Jim Moss 10/15/08 pullout at bottom

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

LAMAR, Mo. — A conference on the environmental and agricultural impact of concentrated animal feeding operations attracted 100 people this week to Thiebaud Auditorium in Lamar.

Darvin Bentlage, a farmer who has been critical of hog CAFOs in Barton County, organized the meeting in a way that restricted debate on the topic until after the meeting had concluded.

Leslie Holloway, spokeswoman for the Missouri Farm Bureau, said the approach Tuesday night did not give those attending the conference an opportunity to hear all sides of the issue.

Speakers were critical of what they said is the inability of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to protect the state’s natural resources from the manure associated with factory farms.

They said the DNR, which is charged with permitting and regulating the state’s largest CAFOs, is much too cozy with corporate agriculture. They said the department should be doing more to prevent pollution through aggressive enforcement instead of responding to it at taxpayer expense after the damage already has taken place.

They said new setback standards are needed to protect state parks and historic sites, and to protect traditional family farmers from CAFOs that are placed too close to their homes. They said traditional family farmers would be more concerned about CAFOs if they knew that the equity they have in their farms is placed at risk when CAFOs are established near their farms.

Holloway, with the Farm Bureau, said she attended the meeting on behalf of local Farm Bureau members. She said that by not permitting questions to be asked until after the meeting concluded, the organizers were able to spread “a lot of misleading information. We did not have an opportunity to comment about the information that was presented.”

In response, Bentlage said: “If they want to rent the facility and debate us, bring it on. It was not the intent of this meeting to debate them, which would have given them an opportunity to disrupt the meeting.

“We’ve already heard what they’ve got to say. It was our turn to present the facts that they don’t want people to know about. They don’t want people to know that the information against CAFOs is building and building.”

Holloway said a key issue that was misrepresented by the speakers is the impact of CAFOs on property values. The speakers cited a study by an agricultural economist with the University of Missouri-Columbia as the source of the information.

“We’ve seen that information before — that property values can decrease by up to 88 percent,” Holloway said. “They have used that on several occasions. The researcher who did the study that they are citing as the source of that information has sent us a memo that says what they are saying does not represent the findings of his report.

“He said they cannot draw that conclusion from his report. That is one example of the kind of misrepresentation that was evident during that meeting.”

Bentlage countered by saying the information is factual, and that’s why the Farm Bureau is afraid that traditional family farmers will find out about it.

“They (the Farm Bureau) know how traditional family farmers are sensitive to the equity issue,” he said. “That’s why they are trying to suppress it. But it’s just not a problem for the landowner, but for the entire community. If property values go down, there’s less money for schools and fire districts.”

Holloway said the Farm Bureau would never support an industry that diminishes the equity that traditional family farmers have in their farms. She said Bentlage cited numerous CAFO studies that are accessible on the Internet via a Google search.

“He said you could Google and get all kinds of studies,” she said. “Well, all of those studies are not going to be good studies that give the real facts.”

She said Bentlage, in his closing statement, said there is room for compromise in the agricultural community over the issue of CAFOs. She said there is room for compromise, but that a “blanket indictment” of CAFOs does not leave much room for compromise.

She said she attended the meeting because it was important to “be there firsthand to hear what they are saying instead of getting it secondhand in bits and pieces.”

Renee Bungart, spokeswoman for the DNR, responded to the critical statements made during the conference. She said: “The department agrees that operations which have the potential to impact our environment should be regulated to protect our natural resources. That’s why we carefully review all permit applications to make sure they fully comply with the law. The department is also undertaking a rule-making effort to ensure that our regulations are consistent with federal requirements.

“If the Legislature decides to increase the buffers currently around CAFOs, then the department will fully implement those buffers. Likewise, should the Legislature decide to enhance our enforcement authority over CAFOs, we will respond accordingly. The department strives every day to protect our valuable natural resources within the constraints of federal and state environmental laws.”

Mike Holzknecht, a resident of the Stockton area, said he attended the meeting to hear what people were saying about CAFOs.

“What impressed me was that the group who came to Lamar was from all over Missouri,” he said. “They came in defense of our family farms, homes and our rural way of life. These are true American patriots.

“I hope all of our neighbors out here in the country will listen to these courageous family farmers before it is too late, and they lose everything they’ve worked for their entire lives — the value of their home and their family’s freedom to enjoy it.”





Speakers



Speakers at the conference represented the Roaring River Park Alliance, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment and the Missouri Rural Crisis Center.