Those interested in more details should go on over to Kemplog or to the Indiana Law Blog both of which have been covering the Indiana Confined Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) much more closely than have I. But, I thought I’d point out Ruth Holladay’s column entitled County not following governor’s farm plan. When Blackford County displeased the Governor’s office by deciding it didn’t want a 2,000 dairy cow acre on 70 acres in the county because they tend to be smelly environmental threats, the Governor’s office began intervening with the County on behalf of the factory farm.
However, being an avid (some would say obsessive) follower of the time debate, I had to grin when Ms. Holladay wrote the following:
The loudest noise came from Indiana’s agriculture chief Andy Miller, 35. Like others in the hard-line Daniels administration, he did not waste words in Sept. 9 letter to the commissioners.
What is your vision for your future, he asked. Is Blackford County unwilling to accommodate confined animal feeding operations? How about ethanol plants, since one of those is slated for Blackford?
He requested answers quickly. Because if Blackford is not on board, he said, other counties are waiting in the wings.
Then, Miller made his letter public. To trigger debate, he said.
That he has. Rae Schnapp of the Hoosier Environmental Council said the issue is bigger than one county. “I see it as a centralization of decision-making,” she said. Is the state really going to usurp local control of confined feeding operations?
No way, said Miller. “This is a local decision.”
Still, the state has a vision it is eager to share, if not impose — and whatever the administration’s faults may be, lack of a plan is not one of them.
From the time zone debate, we learn that the Daniels administration can very decisively get us into a mess. Then, once the mess is upon us, it throws up its hands and says that dealing with the mess is a local issue. (Then again, that is reminiscent of how the State “balanced” the budget this year and how the Feds dealt with Katrina.) So, I have no doubt that the Daniels administration would be very efficient at getting the CAFO installed. Then, once the vast ponds of manure started contaminating the local waterways, it would do absolutely nothing and begin singing the virtues of home rule.
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