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Proposed Delaware Co. CAFO draws fire from local residents
 

 

MUNCIE, Ind. — A proposed 10,560-head swine concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in Delaware County faces local opposition as it waits for approval from Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM).

Rhett Light, Blackford County farmer, requested the permit to build four wean-to-finish pig production buildings at 1270 N. Delaware County Road last December. More than 100 people attended the Delaware County commissioners’ meeting earlier this month to voice support or opposition to the CAFO.

Commissioner Sherry Riggin said that she gets five calls or emails against the CAFO, to every one that is for it. “Those opposed were hoping for a moratorium, but I don’t think it’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s not on our agenda for next week.”

She said the CAFO meets the county’s zoning ordinance for agriculture. The property currently is a farm field with no pigs within an agricultural zone, surrounded by a few houses.

County officials have been criticized in the Muncie Star-Press for the lack of additional regulations governing CAFOs specifically. Delaware County has the smallest number of confined feeding operations (CFOs) in east-central Indiana, at six. Light’s would be the seventh.

Marta Moody, director of the Delaware-Muncie Municipal Planning Commission, said the county is looking into developing more specific ordinances.

“It would be good to have something, but I don’t think it would totally help avoid controversy when you have something (like a CAFO) with so many proponents and opponents,” she said.

“In planning and zoning, you have to consider the general welfare, the health and safety, the economics, property values and monies generated from business activities. In trying to strike that balance, it doesn’t make everybody happy.”

However, Moody welcomes comments from the community. “Any input is always beneficial from the standpoint that we try to take it into account while trying to objectively put into place new plans.”

The Star-Press reported the county’s residents in the past also have opposed wind farms, a private prison, an ethanol production plant and a power plant.

Statewide issue

Greg Slipher, livestock specialist with Indiana Farm Bureau, said controversy over new CAFOs and CFOs is “fairly common” in Indiana.

“When we talk to farmers, we remind them that it’s in their best interest to be totally transparent. Nobody likes surprises. They have the opportunity and obligation to talk to their neighbors ahead of time and to follow the state laws and local ordinances,” he said.

Communicating with the community is especially important with the changing times.

“In fairness to our farmers, we have gone for decades without scrutiny, but that’s changed in the last few years,” Slipher said. “We have to change with the culture and pay attention to that. Some people have been told some things that are accurate or inaccurate.”

The Citizens Action Coalition (CAC), based in Indianapolis, attended the Delaware County commission meeting and is offering its support to local organizers. “We are monitoring factory farming across Indiana, but we like to leave these matters to local communities,” said Margo Tucker, assistant legal counsel with CAC.

“The people at Delaware County said, ‘We are not anti-farming. We are anti-factory farming.’ We agree with them. There’s a better way to be doing farming. There are too many environmental issues and externalities. We are for sustainable agriculture, farmers’ markets and local food supply.”

By “externalities,” she means contracting with outside livestock companies, who own the animals, and the predetermined chain of production.

Slipher said he disagrees with the term “factory farms” and the classification of them as something entirely different from family farms.

“The business model has changed. The people are the same. They are still family farms with a corporate structure. The families are the same; they live in the community and comply with the rules,” he said. “They are responsible for the care of the animals, the environment, zone compliance, relationship with integrators. The buck stops with the producers.”

While the impact on environment, roads, property values and other issues is always up for debate, Slipher said it’s difficult to argue against the economic boost for Indiana communities from animal agriculture.

According to a study completed for Indiana Soybean Alliance, it contributed $7.3 billion to the state in economic output, and at the district level had a $562 million economic impact in east-central Indiana in 2012. A 4,400-head swine operation, from grow to finish, has a potential $2.6 million-$3.1 million regional impact.

Slipher said local zoning ordinances help protect from land use conflicts, while Tucker wants better state laws that would protect rural residents. CAC would like to see a reversal of the “right to farm” act, which makes nuisance lawsuits much harder to prosecute.

In the meantime, she said Delaware County citizens are not done fighting the swine CAFO. She said the commissioners can still deny building permits to the farmer or issue a moratorium until they can draw up a better plan.

“We like to resolve these cases before they get to the courts. But the Delaware citizens are prepared for every possibility,” Tucker said.

3/21/2018