Of Gardening and CAFOs

I know it is summer because my arms and legs look like they belong to two different people. Actually, my upper arms and lower arms could belong to different people. My face and neck are pretty tan, too, despite constantly using sunscreen. I have what is sometimes called a farmer's tan. Since I don't farm, but do raise herbs, flowers and vegetables in a raised bed, my tan would more accurately be called a gardener's tan. By whatever name, it is a sure sign of summer and a testament to the fact that I am spending lots of time outdoors working in the garden.

Yesterday I bought a soaker hose, and decided to use it for the first time today. Soaker hoses are supposed to conserve water by directing the flow into the ground toward the roots of plants. They also help cut down on disease that can spring up when plants are watered from above, which results in disturbing the soil, and splashing soil-borne bacteria and spores onto tomatoes and such. I've had the soaker hose wending through the raised bed for over an hour, and I'm finding it hard to believe that I'm saving water. I am saving on standing outside and holding the hose, but it took lots of effort to get the soaker wound through the “rows” Not exactly a lazy person's way to garden. Furthermore, I'm going to have to move the hose again in a few minutes to reach some dry spots that could not be reached the first time. At least the soaker hose didn't cost very much. It is sorto an experimental piece of equipment. If I don't like it, I can give it to my parents, whose soaker hose mysteriously disappeared.

Speaking of farming (well gardening, really, but I have to segue into the next topic somehow), Kemplog continues to give thorough coverage to the CAFO issue. CAFO is an acronym for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. CAFO's can have thousands of animals in a relatively small area and create huge amounts of waste. CAFO's can have adverse effects on water and air quality. Due to recent changes in Indiana law that make it almost impossible to bring a nuisance complaint against a CAFO, and the current administration's agricultural plan for Indiana, CAFO's are springing up at an alarming rate all over the state. Well, it should be alarming, but the mainstream media is giving little coverage to the issue, other than to announce that such-and-such company is planning to build a multi-thousand-animal operation in some hapless Hoosier county that does not have any environmental or zoning regulations to prevent it. The newspaper coverage I have read is almost always an announcement, followed by some stories about concerned neighbors of the proposed CAFO, and coverage of the inevitable contentious town hall meetings that follow. To my knowledge, and I must admit that I have not done a complete survey of the major Indiana media outlets, our newspapers and television stations are not doing much in the way of investigative reporting about CAFO's. I can pick up the Indianapolis Star and read pro-Daylight Saving Time stories at least once a month. But where is the investigative series about CAFO's, the havoc they have wreaked in other states, and what is likely to happen to Indiana as these factory “farms” proliferate? The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is one of the few mainstream Indiana news sources that is giving more than the usual sparse coverage to CAFO's.

Thomas Kemp of Kemplog is doing a fine job of covering CAFO's and keeping his readers up to date about what is going on around the state. Big Eastern and the WAHM Diary are also keeping tabs on the issue. No matter how thoughtful and articulate any Hoosier blogger may be, few people will pay attention until a CAFO is proposed in their area or until major news outlets cover the issue beyond what they have been doing now. As the law stands now, there is not much that can be done. Please read Indiana Code 32-30-6 to see how it is now the public policy of Indiana to make it virtually impossible to bring a nuisance complaint against a CAFO. Pay particular attention to Section 9(b). How many ordinary Hoosiers are aware that that it is now the policy of the state to prevent nuisance actions against agricultural operations? Section 9(d)(1)(A)makes it is darn clear that changing land use from say a small hog farm to a huge one does is not a "significant change" that could allow the bringing of a nuisance action. In the real world, a farm that goes from raising 200 hogs to 5,000 hogs is a significant change to everyone involved, including the small farmers who sell out to large producers so that children or grandchildren can still afford to work what was once the family farm. Only in the eyes of the law could such a massive increase in production not be a "significant change."

I once had a dream that my husband and I would buy a small plot of land right here in Indiana and have an organic farm. Nothing on a large scale, just sunflowers, zinnias, herbs, tomatoes and other things that we could eat, give away to family and friends and maybe sell at a farmers' market. I've no husband yet, but there is still hope. I've little hope about remaining in Indiana, however. I don't want to live in Indianapolis, and Eastern Daylight Time is the pits. (Whoever heard of the sun coming up after 6:00 a.m. in summer in the midwest?) The spread of CAFO's has killed any hope I had of having a pleasant rural existance in my home state. I will have to leave Indiana to fulfil my dreams.

I sympathize with people who want to keep family farms running and see a CAFO as a solution to their financial problems. But I'd rather see all those children and grandchildren of small farmers find some other way to keep their farms alive. A CAFO is hardly a family farm, no matter who is running it. I hate seeing neighbor being pitted against neighbor because CAFO's are popping up all over rural Indiana. Mostly though, I hate what food production has become. In order to have relatively cheap, abundant food of all sorts (particularly meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs), food production has become an industry almost completely disconnected from our daily experience. Most of us have no idea how a pig is raised, but we gladly wolf down pre-seasoned Hormel pork roast for Sunday dinner. The same goes for most of our other foodstuffs. We still think of farms as charming landscapes with red barns and a few chickens and cows--all surrounded by a corn field. The reality is often far less picturesque. Drive down any highway in these parts and you will often see either dying small farms with decrepit barns and other outbuildings. Soon enough, those depressing landscapes will be replaced with huge, shiny CAFO's and their manure lagoons--assuming the CAFO operator has a manure lagoon anywhere near a public road, that is.