Country Conflict
Neighbors and Factory Farmers Feud Over Fence Lines
RESIDENTIAL SIDE OF THE ROAD
Dave Maturen fought against state legislation that last year stopped local
governments from ordering livestock factories to keep some distance between
their mega operations and neighboring homes. As a Brady Township trustee
from Kalamazoo County, he defended his own local ordinance, which limits
the number of animals a farmer can keep within half a mile of a residentially
zoned area. The Legislature, however, passed Senate Bill 205. Now local
governments must follow state guidelines, which allow livestock factories
with tens of thousands of hogs to set up as close as 600 feet, less than
one-tenth of a mile, from neighboring properties.
AGRIBUSINESS SIDE OF THE ROAD
Rob Richardson testified for Senate Bill 205, which last year replaced
local odor ordinances with less stringent state guidelines. He started
pushing for S.B. 205 after Brady Township cited Richardson Farms in 1998
for keeping 3,500 hogs — twice the allowable number — near residentially
zoned properties. Mr. Richardson sued Brady Township, arguing that it
should count his hogs, which are baby pigs, as fractions of whole hogs.
Federal circuit court judges backed Brady Township, ruling that the township
has every right to treat all pigs the same, no matter their size, in that
odor-sensitive zone between farmland and neighborhoods. S.B. 205, however,
took away the township’s right to pass odor ordinances for livestock
factories.
If you put Dave
Maturen and Rob Richardson in a room together, you would get a good snapshot
of how thousands of neighbors in rural Michigan are becoming enemies over
a new industrial revolution that’s turning barnyards into animal
factories.
On the agribusiness side of the road, farmers say the odor from thousands
of hogs or cows in their new high-tech barns is just part of living in
the country. On the residential side, neighbors say the industrial-strength
odor and manure operations should stay back from their children, their
backyards, and their rivers.
A debate is raging across Michigan over one side’s right to a livelihood
and the other side’s right to sit outside in the summer without getting
nauseous. Dave Maturen and Rob Richardson, long-time residents of Kalamazoo
County’s Brady Township, are two prominent, opposing voices in that
debate.
Straight Talk
The Great Lakes Bulletin did not put Mr. Maturen and Mr. Richardson
in a room together. But we did ask them some questions about modern farmers,
rural neighbors, and what state government is —— or is not —
doing to help the two live in peace. Here's what they had to say.
GLB: What is it about agriculture today
that's pitting families who have lived on the same land for generations
against each other?
Maturen: The media and the Legislature have to quit talking about
this issue in terms of little red barns. We're talking 3,000 cows, 10,000
hogs. This is factory farming. ...I think most people can put up with
a mild amount of nuisance for a short duration, but when it's all the
time and they can't go outside on their porch, that's another matter.
Richardson: I don't find the term 'factory farm' offensive. A factory
is where you produce something efficiently.
Are people at risk, if they're living in an agricultural zone, to the
changing methods of agriculture? I would say yes, yes they are. Residents
should not be allowed in an agricultural zone, or allowed only with a
special use exemption.
GLB: The debate, then, is how to separate
livestock factories and residences, and who decides. Senate Bill 205 took
this out of local governments' hands and gave it to the Michigan Department
of Agriculture. Will MDA's voluntary guidelines work?
Richardson: S.B. 205. That saved my farm. ...I'm happy with the state
taking that (oversight) role. They have good judgement. Local government
— these township boards — don't have the background. They're
too emotional.
Maturen: Right to Farm implies farmers have rights and nobody else
does. But the nuisance concept — that it's wrong to harm other people
with things like excessive noise or odor — came over on the Mayflower.
It certainly preceded the Michigan Right to Farm Act.
The MDA has had its chance to show it can use these guidelines responsibly.
They just haven't done it. ...It's a sham when the state can take away
my rule-making power and has no credibility itself.
GLB: The Michigan Auditor General last
fall found that the agriculture department closed 71 percent of odor complaints
it received as unverified even though agriculture inspectors arrived at
farms as late as 23 days (11 days on average) after neighbors made complaints.
Richardson: I think there have been improvements now. You've got to
have some way of definitively measuring odor. I understand that's the
challenge MDA had carrying out an odor complaint.
Maturen: Is odor based on perception? Yes. They say you can't tell,
so they say ''let's have no rules at all.'
We need firm, enforceable rules: 'Thou shalt not put a feedlot next to
a drain that leads to a creek.' That's common sense. You don't have to
be the Environmental Protection Agency to figure that out.
GLB: What do we do about the fact that
there will always be some operators who will a) thumb their noses at voluntary
rules or b) ignore the guidance until they end up making a big mistake?
A large Ottawa County dairy, for example, contaminated a local creek last
winter after it applied 50,000 gallons of manure to a frozen field, a
practice other northern states prohibit.
Richardson: Unfortunately all the rules and regulations are always
made for the minority. I think most responsible farmers want to do it
right. But when you talk mandatory, I bristle. I bristle real good.
Maturen: Not everybody abuses the voluntary rules. But some do. There
has to be a remedy. Right now there isn't. And the good guys shouldn't
have a problem with it.
GLB: Both of you live downstream from
Michigana Farms, a 2,000-head dairy that last year contaminated the Portage
River so badly, according to a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
investigation, that Kalamazoo County officials had to close the river
and nearby Dorrance Creek to public use. DEQ field staff were unable to
take legal action beforehand because Michigan's policy is to rely on the
farmer to handle manure safely. Why can't Michigan regulate livestock
factories like it does other factories?
Richardson: It's distressing the attention given to Michigana Farms
because there are a lot of good producers out there. ...Peer review doesn't
work. I've tried it with [Michigana Farms].
Michigan Farm Bureau policy is 'no permits for farmers. 'But I think that
could change. ...I'm more supportive of the Michigan Agricultural Environmental
Assurance Program [proposed voluntary certification process]. Farm Bureau
and state agencies should be out knocking on the doors of farms that have
had problems telling them to be the first to sign up.
Maturen: Will this MAEAP voluntary certification program have any
teeth? Will it have the force of law to protect neighbors? ...Guidelines
are okay, but they're not enough. I belong to a professional association
with a code of ethics. But I can't practice without a license. 
CONTACTS: Rob Richardson, 616-649-1566; David Maturen, 616-342-4800; Steve Jann, EPA Region 5, 312-886-2446.
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