Senate Bill 105 Runs “AFOWL” of local ordinances
Being a veteran of the “chicken” and “pig” wars of the 1990’s I think I know a “stinker” when I see one. This bill, which boasts 19 co-sponsors, looks like a good thing on the surface. I mean who wouldn’t want to see some basic standards of care imposed on the large confined animal feeding operations (cafo’s) that are cropping up like fetid blisters in the western part of the state. Seeing pork production facilities where the animal never sees the light of day, or sets foot on anything other than cold concrete or chicken houses that pack 100,000 chickens or more in cages with barely room to turn their heads will test the conscience of the most dedicated carnivore. Surely standards of care are needed. What is not needed in SB 105 is the prohibition put on local governments from setting standards of care for the people who have to endure these operations near their churches ,schools and neighborhoods. Local communities had protected themselves and their citizens from the worst abuses of stench, insects,noise and dust by passing nuisance ordinances requiring set-backs and other accommodations from the operators. This bill would declare any such ordinances unenforceable and prohibit the enactment of new ones.
I remember a representative of a large farm group back in the nineties telling a sympathetic agriculture committee that these “factory” farms were no different than any other farm. “Farmers are the original environmentalists,” he said. I got up to the table and asked for a show of hands of anyone who believed that 200 pigs on 200 acres was the same thing as 20,000 pigs on 200 acres. Not a hand went up. It’s ironic when I look at the names on this bill that so many of them have long been champions of the “home rule” concept, endorsing the power of local governments over the tyranny of big state and federal bureaucracies. I guess the message here is that home rule is O.K. for people but stops at pigs and chickens. Contact your legislator and tell them not to take the power of local rule away from the citizens and defeat SB 105.