AR-News: (US WI) Editorial: Keep farms functional

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

An editorial
Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen is an able administrator who has 
displayed a far greater concern for the future of farming in Wisconsin than most of 
his recent predecessors. We do not doubt the sincerity of his desire to develop 
a better system for resolving disputes over proposed factory farms. 
But the livestock-siting legislation that Nilsestuen is currently promoting 
is sincerely wrong for Wisconsin. 
The bill Nilsestuen supports, AB 868, supposedly sets basic requirements for 
approving or rejecting the expansion of cattle, dairy, pig, turkey and other 
animal farms. There is certainly a need for regulation of 500-, 1,000-, 2,000-, 
3,000- and 4,000-head industrial farms, which create dramatic environmental 
problems, encourage the spread of animal diseases and depress prices in a 
manner that is guaranteed to drive working farmers out of business. Other 
Midwestern states have enacted controls, and Wisconsin has been embarrassingly slow to 
move on this fundamental issue. 
Unfortunately, AB 868 does not effectively control against the establishment 
of factory farms. Rather, it provides a road map for corporate farming 
interests that want to litter Wisconsin's landscape. As Ruth Simpson, a board member 
of Family Farm Defenders, correctly points out, "The intent of this 
legislation is to increase the number of large-scale factory farms in Wisconsin." 




full story:

http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/editorial/68876.php 







"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing."
Albert Einstein    

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                        >' .' <                                
         There is no justice, just us!  
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