Agri News-Opinion

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Letters

A way to whitewash factory farms

In 1976, when I moved to Wabasso, Minn., to start farming, the first enterprise that I established on my farm was a farrow-to-finish swine operation.

Redwood County must have been "Livestock Friendly.'' Come to think of it, Brown County must have been "Livestock Friendly," because it allowed me to raise pigs on my dad's farm in 1968 and 1969 for FFA.

So here we are having Gene Hugoson, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, trying to tell us and our county commissioners that we aren't "Livestock Friendly" unless we agree with his state-prescribed criteria for livestock development in our counties.

Perception is not the reality, once you open the nice-sounding wrapper on this so-called "Livestock Friendly" program of MDA. You soon discover that the commissioner has sent us a program that can be more accurately described as "Corporate, Industrial, Factory Farm" friendly. He just wants to hoodwink counties into adopting this puff of paper program as a way to whitewash factory farms.

The proof that the state wants to take away our local control can be found in the very application that they require counties to fill out to initially apply for the "Livestock Friendly County Designation"' from the MDA.

In the application, a county must certify to the state that in order to be considered "Livestock Friendly'" in portions of the county, the following factors are not applicable:

A. Absolute size limitations (animal unit caps) for feedlots.

B. Moratoria on feedlot expansion or new construction.

C. Prohibition of earthen basins for dairy manure.

The MDA application even requires counties to provide relevant provisions of County Codes/Ordinances to be attached.

According to the MDA's Web site, the county must even provide documentation that it has conducted a planning effort and has developed ordinances that conform with the guidelines of the state.
So, how did this process by which Commissioner of Agriculture Gene Hugoson can, through his office and staff, undermine local control at the county level happen?

Last year, the Legislature passed a law that allowed the commissioner of agriculture to establish a process and criteria by which counties could be designated livestock friendly.

In essence, the Legislature handed a tool to the commissioner which he is using to
convince counties to change their ordinances and follow the local control changes of the state in order to be called "Livestock Friendly."

So now, what we really get at the county level for those counties that fall for this new designation process from the state is criteria by which the biggest of the big industrial factory farms are welcomed into a county.

Do we need livestock in this state? Yes!

We need livestock to be dispersed and owned by many family farmers in this state, not concentrated in a few mega-corporate industrial feedlots.

I urge local county taxpayers to call their county commissioners and tell them to keep local control and not to fall for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's so-called "Livestock Friendly County Designation Process."

—Paul Sobocinski, livestock farmer and Land Stewardship Project member,
Wabasso, Minn.