By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The formation and expansion of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) has created some controversy in Indiana, but their impacts on the community may not be as bad as first expected.
CAFOs are livestock production operations where hundreds or thousands of animals are raised in buildings or similar enclosed facilities. There are approximately 645 CAFOs operating in Indiana.
A team of four Purdue University researchers interviewed 50 CAFO operators in Benton, Cass, Huntington, Jasper, Jay, Randolph, Wabash and Wells counties, which have the largest concentration of CAFO operations. Those participating in the study represent about one-third of the CAFO operations in those counties.
The study took place in 2007-’08 and looked at demographics, labor, impacts on local government budgets, environment violations and county planning and zoning.
“The expansion of CAFOs in Indiana has been controversial,” said Janet Ayres, an agricultural economist and research team leader. “The purpose of this research was to learn more about the issues and the impact of CAFOs on local communities.”
The study was funded entirely by Purdue Extension and the university’s College of Agriculture, and focused on swine and dairy operations. Researchers interviewed CAFO operators, county government and highway officials and studied tax documents and environmental records.
Agricultural economist Roman Keeney said on average the operators are age 50 or younger and well-educated compared to the general farming population. Also, 90 percent were raised on a farm, 37 percent work off the CAFO farm and 10 percent are not U.S. citizens.
Most reported the process for selecting a location for their operation, commonly called siting, as not being problematic, he said. “A majority of surveyed operators reported that they faced little in the way of opposition in the siting process, although some operators indicated their siting process was opposed by individuals or organized groups,” Keeney said.
“Evaluating their reception since beginning operation, 80 percent of surveyed operators rate community response as mostly positive or all positive.”
Wages at CAFOs tend to be higher at $12.38 per hour than the average farm wage of $8.50.
On the environmental front, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) cited 39 rules violations at all animal feeding operations in the study counties over a 13-year period ending in 2008. Of those, 15 were issued to CAFOs and 25 occurred during manure application on cropfields.
“Environmental violation by CAFO operations were uncommon,” said Tamilee Nennich, an animal scientist at Purdue. “In the counties in the study, less than 1 percent of CAFOs were cited for water quality violations. There was also little evidence to suggest that the size or type of operation predicts an increase in the chance of an environmental violation occurring.”
The impact of CAFOs on local government budgets and taxes was mixed, said Larry DeBoer, an agricultural economist. Some CAFOs generate enough added tax revenue to cover the added costs they create and some do not, with some of the CAFO tax bills providing tax relief for existing taxpayers.
Zoning and land-planning issues were more complex, with each county having different ordinances and ways to deal with CAFOs.
“It ranges from making decisions on a case-by-case basis to clearly defined development standards and land-use zones,” Ayres said.
For more information on the study, go to www.agecon.purdue.edu/extension/programs/cafo.asp
The research team is writing Extension publications based on the study, which will appear on the Purdue CAFO website at www.ansc.purdue.edu/CAFO |
