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Pressure to give in to huge feeding operations
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
2/7/2006 |
If communities are supported in creating their preferred economic development, Do you think they would go for huge "confined animal feeding operations" (a.k.a. CAFOs)?
I was recently visiting with some people in Bonneville County and learned more about a new Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) that Bonneville County apparently rejected recently. So now, just across the county line, there is a lot of pressure to convince Jefferson County to approve it. The operation is located in the Kettle Butte watershed which drains into the Snake River just north of Idaho Falls. The air, of course, flows in many directions.
These CAFOs are not anything like the farms and ranches that built our communities in Idaho.
It must be frustrating for people in Jefferson County to see lots of other kinds of new development in Bonneville County to the south and Madison County to the north. I am glad to hear folks throughout the upper Snake River region are working together to say this is not the kind of development that will encourage other new investment. In fact, as they have learned from communities that have allowed CAFOs, this kind of development has driven away business.
Has Congress washed its hands of any responsibility to help communities like Jefferson County? There is some talk in the Idaho Legislature to help people in places like Jefferson County, but will Congress back them up if they do? Of course, this is an election year, so I would not be surprised to find campaign contributions from this industry flowing generously.
I've had some good conversations with people from all over eastern and southern Idaho who are familiar with this kind of development. Is anyone ready to start a forum topic on this? Lets bringing this out into the open so our neighbors in Jefferson and Bonneville counties will not feel as alone and isolated. We share common values about what our communities should be like and what kind of development will help us get there.
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