Factory Farms (CAFO) in NY and Real Estate Agents (Batavia: house, to buy)

[itSmellsBAD]

Just wondering if a real estate agent is OBLIGATED BY LAW to let you know about Industrial Agriculture Dairy Farms (Dairy Farms called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFO) pollution or property value issues before you agree to buy a house in rural or semi-rural NY. Milk prices are more than a gallon of gasoline and these types of farms are expanding in NY at record levels with the support of your tax dollars. The finger lakes region is by far the worst in NY followed by Western NY (Erie, Wyoming, Niagara county etc). For information on what a Factory Farm is, go to GRACE FACTORY FARM website at factoryfarm.org and ask yourself if YOU want to live near one of THESE. Factory farms are expanding all over NY so BEWARE! Real Estate Agents will lie to you or forget to tell you about any of these issues! Pollution, both air and water, garbage flies, mosquitos, stench like you've never smelled before in your life, contaminated well water (HUGE issue in Batavia NY this year) , manure slurry road spills and loss of use and enjoyment of your property plus property value destruction are the results when you buy or build near one of these Hell operations . All opinions appreciated. Thanks

[ss58yy]

I wonder if NYC frowns upon these CAFOs near their Resevoirs?

[itSmellsBAD]

They bought up a bunch of land near some of the water supply dams to prevent CAFO runoff. They'll need to buy lots more because the CAFO's are expanding at an alarming rate, It's NASTY CAFO mess around the Schoharie Creek (NYC water supply). Enjoy!

[Ellie C.]

Geez - I moved to upstate NY for some peace and quiet and to enjoy the natural beauty of the place, and it's become crazy with the wind farms and the force fed cows and I just can't wait for people to go crazy levelling forests to plant corn for ethanol!

[itSmellsBAD]

Originally Posted by Ellie C.

Geez - I moved to upstate NY for some peace and quiet and to enjoy the natural beauty of the place, and it's become crazy with the wind farms and the force fed cows and I just can't wait for people to go crazy levelling forests to plant corn for ethanol!

Wind farms should be the least of your concerns. Dairy Factory Farms are the new pollutors in NY. You're about to find out just how powerful the NY Farm Bureau is. All this Factory Farm expansion is being funded with YOUR tax dollars, thanks to Eliot Spitzer. Ethanol = more corn= more cow manure slurry for the corn= higher milke prices (25% more than a gallon of GASOLINE!) because corn cost more = more environmental destruction= more contaminated well water= more ILLEGAL farm laborers. All this because of a special interest group called the NY Farm Bureau, the biggest Welfare cases in all of NY State. It's a vicious cycle.

[Ellie C.]

I just watch "The Meatrix". I feel ill, and that was from a cartoon.

So what you're saying, iSB, is that when I start having my seizures that I won't know if it's from the light flicker of the wind turbines, the ground water I've ingested that was contaminated from the industrial farming, or from the mad cow disease I've contracted from eating beef loaded with HGH??? Or would it be from the mercury in the fish?

Does anyone know where I can get a can of Soylent Green?

[itSmellsBAD]

It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Governor Spitzer just pushed $30,000,000 of state taxpayer money to these dairy farmers....despite record high milk prices. It's criminal what's going on in NY. The Great Lakes and the Finger Lakes are polluted with sewage from industrial agriculture and the DEC looks the other way. The factory farms pollute and then the state gives them more money for expansion. They pollute, you complain, they get a check! Do an internet search under CAFO POLLUTION NY and see how many hits you get. It will make you sick.

Substitute one word in every article you read about water pollution: take the word "manure" and make it "petroleum" and see if there would be any outrage. At least E Coli doesn't live in crude oil........it does live in well water in much of rural NY.

[looking4home]

I think people have the misconception that this sort of "pollution" is somehow acceptable because it is natural, i.e. coming directly from animals and their by-products. Although, fossil fuels are derived from once- living things, too!

I was upstate this summer and have already seen the change over in farming, from diverse crops to soley corn because the farmers are being subsidized, big-time. My good friend is a commodities trader and he said the impact is already being felt economically. Too much corn, and now wheat is going sky-high, as is dairy. When will we ever learn? Let's get off these media-driven hype bandwagons about green energy! They are causing more problems than they are solving. Trouble is, there are lots of people cashing in on the green craze right now, and think there is money to be made, and they all want to get in on the ground floor, so to speak. Unfortunately, it's the consumers who suffer most, in terms of price increases, inconvenience, and other quality of life issues that are caused by things like CAFO's and wind farms.

[honeychrome]

It is a mistake to dismiss industrial wind development as a minor concern compared to factory farms- each is a tentacle of the same fundamental issue of over industrialization, consolidation and centralized corporate and bureaucratic control. We can pick a single issue to fight against, maybe even have a victory here and there, all the while being distracted from the next growing threat in our back yards, and as long as there is no change to the underlying system it will go on and on. A small battle won here, a battle won there, but it will be a losing war against this corporate and bureaucratic power unless there is structural change. If you want to fight industrial farming, industrial wind development, industrial pollution, etc. start fighting for greater local control, a stronger and more responsive democratic process and for limits on corporate power and scale. Fight for a greater share of agricultural subsidy dollars to go to smallholders using low-impact methods of farming and for energy subsidy dollars to go to individual or community-owned renewable projects (or for the complete elimination of subsidies altogether). Stand up against falsely and euphemistically named 'free trade' agreements, fight against the growing use of eminent domain laws as a 'developer's tool'. Buy and use less 'stuff' and try to use less energy- not because of any spiritual or aesthetic reasons or to the 'save the planet', but because it puts less money and power in the hands of those ruining upstate NY in their resource grab. Run for local office. Buy from locally owned businesses and keep your dollars in the local economy. Find a local, small and pasture-based dairy farmer and buy your milk direct from him/her. Of course you'll pay more for it, but you'll know where it came from, how the animals are treated and that the manure of the cows is actually helping sustain and build the soil and healthy ecosystem rather than poison it. The same goes for the meat and vegetables you eat. If we don't want CAFOs in our backyards we've got to put our money where our mouths are and support the alternatives, which may be more expensive but actually isn't that hard in upstate NY. There are small farms and homesteaders all over the place- stop by and ask if they sell their milk/eggs/meat. Not as convenient as Hannaford or wherever, but it is that demand for cheap convenience that makes CAFOs a big business (well, that and the big subsidies).

Railing against just industrial wind development or CAFOs is only addressing a symptom while leaving the disease unchallenged and uncured.

Uh, OK. Sorry for ranting.

[itSmellsBAD]

I'd still take a wind farm over a CAFO any day. Wind farms are ugly but they don't pollute my well water and the air I breath. I'm no fan of wind farms but these issues are totally different when it comes to pollution.