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Just imagine over 2 million gallons of liquid manure less than 600 FEET from your house. Note that they spread 8000 to 10,000 gallons PER ACRE. This is what rural NY state is becoming....a dumping ground for the industrial dairy farmers. Anyone thinking of buying a house in farm country is crazy. Long dormant dairy farms are coming back online in record numbers fueled by sky high milk prices, slave mirgant laborers and increased government agricultural welfare payments. Gone are the days of pastured cows. These are FACTORY FARMS.
By Billie Owens, staff writer
Daily Messenger
Sat Dec 01, 2007, 06:00 AM EST
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Manchester, N.Y. - MANCHESTER — Plans by two dairymen to operate manure lagoons in the town of Manchester were outlined Tuesday night at a Planning Board meeting.
John Mueller and Bill Young each presented their site plans for handling liquid waste from their milk cows. No action was taken by the board, which will consider the plans at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18.
In the meantime, Ontario County agriculture and environmental officials are reviewing the plans and will provide feedback.
Just out of curiosity, are you a vegan? No milk, meat, eggs, nothing but seeds and berries??? That could account for your dislike in most areas.
No vegan here. I hunt and fish also. Im a victim of a Factory Farm that went from 100 cows that used to be pastured to over 1500 cows that are confined in a hell hole on a couple of acres of land. All the houses around me have experienced property value destruction due to severe odors, rats and garbage flies and contaminated well water. All in the name of Right to Farm laws. They spread 8000 to 10000 gallons of filth PER ACRE many times a year right up to the edge of your back yard. They employ illegal farm laborer who bring their pregnant wives up here so they are born US citizens. The factory farms then pass the social costs of thier illegal slave laborers off to the taxpayers. The creeks and streams are DEAD from the pesticide runoff and silage leachate pollution. The DEC looks the otherway because the Farm Bureau is a powerful lobby. Again, anyone wishing to buy or build in an Ag District better do thier homework. The realtors all know about these factory farms and the above mentioned issues but it's soemthing they don't like to talk about. FWIW.
Ontario county was recently given some sort of award by an organic farming organization as one of the best places to farm "the old-fashioned way". This news would be a shocking irony. There has been a gathering storm of protest over this type of farming, and its consequences. Hasn't it made an impact at all in reversing the trend? Why don't social activists petition lawmakers and write letters to the newspapers,etc.? Between this and the wind turbines, and the landfills containing imported garbage, rural NY is turning into an ugly, blighted wasteland, literally!
One does not have to be a vegan, health nut, or lame-o "environmental activist" type to be incensed at the eco-havoc wrought by these factory type farms.
This kind of operation has been causing problems in the South and the Midwest for years. And it does'nt have to be, it's sheer mismanagement and neglect.
If the local authorities (no doubt well greased by the corporations that run these operations) don't take action, contact the EPA and get them involved. Land application is a valid way of dealing with wastes, but that amount per acre sounds excessive.
The EPA doesn't have jurisdiction over factory farms in NYS, the NYSDEC does and they do NOTHING. You can't even get these bumbs to test the water when visible sewage is floating down the creek next to your house! The locals are well greased and the DEC do nothing. Example: Marks Farms in Lowville, NY spilled over 3 million gallons of liquid filth in the Black River in August of 2005. The DEC, which regulates the storage of manure, didn't even know these manure lagoons existed! The spill killed over 250,000 fish and all they did was fine the farm a leeser dollar amount than they recieve in government handouts every year! It's a joke.
[quote=itSmellsBAD;2139595]Just imagine over 2 million gallons of liquid manure less than 600 FEET from your house. Note that they spread 8000 to 10,000 gallons PER ACRE. This is what rural NY state is becoming....a dumping ground for the industrial dairy farmers. Anyone thinking of buying a house in farm country is crazy. Long dormant dairy farms are coming back online in record numbers fueled by sky high milk prices, slave mirgant laborers and increased government agricultural welfare payments. Gone are the days of pastured cows. These are FACTORY FARMS.
Well I sometimes tire of all of itsmellsBAD's negative posts, this is truely a very serious problem that will only get worse unless we stand up and speak up against greed driven agricultural practice that will bring ZERO positive economic results to a community. My family owns a small dairy (sustainably operated with 160 pastured cows) in Wisconsin in which one of these Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) set up shop two miles down the road with over 10,000 animals that produce as much raw sewage and manure waste as the city of Madison, WI does on an annual basis. The stench is beyond description in July and August and property values have plumeted as no one can sell their property. Also, this CAFO follows the industry business model of bringing in illegal Latino workers to work in the appalling working conditions for very low wages, which brings in all the crime and associated social service expenses paid for by you and me and not the industrial farm operation. Also, as in most states, since these are classified as 'farms' they DO NOT have to comply to any federal Clean Air Act standards since that are not defined as industrial. This is a huge public health and public saftey issue as the vast majority of dairy and meat products produced in these CAFO operations is laced with massive amounts of antibiotics and artifical growth hormones, among other food safty issues. None of us are immune to the impacts of these animal factories, no matter if you live downwind of a consumer living a thousand miles away. If you want to take a look at the SH*T in your county and/or if you are interested in buying a rural property, please visit the following web site: Food & Water Watch that will allow you to track the proliferation of factory farms state by state and county by county. It will give you the number of animal factories, type of operation (dairy, feedlot, hogs, chickens, etc.) and even the number of animals on the site. This site documents some of the big manure ponds containment spills and leaks that have taken place in NY the last couple of years.
The New York Farm Bureau is one of the largest lobby groups in NY State. Spitzer appointed a Farm Bureau HACK as commissioner of the NY Dept of Ag & Markets. Who do you think is pushing this Drivers License for Illegals the hardest? The NY Farm Bureau! Check out thier web site...it's all about illegal farm labor and how to AVOID problems with no match social secuirty numbers, etc.
http:/www.nyfb.org/
Your factory farm neighbors are trying to snatch up your rural property for pennies on the dollar,,,,,just like in the old Robber Baron days, and they are WINNING!
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This is BAD!!!!
