Jasper County is being targeted for locating polluting Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CFO’s and CAFO’s) because it is close to feed supplies, has sand for bedding, and lax environmental laws. It already has about 50. So far, the County Commissioners and the Governor of Indiana have welcomed them with open arms and subsidies such as new roads. North Jasper County has a swine CAFO and is in the process of getting a veal CAFO. These CAFO’s are farms at a massive, industrial scale, which is why they are sometimes called factory farms. They try to act like they are the same as much smaller family farming operations which don’t have the huge industrial environmental impact.  

     The CAFO’s of the livestock industry are a hazard to the human health and financial well being of their host communities, as well as to the local air, water, and wildlife. They contribute mightily to global warming. The recent United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report “Livestock’s Long Shadow” says the livestock industry is one of the top contributors to the worst environmental problems, local to global. From drinking water contamination to aquifer depletion to global warming, the livestock industry has a huge impact.   This report, easily found on the internet, says change is desperately needed (http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.pdf).

     The Environmental Protection Agency says hog, chicken, and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. Sierra Club notes that large factory farms foul our lakes and rivers and threaten drinking water sources with pathogens and chemicals. This industrial agriculture is the largest source of toxic ammonia air pollution in the U.S.  Ammonia and other pollutants have already caused illness in neighbors of CAFO’s. There is a swine CFO (Pembrooke Oaks Farms) next door to Jasper Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, where 20,000 to 30,000 sand hill cranes congregate on their migration, which brings concern for the formation of the bad bird flu, not to mention concern for the health of the cranes. It doesn’t get publicly announced but those huge waterfowl die offs attributed to “natural causes” are probably from CAFO’s in the watershed.      

     Factory farms are coming to rural Indiana because of lax environmental protection and misguided tax subsidies and other enticements such as publicly funded roads. Factory farms are only profitable with these subsidies plus the additional subsidy of being allowed to pollute local land, water, and air.  Otherwise, they are too big to be efficient and healthy for the animals. This means their owners prosper at the expense of local residents and the planet.    

     If you are a Jasper County resident, please call the County Commissioners (Richard Maxwell at 866-3719, Kendall Cult at 866-3719, and Jim Walstra at 987-2855) and ask them to stop supporting and approving Confined Animal Feeding Operations. They will be running for reelection in another year. All Indiana residents should write to IDEM and the governor asking for a moratorium on approving CFO’s, CAFO’s and their expansions.  Ask for new stringent air and water quality regulations and enforcement for these factory farms.  Ask for denial of the Mark Schuringa application to change from poultry to a larger veal calf CAFO. 

Address letters to:
Mr. Lassiter, Indiana Department of Environmental Management
100 North Senate Ave, MC 65-45, IGCN 1101
Indianapolis, IN  46204.

Please also write to Governor Mitch Daniels at:

The Honorable Mitch Daniels 
Office of the Governor, Statehouse
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2797
or response@gov.in.gov

Also send your letter to:

Mr. Bruce Palin
Assistant Commissioner
Office of Land Quality
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
100 N. Senate Ave.
Mail Code 65-45
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2251 or bpalin@idem.in.gov

Check http://wahmdiary.blogspot.com/ for real eye opening up to date local info

Food Animal Concerns Trust at http://204.200.206.238/

NRDC report on CAFO’s in Indiana at http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/factor/stind.asp 

by Sandy O’Brien,  phone 219-942-2956,  Biologist and Chair of Dunelands Group, Hoosier Chapter, Sierra Club