Mt Judea hog factory update

[boba]

Here is a link to a press release by the NPCA, a partner in the coalition fighting the hog farm.

http://www.npca.org/news/media-center/p ... river.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Liz Caldwell]

Bob, thanks for posting and for all the time you are devoting to stay with this issue. It's a huge job and you do it well.

[hollohead]

I guess everyone is tired of this issue, one post, wow. This just angers me, and makes me despise so called leaders who are cowards and borderline criminals. Thank you Bob for keeping up the good fight. Orval Faubus stopped the Corp of Engineers, Mike Beebe can't stop a low level bureaucrat in his own state agency. A national disgrace, and when the chickens come home to roost, this will be Beebe's legacy.

[Half Ton]

And the greatest threat to the BNR continues to be a lack of doing positive things that immediately build friendship, trust, respect,buy in from locals that own and make decisions on the 54% non federal land, and water quality improvement. Not looking at all pollution sources in the watershed or addressing any of them while wasting money on lawyers is poor strategy. Folks that want the buffalo river to be recovered and restored need to form a non-biased, broad based, formal and legitimate watershed organization that can be appreciated, respected, and effective.

Remember, removing the hog farm via current method will not amount to much of an improvement, but instead will further increase the distance between community driven watershed protection which is the single greatest necessary factor needed to protect that river. Expediting community watershed protection interest should be the goal rather than alienating them to the point we can't even get them to say hello or consider doing the long list of activities needed to protect this river within the next 59 years is not sound strategy.

[Prairie Tater]

And here is another reason to oppose this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBSJv3qCiNw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you get a chance to watch the whole Food, Inc. movie, it is very enlightening. I couldn't find the whole intact movie on Youtube, but there are some (or all) of the segments there.

[boba]

Halfton, let me remind you that there is a lot more than a lawsuit going on, and the lawsuit is a lot more than just this hog factory.

The lawsuit is over the lack of proper oversight of the environment. We contend that the the small business administration and the farm services agency are at fault for not doing a proper environmental assessment. Regardless of whether we win or not, the agencies will be on notice that the need to be better at doing due diligence towards the environment where ever they act.

Cargill has already assured us that they will neither expand this factory, nor add any more to the watershed. They also claim to be examining a "zero waste" option for this particular factory. I believe this is doomed to fail on economic grounds but at least we have their attention.

A broader effort is ongoing via third party rule making, seeking a change to regs 5 and 6 which will if adopted disallow any more medium to large hog CAFOs in the watershed.

Further, a robust media campaign is ongoing to let every one know of the risks to the watershed, from this hog factory as well as any other pollution source. Sure we need cooperation from the local community, but keep in mind that is not just our river, this is the nation's river, and if it takes a national campaign, so be it.