Mark Stephenson, a member of the Roaring River group, said: “Finally, what most of us already knew has been proven in a court of law. The DNR has not been fulfilling its statutory obligation to protect and preserve our state parks, historic sites and natural resources.

“The court decision will serve to be a precedence setter and should have a positive impact on Roaring River Parks Alliance’s hearing on the appeal of the construction and operating permits on the CAFO at Roaring River. It is my understanding that several other states have established buffer zones around such sites. The enormous negative impact these facilities have on communities has come to light, and people will not tolerate it any longer. Big agriculture and the Farm Bureau just received a major defeat in Missouri.”

The alliance, he said, filed the appeals to stop the chicken CAFO at Roaring River in an effort to prevent other CAFOs from being constructed there. The judge’s ruling, he said, eliminates the threat of new CAFOs being constructed near the park, one of Missouri’s top tourist destinations.

The judge said the construction of CAFOs near state parks and historic sites poses an unacceptable health risk because of “odors and volatile and dangerous airborne pollutants” emitted by them. She cited reports by the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to support her position.

Among the contaminants listed were ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and bioaerosols, including “bacteria, antigens, glucans and endotoxins.”

Childers described the decision as a sweeping example of judicial activism.

“This will have a huge impact on the state of Missouri and the nation’s food supply,” he said. “If you draw a 30-mile circle around every historic site and state park in Missouri, you have knocked out a good part of the food supply.”

As examples in Southwest Missouri, he cited Big Sugar State Park in McDonald County, Prairie State Park in Barton County, Roaring River State Park in Barry County and the Nathan Boone Homestead State Historic Site in Greene County.

The most damaging part of the ruling for CAFOs, he said, was the judge’s decision to prohibit CAFOs from transporting or disposing waste from their operations within a 15-mile radius of a state park or historic site.

“If you cannot transport the waste, this decision appears to have been written to eliminate agriculture in the state,” he said. “That apparently was her plan.”

Leslie Holloway, state and governmental affairs director with the Missouri Farm Bureau, said Tuesday that she was reluctant to comment without seeing the ruling but added, “From what we are hearing, it sounds like a stretch.”

Everett Forkner, a Nevada hog farmer and member of the Missouri Pork Association and the National Pork Board, agreed with Childers that a 15-mile buffer could push operations out of Missouri.

“There is virtually no place left in the state to speak of,” he said.

“Certainly it concerns us, as a pork producer in Missouri. Unless it is challenged and overturned, we will give up any competitive edge we have at all.”

Keeping American hog producers competitive relative to world production is a high priority for the national group, Forkner said, and rulings like the one for Arrow Rock undermine those efforts and could lead to higher prices for consumers.