Randolph County Puts Moratorium on Factory Farms (CAFOs)

By JOY LEIKER / The Star Press

WINCHESTER — After rejecting an ordinance that would give Randolph County its first rules to regulate large industrial farms, county commissioners today approved an immediate moratorium on all confined feeding and concentrated animal feeding operations (CFOs and CAFOs.)
The moratorium was a shock to the farmers who attended the commissioners’ afternoon session. Some are expected to consult with attorneys and seek legal ways to continue building and expanding their farms.
To those who have sought greater protection from CFOs and CAFOs, which have become Randolph County’s fastest-growing industry, the moratorium is an answer to a request that’s been filed many times before this week.

Thanks to the rapid expansion of such farms, Randolph County has become a state leader in pork production. All the while, farmers and environmentalists have tried to work out a compromise and create guidelines for the county’s largest farms. After years of work, the compromise finally resulted in an ordinance and the creation of dual agricultural districts, one which would allow CFOs and CAFOs and another that wouldn’t. The area planning commission approved the ordinance last month, and today was the county commission’s first official look at it.

Background: Article published Dec 28, 2007
Ordinance would allow CAFOs in 75 percent of Indiana county

Associated Press Report

WINCHESTER, Ind. (AP) — Planning officials have endorsed an ordinance that will turn 75 percent of Randolph County into an agricultural district open to sprawling livestock farms. The 12-member Area Planning Commission unanimously approved the ordinance Thursday night after voting 10-2 not to allow any of the roughly 100 people who turned out to comment.

About 50 spectators, mostly opponents of the ordinance, filled the meeting room to comment on the proposal, which still needs final approval by the county commissioners.

Another 50 people forced to stand in a hallway because they could not enter the packed room demanded that the meeting be postponed.

"This is another denial of our rights," said opponent Laura Hazelett.

Before the panel voted against allowing public comment, commission member Todd Schroeder said the commission had heard enough from the public about the proposal, which would create a 220,000-acre intensive agricultural district.

"I've heard from the public for four years," he said.

The ordinance would turn 75 percent of the 289,813-acre county in east-central Indiana into an industrial park for concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, the sprawling livestock farms where thousands of livestock are raised in close quarters.

Last month, the commission spent more than two hours defending the proposed ordinance at a meeting attended by dozens of rural residents in the east-central Indiana county who oppose it.

The opponents, who are concerned about water pollution, the farms' stench and falling property values, accused the commission of "choosing pigs over people."

Commission member Fred Ludington argued unsuccessfully to include odor-control "best management practices" in the ordinance.

He then suggested Randolph County just get rid of CAFOs. That prompted farmer Drew Cleveland, who was sitting in the audience, to tell Ludington, "We should get rid of gun shops, too." Ludington owns a Parker City gun store.

Union City Mayor-elect Bryan Conklin convinced fellow commission members to increase the minimum distance between CAFOs and dwellings to 1,324 feet and the distance between CAFOs and schools to a half-mile.

But he failed to convince the commission to increase the distance between communities and CAFOs beyond the 1-mile limit set in the draft ordinance.

Randolph County officials have discussed a CAFO ordinance off and on during four years that saw the county's swine population swell. Last year, the county welcomed 126,866 new hogs, more than any other county in the state.

This year, 37,577 more swine had been added by October, the state's third highest total.

Maxwell Foods, Goldsboro, N.C., has been expanding into the region because of excess pork production in North Carolina.

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