cajohncox’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  More Sinister Then You Think

  Columbus Ohio is fighting the siting of the nations largest chicken confinement facility. I wish that the capacity numbers were close to accurate in Meat Wagon. It is now possible for Agri Industry to confine 400,000 birds in one "barn". Last year an Iowa based corporation filed a permit to operate a facility housing 6 million layers at a single site.  Proposing construction of 15 so called barns each to contain 400,000 laying hens, this would be the largest single site facility in the United States. All less than 50 miles from Columbus, Ohio, the facility would locate in the watershed from which the city draws its drinking water.

  Often targeting low income communities, this operation would locate in a depressed rural area where 3 million chickens are already packed in with 740 address points in three miles.  Of course, existing facilities would benefit from the new installation. They would be allowed to expand to feed the constant supply of pullets (young laying hens) necessary to replace dying birds.  The result, 11 million chickens in a 3 mile area the highest concentration anywhere in the U.S.

  The old argument that if you live in a rural community you should expect to live with agriculture does not hold up. You simply could not put 6 million birds on just over 300 acres before. Most of the families impacted are small farmers who will be forced out of business, not because of vertical integration and lack mechanisms that ensure they can bring their crops to market, because know one wants to raise their children where flies swarm in biblical proportions and 160,000 tons of manure can be stored in open buildings for up to 8 months.

  We can hope that the new administration will not turn a blind eye to the potential health risks of this type of folly. Unfortunately, Ohio has taken way all local control to regulate such facilities. The state now determines which rural communities will be sacrificed in the name of agricultural progress.
  

  Cheryl www.myspace.com/nomorechickens

  On Farmers take the hit as the CAFO model comes under pressure posted 9 months, 1 week ago 6 Responses