New Daniels' "Partnership" Designed to Promote CAFOs, Thwart Citizen Opposition

August 21, 2007
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By JOE MILLER

We're all aware of the initiatives of Governor Daniels and various state agencies acting at his behest (e.g., the Indiana State Department of Agriculture [ISDA], the Indiana Department of Environmental Management [IDEM]) to double pork production, increase confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and relax or suspend regulation of CAFOs in certain areas to make Indiana more business-friendly (1, 2).

We're also aware of the attempts of ISDA and the Indiana Land Resources Council (ILRC) to create and promote three "model" agricultural ordinances that could be adopted by supporters of CAFOs around the state to make their counties CAFO friendly (3). (Despite citizen opposition, the three "model" ordinances were approved by ISDA and the ILRC with minimal changes on March 27, 2007 [4].) As documented in the third link (3), the entire ISDA/ILRC "model" ordinance promotion campaign was conducted in such a way as manage, control and marginalize citizen opposition to the many CAFO-friendly features of the ordinances. As documented in the first link (1), similar procedures have been used by IDEM to deflect and marginalize citizen opposition to its CAFO-friendly regulatory procedures.

Recently yet another initiative to make Indiana CAFO friendly has emerged! On August 15, Lt. Governor Becky Skillman announced that the Indiana Farm Bureau will "coordinate an effort to bring stakeholders from agriculture, the environmental community, elected officials and others together" ... "to improve the state's agricultural regulatory system." Partnering with the Indiana Farm Bureau is "Ted McKinney, Leader, U.S. Food Chain and State Affairs for Dow AgroSciences ... who will chair the group and help in selecting members" (5). The goals and member selection criteria for this newest "partnership," and the types of regulatory "improvements" it is likely to recommend, seem self-evident. [Thanks to Barbara Cox for alerting me to Skillman's August 15 announcement.]

http://www.in.gov/newsroom.htm?detailContent=129_10624.htm

One type of regulatory decision that the national American Farm Bureau Federation (and I assume the Indiana Farm Bureau) endorses is to exempt toxics in wastes and air emissions created by CAFOs from Superfund and Community Right-To-Know laws (6). Representatives of the national and state Sierra Club expect that an attempt will be made by the livestock and poultry CAFO industries and their supporters to push for the attachment of such an exemption to the Farm Bill when the Senate returns in early September. For more information on this expected push, and for action suggestions to oppose it, contact the Sierra club individuals listed in link seven (7).

Groups dominated by industry representatives and front groups (8) -- such as Skillman's new regulatory reform "partnership" -- are nothing new at either the state or federal level. The following link (9), for example, will take you to a January 30, 2007, report by 27 organizations documenting a similar domination of a USDA Agricultural Air Quality Task Force, and demanding that balanced representation on the task force be established.

To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, "The price of freedom [and agricultural sustainability] is eternal vigilance."

St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN

SJVGreens

New Daniels' "Partnership" Designed to Promote CAFOs, Thwart Citizen Opposition