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 Home A. J. Bos Factory Farms Jo Daviess County Residents Media Why You Should Oppose This Factory How to Help Donate Money | Factory Farms Why You Should Oppose This Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) The Questions Rural Communities Should Ask About CAFOs By John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri The agribusiness corporations promote CAFOs as a logical rural economic development strategy. In reality, however, the corporations are just looking for some place, any place, where they can dispose of mountains of livestock manure, so they can reap large profits for their stockholders. After several decades, not a single community where CAFOs represent a significant segment of the local economy is looked upon today as a model of economic success or prosperity. CAFOs have consistently failed to bring about significant improvements in unemployment or overall economic well being of local residents. Communities in which CAFOs become prominent typically are unable to attract any other type of economic development. People simply do not want to live and work in a community that other people consider to be "polluted." By virtually every measure, poverty levels rise, not fall, after a community becomes identified as "CAFO friendly." CAFOs destroy the social fabric of rural communities. The right to private property has never included the right to use property in a way that devalues the properties of one's neighbors or diminishes the overall quality of life in the community. CAFOs clearly have the capability of doing both. The stink of a large CAFO not only creates a nuisance for miles around, but also presents significant risks to human health. Many large CAFOs generate more biological waste than do small cities. Rights to farm were never intended to include factory farms. Many rural communities today are being asked to sacrifice the future so a few local investors and outside corporate investors can benefit economically from large-scale, confinement animal feeding operations. Our rural areas are being turned into dumping grounds. more (PDF Format) Property Values Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Proximate Property Values The Appraisal Journal July 2001, Volume LXIX Number 3 By John A. Kilpatrick Property located near a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) will be negatively impacted by this externality. The degree of impairment depends on proximity and property type and use. Properties with higher unimpaired values are probably impacted more than otherwise lower-valued properties. Real estate economics and appraisal practice uniformly recognize that many externalities such as contamination may have a negative impact on property value. While the appraisal profession has only begun to quantify the loss attributable to CAFOs, it is clear from the above case studies that diminished marketability, loss of use and enjoyment, and loss of exclusivity can result in a diminishment ranging from 50% to nearly 90% of otherwise unimpaired value. more (RTF Format) Human Health Issues Iowa Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) Air Quality Study Final Report Iowa State University and The University of Iowa Study Group February 2002 Water-soluble, ammonia is rapidly absorbed in the upper airways, with the result of damaging upper airway epithelia. Moderate concentrations (50-150 ppm) can lead to severe cough and mucous production; higher concentrations (>150 ppm) may cause scarring of the upper and lower airways In addition to pulmonary disease, exposure to ammonia also leads to irritation of the eyes, sinuses, and skin. Hydrogen sulfide is one of the most important of the gases arising from the storage, handling, and decomposition of animal wastes. Smelling like rotten eggs, this gas that is recognized as both an irritant and an asphyxiant, is a prominent component of odorants released from CAFOs. For community exposures, EPA has recommended a reference concentration for long-term exposure of 7 ppb (See Chapter 8.0 for full discussion). Levels as high as 1,000 ppm have been reported (Donham and Gustafson, 1982) following the perturbation of manure lagoons, and levels greater than 100 ppm are considered immediately hazardous to life and health. The air in CAFOs is contaminated with high concentrations of particulates, approximately one quarter of which is protein; about one third of suspended dust is considered respirable ( 10 microns in diameter, PM10). Particles which settle in the upper airways are associated with asthma and bronchitis; smaller particles may be absorbed and have systemic effects including, in studies of urban air pollution, increased rates of cardiac death. In addition to direct inflammatory response to inhaled allergens, dust can also convey inflammatory and/or irritating gases or chemicals (such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, or endotoxin) deeper into the lung, thereby enhancing their toxic effects. An important component of the environment released from CAFOs is microbiologic in origin. Some of the microorganisms that are present in the CAFO environment are human pathogens, creating a potential risk of infection for those exposed to these agents. Exposure to protein antigens derived from plants, animals, and microbes are known to cause a variety of medical problems. Asthma may also be caused or exacerbated by exposure to conditions common in CAFOs. CAFOs contain, among other compounds, high concentrations of grain dust, dust mites, animal dander, pollen grains, molds and fungal spores, and dried fecal particles, each of which may induce or exacerbate asthma. Proximity to CAFOs, and periodic/seasonal agricultural activities (e.g., agriculture chemical and manure applications), are frequently cited by rural asthma patients as exposures resulting in asthma exacerbation making asthma control more difficult. While CAFO odors have long been recognized as a neighborhood nuisance, recent studies have suggested that odiferous exposures emitted from CAFOs may well have adverse health effects They observed that health symptoms have been reported with increasing frequency from low level exposures from manures and biosolids; "the most frequently reported health complaints include eye, nose, and throat irritation, headache, nausea, diarrhea, hoarseness, sore throat, cough, chest tightness, nasal congestion, palpitations, shortness of breath, stress, drowsiness, and alteration in mood". Numerous occupational studies have documented significant increases in respiratory disease and other respiratory adverse health effects, including CAFO-related deaths, acute and chronic respiratory diseases and associated symptoms and acute losses in exposure-related lung function and progressive respiratory impairment, among those who work in CAFOs. However, it is recognized that the CAFO workforce is generally healthy, while those in the general community, including children, the elderly, those with chronic impairments such as pre-existing asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, are expected to be much more susceptible to CAFO exposures. There is experimental and epidemiological evidence that very low levels of exposures to ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, known to be ambient air toxic gases arising from CAFOs, may result in adverse health effects among healthy volunteers and community residents. These findings support a conclusion that CAFO air emissions constitute a public health hazard. Click for more. (PDF Format) Air Pollution September 2007 Senate Testimony by the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA)... on the human health impacts of CAFOs. Threemile Canyon Farms in Oregon, in which A.J. Bos (the California investor behind this project) was a partner, is mentioned on page 3. Air emissions from CAFOs can harm human health and the environment. These harmful emissions include ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and particulate matter, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Human exposure to ammonia triggers respiratory problems, causes nasal and eye irritation and in large enough amounts can be fatal. Ammonia also contributes directly to the formation of PM2.5, which causes severe health effects in humans, including death, heart attacks and increased severity of asthma attacks, as well as visibility impairment. Hydrogen sulfide is a toxic air pollutant that can cause severe health effects, even death, at high concentrations of exposure. Air emissions from CAFOs are, by no means, trivial. In fact, CAFO ammonia emissions represent half the U.S. ammonia emissions inventory. Emissions of ammonia from the largest CAFOs approach and even dwarf those of other industrial facilities. Monitoring of Premium Standard Farms (PSF) conducted by EPA (under a settlement agreement) in 2004 shows that PSF releases 3 million pounds of ammonia annually from barns and lagoons at its Somerset facility, making it the fifth largest industrial emitter of ammonia in the country. Threemile Canyon Farms in Boardman, Oregon, reported that its 52,300-dairy-cow operation emits 15,500 pounds of ammonia per day, totaling more than 5,675,000 pounds per year. That is 75,000 pounds more than the nation's number one manufacturing source of ammonia air pollution CF Industries of Donaldson, Louisiana. Furthermore, CAFOs produce millions of tons of manure each year. According to EPA, CAFOs generate approximately 500 million tons of waste each year, three times more raw waste than is generated yearly by humans in the U.S. Click for more (PDF format) Jo Daviess Tourism According to the Northern Illinois Tourism Development Office, in 2006 tourists spent $157,000,000 dollars in Jo Daviess County, employed 1,720 people with a payroll of $33,720,000, and paid in over $8,000,000 in sales tax. Even a slight decrease in these numbers would more than offset any proposed taxes from this new facility. | |
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