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The Muskegon (MI) Chronicle
has published the first of a two day series called "Raising a Stink: The
Factory Farm Debate" written by Jeff Alexander -- today there are 4 full
pages devoted to 4 large articles ("Big Farms, Big Risks";
"Local farm the first to lose environmental certification";
"Livestock fumes carry more than foul odor"; and "Farms and
Cities: which pollute more") along with additional information including a
full page graphic showing how CAFOs work, listing and mapping all the ones
located near Muskegon, their size and how much poop they produce, and
disclosing that Michigan CAFO spread 2 million tons or 4 billion pounds of
untreated manure on the land each year. Jeff Alexander has done an amazing job
of corralling a wide array of very complex information into a very informative overview
of the issue. Tomorrow more stories are to
run. Today the editor of the paper wrote about the series, giving a glimpse of
its extent (I have typed that in below). Unfortunately, M-Live (www.mlive.com/muchronicle) the web server
for Muskegon Chronicle has NOT posted this important series on their website so
far. You may wish to join me in urging them to post the articles so that they
can be accessed statewide -- go to http://www.mlive.com/contactus/
"Farm Stories 'raise a
stink' about important issues" By Paul M. Keep, editor of
the Muskegon Chronicle Now that you've washed your
breakfast bacon and eggs down with a tall glass of milk, want to know more
about the farms those products may have come from? We're counting on it. Reporter Jeff Alexander has
written a fascinating and thought provoking package of stories The Muskegon
Chronicle is publishing today and Monday. The subject is the changing
face of farming in Among the most amazing
things you'll learn is that some large farms in our area can generate as much
manure as a city of 100,000 people. That manure has to go somewhere and,
therein, lies Jeff's story. "Several of these farms
in "We decided this was a
good time to explore the economic forces in farming that are driving the
construction of more 'factory farms,' and whether the huge quantities of manure
these farms generate pose serious threats to the environment and public
health." He found a number of
troubling unintended consequences resulting from the trend toward fewer and
bigger farms. But it wasn't easy. "Farmers, in general,
are very reserved and reluctant to speak to reporters," Alexander says. Far from being an expert on
farming, he knew he had to do extensive research. "To educate myself, I
read thousands of pages of government reports, reports from farm groups,
environmental groups and scientific articles," he says. "I also toured a large
'factory farm' in He even used the state
Freedom of Information Act to get data on "Those records showed
which facilities were following the rules and which were causing water
pollution," he says. "The most illuminating
records I turned up using FOIA were those that showed how much manure some
farms generate. One farm, the den Dulk Dairy in But the biggest obstacle was
"trying to put this whole issue into some kind of meaningful
perspective," Alexander says. He found people have strong
feelings on both sides of the issue of super-sized farms. "I think the truth lies
somewhere in between these diametrically opposed arguments," he says. The biggest surprise to him
was the relatively lax regulation of farms in "Farms are exempt from
the state's air pollution control law, and local units of government have not
say in where (the largest farms) are located," Alexander says. The value of publishing
reporting like Jeff's is that it raises important issues for public
discussion. Should be let things go on as they have, or is a change needed? Whatever the ultimate
outcome, I'm convinced this package of stories will contribute to a better
understanding of a complex issue and help us focus on what is at stake. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anne Woiwode, State Director 517-484-2372 fax 517-484-3108 If the Green Revolution is a bloody pulp today, it is not
just because the environmental movement mugged itself. It is because the
corporate, political, and religious right ganged up on it in the back alleys of
power. Bill Moyers, before the Society of Environmental
Journalists, 10/1/05 |