February 19, 2009

WTF - farming in the news

Talk about trying to micromanage those very people who are growing your food. From the Hanover, Pennsylvania Evening Sun:
Farms must control odor
New rules aim to help farms' neighbors

New state odor regulations aimed at keeping the peace between big farms and their neighbors take effect next week.

The rules will force farms known as CAFOs, or concentrated animal feeding operations, to get state approval for an odor-management plan for a new or expanded barn or manure-storage facility. The regulations will not affect existing farm buildings.

The new rules are especially important with increasing sprawl in farm communities, Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff said.

"These new regulations are geared to help minimize conflict be tween those not accustomed to farm odors and the agricultural producers working to meet our increasing world food needs," Wolff said in a news release.
Thank God our county has right-to-farm statutes. These people moving out from the city onto a few acres of land need to know that there will be sounds and smells coming from the farm and come harvest time, the trucks and tractors are working in the field from dawn to dusk. We just finished a long battle with the county planning board -- they wanted to take a nearby community and railroad a bunch of growth there. A developer was wanting to put in about 800 houses and a 40 acre shopping development. The majority of the people who live out here do so because the rural character is something that they treasure so the public meetings on this ruling were well attended and the comments were hot on both sides of the issue. Fortunately, the decision was made to put that area under LAMIRD status (Limited Areas of More Intensive Rural Development) which allows for some development but only in a very small area. This was a major concern to us as this is the last bit of really rural land in the Pacific Northwest. There are large pieces of land closer in to Bellingham but they are working farms. Nothing with the mountain views and the two creeks we have on our property. Posted by DaveH at February 19, 2009 6:28 PM