Court stops 'megadairy' in its tracks

Once again illinois is chasing off any new industry and we wonder why all factory and labor jobs have gone overseas.

halted on what grounds? Trial fo what?

Anyone who has driven through Iowa in the past few years has had the pleasure of experiencing their "lagoons" full of livestock excrement as the stench wafts through their A/C system. Anyone who hasn't, should do so before telling the rest of us how great it would be to welcome this sort of thing to the Chicago area.

There are reasons farmers are not encouraged to house so many animals in one location (the smell and waste issue is just one). Imagine what would happen if a cow was contaminated in a facility this large. Mad cow anyone? A repeat here of what happened in China? How about the tomato/spinach debacle of earlier this year? Regulating and controlling farming numbers helps keep our food safe. Period.

A judge with common sense. A IL Dept of Ag with zero sense. Any waste from this factory, yes, factory, if allowed should be shipped back to California where the company is based.

Just say no to corporate factory farms, nothing good comes out of it.

Doug wrote:

Anyone who has driven through Iowa in the past few years has had the pleasure of experiencing their "lagoons" full of livestock excrement as the stench wafts through their A/C system. Anyone who hasn't, should do so before telling the rest of us how great it would be to welcome this sort of thing to the Chicago area.

Look at a map dear. This is in rural JoDaviss county. Thats 3 hours from Chicago.

Ever try to fit 4400 diners in a restaurant certified to seat 200? It just doesn't work, especially if the owner hasn't arranged to safely handle the waste. Beyond the stench, it could contaminate the ground water, killing-off vegetation, game, and livestock. Furthermore, contaminated ground water could require special measures to make the local water safe to drink.

CAFOs are unnatural and unhealthful for both animals and people to be stuck in. Dispersion is part of the solution for pollution. Natural ecosystems have a number of ways in which animals are incenvitized to move around often enough to make sure their wastes are dispersed enough.

Mega Dairy

Folks, there is a lot of misinformation on all sides in this thing. First, Bos is still able to continue building his dairy, he is not able to house more than 199 cattle at it currently. So the project is not dead, and Bos is still planning on finishing it.

Second, the groundwater contamination issue is murky at best. The USGS is not certian what kind of bedrock is under the dairy. The records that were made on the rock are 20 years old. The area is known to be riddled with karst, but the only core samples taken from that specific location have been taken by Bos' contractors. Those samples were found not to have karst. So it is not definitively know what they are dealing with.

Third, Bos is developing a plan with the IEPA to deal with the manure run off. It is not complete yet and changes almost daily. Last I had heard, he was planning on using a lagoon and a methane digester. Both are proven technologies that are at work in other larger dairies in the area.

Fourth, for those of you who complain about the smell, I ask you if you have ever been to a large dairy. They do not smell nearly as bad as you make them out to. Yes, manure smells bad. Guess what, that's the country for you.

There are other large dairies within a stone's throw of Tradition North and South. They have not been protested by HOMES.

Jean SmilingCoyote wrote:

CAFOs are unnatural and unhealthful for both animals and people to be stuck in. Dispersion is part of the solution for pollution. Natural ecosystems have a number of ways in which animals are incenvitized to move around often enough to make sure their wastes are dispersed enough.

Not necessarily. A well run CAFO can be safe and healthy for the animals, provided they get the care that they require and corners are not cut. There are some very poorly run CAFO's out there. But there are some very clean ones with animals that are healthier than smaller operations. It's all about the operator.

Doug wrote:

Anyone who has driven through Iowa in the past few years has had the pleasure of experiencing their "lagoons" full of livestock excrement as the stench wafts through their A/C system. Anyone who hasn't, should do so before telling the rest of us how great it would be to welcome this sort of thing to the Chicago area.

Nora is not in the Chicago area.

Why is this being reported in a Chicago newspaper?

Factory farms harm the environment, abuse animals and produce inferior product. People deserve food that is clean, healthy and produced without damaging the planet or abusing animals.

To jspicer: despite your fundamentalist libertarian beliefs, which are as ridiculous as the beliefs of fundamentalists of any stripe, regulation exists for a reason, and it's not just to take power away from those noble businesspeople who make the world a better place by their noble acts of self-interest.

I think what "Doug" was meaning is that the people from the Chicagoland area do happen to travel to other parts of Illinois. And he's right the smell is horrible coming through your a/c.

Amanda wrote:

<quoted text>
Look at a map dear. This is in rural JoDaviss county. Thats 3 hours from Chicago.

But there are folks living and work there who do not want the "dairy air." Tourism is one if not the only major industry in Jo Davis county. If the air does not smell nice, I think no tourist would pick that spot as his destination ever again!

I have an excellent idea. Why don't we just have our milk imported from China. They seem to do a fine job there producing agriculture products. I am as concerned about our public safety and health as anyone, but we are going to end up sending ALL of our industry overseas simply because industry doesn't want to fight the beaucracy. You choose, milk from a foreign country where we have no control over how it is produced, or milk produced in the United States!

IL2AZ wrote:

<quoted text>
But there are folks living and work there who do not want the "dairy air." Tourism is one if not the only major industry in Jo Davis county. If the air does not smell nice, I think no tourist would pick that spot as his destination ever again!

Ah. but you see you are in farm country now. Farms don't just smell of roses and honey. Farms are dirty. They sometimes can smell like, well, manure. It's a fact of life that cannot be changed. If you want to visit the country, be prepared for it to smell like the country.

Amanda wrote:

<quoted text> Farms don't just smell of roses and honey...be prepared for it to smell like the country.

I am sure folks living in JD county knows that well too. However, a 4400 cattle milking facility is not a "farm," as you stated, it is a factory. I think the residents in JD county probably would not have had a cow about having a new farm with up to 199 cattle. But 4400? That is a whole another pile of "ca-ca."