviews with swine and dairy CAFOs in those counties," Ayres said. "We learned that these are very complex operations.”
The session will focus on the findings from this study. Specific topics will include: operator characteristics, swine and dairy CAFO characteristics, conditions around siting of CAFOs, animal population growth, revenue and expense information from CAFOs, labor use and payments, fiscal impact on local government and schools, comprehensive land use planning and zoning revisions to minimize land use conflicts and extent and nature of environmental violations.
The workshop is free, but advance registration is advised to help in site coordination. Call the contact person for the remote video site you wish to attend:
•Allen County – Gonzalee Martin, marting@purdue.edu; Purdue CES, 4001 Crescent Ave, Fort Wayne, 260-481-6826
•Bartholomew County – Mike Ferree, ferreel@purdue.edu; Purdue CES, 1971 State St., Columbus, 812-379-1665
•Elkhart County – Jeff Burbrink, jburbrink@purdue.edu; Purdue CES, 17746 E CR 34, Goshen, 574-533-0554
•Floyd County – Tom Springstun, tsprings@purdue.edu; Purdue CES, Purdue Tech Center, 3000 Technology Ave, New Albany 812-948-5470 or 812-595-1479
•Greene County – Cam Trampke, ctrampke@clcinfo.org; Community Learning Center, Switz City, 812-659-3862
•Hamilton County – Bill Rice, billrice@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, 2003 E. Pleasant St., Noblesville
•Hendricks County – Jon Cain, joncain@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, 1900 E. Main St., Danville
•Henry County – Gary Wilson, wilsongl@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, 1201 Race St., Suite 303, New Castle
•Jasper County – Bryan Overstreet, boverstreet@purdue.edum Purdue CES, 122 N Cullen St., Rensselaer
•LaPorte County – Walt Sell, wsell@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, 2358 N Highway 35, La Porte
•Marion County – Brad Beaubien, bmbeaubien@bsu.edu, Ball State CAP: IC, 50 S. Meridian St., Suite 302
•Marshall County – Bob Yoder, ryoder@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, 112 W. Jefferson St., Rm. 304, Plymouth
•Parke County – Mark Spelbring, spelbrin@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, Parke County Fairgrounds, Rockville
•Pulaski County – Michael Reetz, Reetz@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, 125 S. Riverside, Winamac
•Tippecanoe County – Bob McCormick, rmccormi@purdue.edu, Purdue Campus Pfendler Hall, Rm. 241, West Lafayette
•Vanderburgh County – Larry Caplan, lcaplan@purdue.edu, Purdue CES, 13301 Darmstadt Rd., Evansville |
