East Hopewell Township will be holding their monthly meeting this evening at the township building on Hickory Road starting at 7PM. The first part of the meeting there is a subdivision plan to be presented and a couple of other business issues. No one has requested to speak at public comment period. :(

If anyone has complaints about the strong stench odor attributed to hog manure produced at the CAFO which was spread in early to mid April, please feel free to attend this meeting and voice your concerns.

It is my understanding that the odor traveled to Hopewell Township [Stewartstown Station] and Stewartstown Borough. I’ve received e-mail messages from Stewartstown Station and was approached by borough residents about the odor.

I cannot attend this evening, but would like to.  May I ask though on this forum - what good would it do to voice concerns over the smell of the hog farm?  I am in Stewartstown Station and have smelled it - quite rank.  But from what I understand, the farmer won the right to have the farm.  Period.  Am I wrong?  I’m just asking what could possibly be done about the odor?  Anyone?

It is a farm it is going to have a scent associated with it. It is part of living in the country.  If the farmer is falling EPA regulations there is nothing you can do about it.  And since stench isn’t really part of EPA regulations I’m sure that their is nothing that is going to be done.  I hate to be so blunt but if you cant manage to live with the smells of the country then it may be time to move somewhere else.  You need to remember that if it weren’t for these farmers then you would have nothing to eat. Everyone is complaining about the high costs of food but yet they are making it harder for the farmers to make a living.  That seems very counter productive.

Boilerchick - you apparently misread what I was saying.  I’m with you here.  While I’m not crazy about the smell, the farmer won his right to have the farm.  He is zoned for it -he’s done nothing wrong.  I wish there was something that could be done about the smell - don’t like it, but oh well.  I’m just wondering if there is a way for the farmer to hold down the stench.  I’m not a farmer, and I don’t even play one on tv, so I have no idea if there is anything they can do (like a giant bag of kitty litter!) to help with the smell.  That’s kinda what I was asking.

Yahoo!! Glad to see that the pleasantries of “country living” has crept into the station & the borough.

When we were fighting this tooth & nail, very few of the residents did much to support us.

We deal with it just about every day and we’re happy to share the spring air with all of you!!

Boilerchick - 07 May 2008 04:33 PM

It is a farm it is going to have a scent associated with it. It is part of living in the country.  If the farmer is falling EPA regulations there is nothing you can do about it.  And since stench isn’t really part of EPA regulations I’m sure that their is nothing that is going to be done.  I hate to be so blunt but if you cant manage to live with the smells of the country then it may be time to move somewhere else.  You need to remember that if it weren’t for these farmers then you would have nothing to eat. Everyone is complaining about the high costs of food but yet they are making it harder for the farmers to make a living.  That seems very counter productive.

Groundhog day. 

All of this has been said before.  New members, there is a search box in the upper right hand corner where you can find pages and pages of posts about CAFOs.

Southern York County Podcast also has a podcast on CAFO’s.  Informative and unbiased.

I think we are within a few miles of the hog farm.  It smelled pretty bad for a couple days but seems fine now.  Since the hog farm started we’ve tested our well water regularly and so far so good.  Hopefully it stays that way.  I don’t mind a few days of stench now and then.

Just because it was approved does not mean it is over. In case anyone missed it, there was an interesting article the other week in USA Today that talked about the Pew Commission’s findings. They are saying these types of operations are not good and we need to find better options.

Duh… what was SRACA saying all along during the intial fight? Peach Bottom’s zoning board just denied one in Peach Bottom on the basis that they were using good tillable land for it and that their ordinance said it should be on poor soil to preserve good farm land.

If you want to lodge complaints about the farm, please PM me for my personal contact info. There are some processes that have to be followed for legal reasons.

the “PEW” commission? you’re kidding...right?

Just because it was approved does not mean it is over. In case anyone missed it, there was an interesting article the other week in USA Today that talked about the Pew Commission’s findings. They are saying these types of operations are not good and we need to find better options.

Duh… what was SRACA saying all along during the intial fight? Peach Bottom’s zoning board just denied one in Peach Bottom on the basis that they were using good tillable land for it and that their ordinance said it should be on poor soil to preserve good farm land.

If you want to lodge complaints about the farm, please PM me for my personal contact info. There are some processes that have to be followed for legal reasons.

No Alex, I did not catch the “interesting article” the other week in USA Today. I don’t know why you didn’t post it to the forum as I’m sure many people would have been interested in reading it. I thought everyone was supposed to share info, guess I thought wrong. :(

First written April 29, 2008 in USA Today…

Panel questions factory-like farms

WASHINGTON (AP) — American agriculture must move away from its focus on large, industrial farms to reverse environmental and human health problems, a private commission reported Tuesday.

The report examined the impact of what it called the widespread use of industry-like facilities, where large numbers of cattle, pigs and chickens are concentrated, often in very close quarters, for rapid growth and preparation for slaughter.

“There is increasing urgency to chart a new course,” concluded the report by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which spent more than two years examining the industrial farm systems.

The facilities, the report concluded, “often pose unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the animals themselves” while shifting rural America’s economic power from farmers to livestock processors.

The study was a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The 15 commission members offered a mix of expertise, from agriculture and the food industry to public policy, veterinary medicine and animal welfare.

“We’re certainly not suggesting we go back to what is perceived to be the good old days of small family farms,” said panel chairman John Carlin of Kansas State University, a former Kansas governor.

Carlin said in an interview that the panel believes “there are going to have to be ... significant changes to address some of the public health and environmental issues” raised by the large feed lots and concentrations of livestock and poultry.

The commission examined a broad range of issues, such as the impact of livestock waste on lakes, streams and soil; the human health implications of the industry’s extensive use of low-level anti-microbials for animal growth; the impact of factory farms on rural life; and the welfare of the animals themselves.

“The integration of these issues is not to be taken lightly,” said commission member Michael Blackwell, a former assistant surgeon general. He said in an interview that many of the problems surrounding the factory farms have human health implications.

For example, the report said, the concentration of animals increases the risks of transmission of disease from animals to humans. The report cited studies that show workers near such farms have been found to experience high levels of respiratory problems.

The commission called for phasing out non-therapeutic use of anti-microbials — substances that kill bacteria — because their widespread use in agriculture is probably contributing to human resistance to antibiotics.

“We know we need to become more prudent in how we use these anti-microbials,” said Blackwell, adding that they find their way from animals to humans through meat, vegetables and fruit.

The massive amount of animal waste generated at industrial farms was also cited as a major environmental and health concern. Animals confined in these facilities produce three times as much manure annually as every man, woman and child in the U.S., the report said.

Second article posted in USA Today on April 30, 2008…

Report: Health risks outweigh farming cost cuts

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
The way America produces meat, milk and eggs is unsustainable, creates significant risks to public health from antibiotic resistance and disease, damages the environment and unnecessarily harms animals, a report released Tuesday says.

Representing two years of research by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, the report suggests ways to safeguard the safety and stability of U.S. meat, milk and egg production. A joint project of the non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, it focuses on problems caused by a nationwide move to large, industrial-style animal-feeding facilities.

Making the necessary changes to the system that puts food on America’s tables doesn’t mean making meat, milk and eggs so expensive that people can’t afford to eat, says panel chairman John Carlin of Kansas State University.

BETTER LIFE: More ‘food for thought’
“We’re talking pennies. And when you factor in the positives from the standpoint of public health and the environment, it would actually save us money,” he says.

Meat, milk and eggs have become cheaper in the years since the rise of industrial animal farms. But those methods have come at a cost, the report says. They include:

•The use of low levels of antibiotics in animal feed to boost growth rather than to fight actual disease. This increases the possibility that antibiotic-resistant strains of disease will surface in animals and people. The report calls for restrictions on the use of drugs in the raising of animals that will enter the food supply. It also seeks improved monitoring of the food supply to detect the antibiotic-resistant microbes.

•Large, confined feeding operations that bring together tens of thousands of chickens, pigs or cattle. These produce enormous amounts of animal waste that can foul water supplies, spread disease and cause respiratory problems, including higher asthma rates in people working and living nearby.

New research is needed to find ways to deal with the large quantities of concentrated animal waste generated by these facilities, the report says.

•The report calls for a 10-year phaseout of troubling animal-farming practices, including the use of crates that keep pregnant sows from turning around and severely restrict sows’ movements while nursing, small battery cages for laying hens, the force-feeding of geese or duck to produce foie gras (which is their fattened livers) and cutting the tails of dairy cattle.

Consumers can play an important part by asking for more information about how the animals are raised and slaughtered, Carlin says. “The food retail industry will respond when consumers’ expectations change,” he says.

Kay Johnson Smith of the Animal Agriculture Alliance in Arlington, Va., said the report unfairly targeted large animal operations. “The industry is very progressive in looking at how do we do things better,” she says. Producers are already starting to make changes, “so why do we need policy to make those changes?” Forcing change will result only in more expensive food, she says.

“Peach Bottom’s zoning board just denied one in Peach Bottom on the basis that they were using good tillable land for it and that their ordinance said it should be on poor soil to preserve good farm land.”

I have heard(don’t know if it’s true) that the peach Bottom zoning board is looking into changing the ordinance so that they can put CAFO’s on good farmland.  I have also heard (again, not 1st hand) that if it passes there are others who might be interested in putting CAFO’s on their land.

Let’s see, we have imported oil, imported rice, etc ...  Do we want our meat to be imported in from Mexico?  Personally, I don’t even want to drink their water!  Be careful what you wish for.

Slateridger - 08 May 2008 11:05 AM

Let’s see, we have imported oil, imported rice, etc ...  Do we want our meat to be imported in from Mexico?  Personally, I don’t even want to drink their water!  Be careful what you wish for.

The U.S. already imports meat from other countries:

Beef import share from Canada:

2002: 34 percent
2003: 25 percent
2004: 29 percent
2005: 30 percent
2006: 27 percent
2007: 26 percent

The US imported 13% of its Pork from Canada and Denmark last year according to the USDA.

and finally poultry:

U.S. to allow processed poultry shipments from China
By Libby Quaid, AP Food And Farm Writer

WASHINGTON --Poultry processed in China will be allowed to enter the United States despite outbreaks of deadly bird flu in China, the Bush administration said Thursday.