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A large part of the CAFO battle in this state is about who controls where the factory farms can be located. Big Ag wants only the legislature–Republican controlled–to have that power. Environmentalists and many rural residents want local control, on the assumption that the locals shouldn’t have to tolerate environmental damage and devalued property. A skirmish in that battle has arisen over the question of whether anybody besides the legislature can create CAFO free buffer zones around historic sites and state parks. The resulting controversy involves both Chris Koster and Jay Nixon.
The controversy began with a fight at the historic village of Arrow Rock near Columbia. The town, which makes most of its income from the tourist trade, went to court in 2007 to prevent a 4800 hog CAFO from being built nearby. In August of last year, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce ruled that there would be a two mile buffer zone to protect the historic village.
The hog CAFO, as it turned out, wasn’t built, so the buffer zone was a moot point, but Matt Blunt’s Department of Natural Resources, carrying water for Big Pig, as usual, appealed the decision anyway. The bad actors didn’t want a precedent of buffer zones set.
Environmentalists were pleased, therefore, to hear candidate Jay Nixon assert, when he spoke in Arrow Rock before the election, that the role of the DNR is to regulate polluters near historic sites and state parks. Indeed, the DNR is mandated by law to protect those sites. So environmentalists and anti-CAFO activists figured that if and when Nixon was elected, the DNR would drop the suit and the precedent of buffer zones would remain.
But it hasn’t happened that way. Somehow the appeal against buffer zones has wound up in the attorney general’s office with Chris Koster, who is reluctant to let it drop. When he was a Republican, Koster had a history of opposing any local control of CAFOs. In 2007, he introduced a bill (SB 364) that would have taken away the only vestige of local control over CAFOs. Environmentalists pressured their senators, and the bill–even in a Republican controlled Senate–never came to a vote.
Although environmentalists supported Koster in last year’s election, figuring he’d be easier to work with than Gibbons, they’re not finding their efforts for him well rewarded. Koster told the Columbia Tribune that he believes, in the interest of unity and predictability, that only the legislature should be able to create buffer zones. He concedes that Nixon and the current officials at the DNR would probably like to see the appeal dropped, but he contends that “Allowing circuit judges and local county health departments to ‘draw their own boundaries is an increased threat to agriculture.'”
A threat to agriculture? Not exactly. Not unless you define “agriculture” as Smithfield Farms. Which Koster apparently does. Referring to Koster’s switch to the Democratic Party early last year, some environmentalists are still referring to him as “Koster the Imposter.” I don’t blame them. As long as he continues to favor corporate controlled agriculture in this state, I’ll continue to think of him as a Republican.
Think of him as a Republican…and vote accordingly.
When I read about this case in the Post Dispatch, I wrote to Koster telling him he should see the documentary made by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center called “Farming Was My Life.” The film interviews farmers who have had to leave the land that has been in their families for years because of the stench in the air and pollution in the water supply created by animal manure. One small town mayor explains how the CAFO in his county has destroyed whole communities as people are forced to sell out and leave their neighbors in even worse shape than before. Families that have helped each other for generations are now not on speaking terms. This isn’t just about hurting the tourist business in state parks although that’s reason enough to keep CAFO’s out. This outrageous abuse of animals and destruction of the environment hurts all of us.
The families in the movie are right here in Missouri, just down the road from where you and I live. I bought 3 copies of the DVD, sent one to the Franklin County cattlemen’s association president and one to the property rights group in our area.
I can’t help but wonder if these salt-of-the-Earth folks who are being raped, pillaged and plundered by Big Ag didn’t vote Repug their whole lives and paid their dues to the Farm Bureau. I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s a good bet they did.
Get a copy of the DVD from Missouri Rural Crisis Center and show it to every group you belong to. Then call Koster and tell him we will haunt him everyday until the next election if he doesn’t do the right thing.
I’ll add to an otherwise excellent commentary by Hotflash, that the fortunate defeat of SB 364 was due in large part by Missourians for Local Control, which is comprised not only of environmentalists, but also of family farmers, health experts, animal rights advocates, property rights advocates, historians, rural economists, to name a few, all regardless of political affiliation. That diverse groups can come together on a single issue, indicates the extensiveness of the offensiveness. Big Pig can ruin the lives of everyone in its path.