By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

CASSVILLE, Mo. — Jim Riedel called his opposition to a confined animal feeding operation near his home in Barry County an “uphill battle.”

It didn’t help when he learned recently of the thousands of dollars in contributions that supporters and representatives of CAFOs have given to politicians.

“Our pockets are not that full. We’re people who have worked all of our lives. We are retirees. When we give $100 it hurts. When they give $10,000, it doesn’t hurt them.

“The cards are so stacked against us.’’

Going up against a CAFO isn’t just big business, it’s big politics.

Take the CAFO proposed by Michelle and Rodney Ozbun near Roaring River State Park in Barry County, one of more than 500 such operations in the state raising cattle, swine and poultry.

The lawyer the Ozbuns have hired to represent their interests in Jefferson City is Michael Schmid, an associate in the firm of Schreimann, Rackers, Francka & Blunt in Jefferson City. The Blunt in the firm is Andrew Blunt, son of U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt and brother to Gov. Matt Blunt. Matt Blunt appointed Doyle Childers to head the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which licenses and oversees large CAFOs in Missouri.

There is no record of Schmid giving money to Matt Blunt’s 2004 campaign, but the principals in the law firm now representing Ozbun, or the principals’ relatives, gave at least $7,600 to directly underwrite Matt Blunt’s political ambitions in 2004, according to the database maintained by the National Institute for Money in State Politics.

Direct giving is just a piece of the puzzle.

Since the 2000 election cycle, companies with a stake in CAFO legislation have given thousands of dollars to the Republican Party — which can then be given to Matt Blunt or other Republican candidates in the form of “soft” money.

A good day

On Sept. 28, 2005, records show that Cargill, Simmons Foods, Tyson Foods and the Missouri-based political action committee of the Poultry Federation gave a combined $11,000 to the Missouri Republican Party. The Poultry Federation includes on its board such people as Todd Simmons, chief operating officer for Simmons Foods; Greg Spencer, senior vice president of poultry operations for Tyson Foods; and Charles George and Craig Coberly. George is listed as an executive with George’s Inc., of Ark., while Coberly is listed as the vice president of the Arkansas and Missouri complex for George’s Inc.

George’s is the poultry processor for which the Ozbun’s will raise 65,600 pullets on their CAFO near Roaring River. While George’s is privately owned and based in Arkansas, the company and its executives have given away money that amounts to more than chicken feed.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks federal donations, Gary C. George, listed as an “owner” and “president” of George’s, has given $26,200 to politicians over the last decade, most of it for Arkansas races. Gene George, who also listed his employer as George’s Inc., gave $4,000 between 1994 and 2001, and the company itself gave at least $6,000 to politicians in federal races.

Other money has been filtered through such organizations as the National Chicken Council, which counts George’s, Simmons and Tyson among its members. The National Chicken Council has given more than $750,000 to federal candidates and national parties since 2000.

A fair shake?

With so much money flowing into the political process, can the opponents get a fair shake?

That question was posed to Gov. Blunt, Schmid, Childers and Glen Balch, spokesman for George’s in Springdale Ark. Blunt’s media spokeswoman, Jessica Robinson, deflected a response from the governor’s office to Childers. Schmid and Balch did not respond.

In a statement, Childers said: “Missouri’s environmental laws are the only thing that dictate our permitting process and the actions that must be performed by the Department of Natural Resources when issuing permits. The department is bound under clear legal provisions to carefully assure that permits meet technical and legal conditions, and then to issue those permits if they meet the requirements. Since the Ozbun CAFO met all requirements for its operating permit, the department had no choice but to issue it. Not to do so would violate the department’s statutory responsibility.”

But opponents of the CAFO, a handful of retirees and family farmers who live near Roaring River, say the DNR does have a choice and that it has chosen to ignore its responsibility to protect a sensitive natural area near a state park in favor of big corporations.

Riedel, who likes to play golf and fish at Table Rock Lake, said: “We don’t enjoy this one bit. I did not retire to fight this thing.

“I’ve repeated this to people many, many times. We have learned what politicians can do if they are bought off by the big corporations. The people don’t realize how corrupt it is. They don’t realize how they twist the laws to pay off their campaign debts to these corporations.’’

Beverly Sweeney, another opponent of the CAFO who lives near Roaring River, said, “The DNR always says it’s following the rules and the regs, but they do have choices they can make. Even if the applicant dots their I’s and crosses their T’s, they don’t have to issue a permit.

“We are going to try to get a fair shake, but the odds, well, they are against us.’’



CAFO

A confined-animal feeding operation, which will house up to 65,600 pullets for the George’s Processing plant near Cassville, was granted an operating permit Aug. 22 by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The waste-management system for the Ozbun CAFO has been designed and permitted as a no-discharge operation, which means wastes are contained and stored until proper land application can take place.

The DNR changed the construction permit to allow for the installation of an incinerator to burn up to 8,000 pounds of dead birds annually. The original permit called for the construction of a composter for dead birds.

Opponents of the CAFO are challenging both the construction and operating permits. In addition, the Sierra Club of Missouri is questioning whether an air permit is needed for the incinerator.