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Thursday, February 14, 2002
About Face on Factory Farms
After dozens of catastrophic and chronic manure spills into Michigan waterways in recent years, the state Department of Environmental Quality has decided it no longer will treat large livestock factories — which concentrate thousands of animals and millions of gallons of manure in one place — like small-scale farms.
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Thursday, March 01, 2001
Country Conflict
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.
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Tuesday, August 01, 2000
Big Stink
Michigan allows livestock factories to police themselves, and forces local people to pay the price of accidents that are bound to happen. Most disturbing is that this kind of regulatory negligence is part of a widening pattern across the state.
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Tuesday, August 01, 2000
TakeAction
Last November the Institute, along with the Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Michigan Environmental Council, petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw Michigan's authority to administer the Clean Water Act for agriculture operations. The reasons include failure to issue permits as required by law, and the inappropriate transfer of the Department of Environmental Quality's Clean Water Act responsibilities to the Department of Agriculture.
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Monday, May 01, 2000
Clean Water Requires Same Regulation As Clean Money
Here's a political quiz: Name the federal regulatory agency that businesses fear most. Hint: It's not the Environmental Protection Agency. No, the strictest, most inflexible federal regulatory body is arguably the no-nonsense protector of investors' money, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Wednesday, March 01, 2000
Local Control: Best Discipline for Big Business, Big Government
A newspaper reporter asked me a good question last winter. We were watching from the balcony above the House of Representatives as lawmakers passed Senate Bill 205, a law that strips local governments of their power to regulate agriculture. The reporter said he didn't understand the Institute's opposition to S.B. 205: "Doesn't it give agriculture the kind of consistent state rules that you want for controlling sprawl?" he asked.
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Friday, December 10, 1999
State Attacks Local Government to Make Way for Mega Manure
When people in Michigan think of industrial pollution they think of smokestacks, not million-gallon pools of bubbling hog manure that reek for miles. And when they think of public health and water quality, they picture regulators on the job of making sure factories don’t pollute.
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Tuesday, December 07, 1999
Michigan Tax Tribunal Recognizes Hog Factory Stench
Rural residents of Mecosta County have argued for two years that massive hog operations, which moved to the Barryton area in 1997, are infringing on their right to enjoy their private property. Sickening odors from a 6-million gallon pit of hog manure and urine, for example, invade the home of Barryton's Mitch and Irene Gibbons three to four times a week.
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Thursday, November 25, 1999
Legislature Takes Local Zoning Out of Agriculture
It was a long night in Lansing Wednesday, Dec. 8, for all sides involved in the debate over Senate Bill 205, legislation that prohibits communities from enacting zoning ordinances related to agriculture. The House of Representatives approved the bill at 5:15 a.m. Thursday, the last day of session in 1999. But this did not happen without a lot of sweat on the part of the Michigan Farm Bureau and the Department of Agriculture. These organizations supported the bill over the opposition of hundreds of rural residents, local government officials, and the organizing efforts of the Michigan Land Use Institute, Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan Farmers Union, League of Women Voters of Michigan, Sierra Club-Mackinac Chapter, and the Michigan Townships Association.
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Saturday, May 01, 1999
Modern Agriculture 101: Corporate Power Grab
Why is it so difficult to find locally grown cherries in northern Michigan supermarkets, or a Key lime in Key West, Florida? Strangely, in a country founded on free market principles, it's nearly impossible today for farmers with quality products to make it into the superstore nearest you.
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Saturday, May 01, 1999
Global Food Game: Squeeze Farmers, Corner Consumers, Pocket Dough
Control, not competition, is the ruling business principle today as cartels of related companies undercut independent producers in every market from genetic stock to grocery shelf.
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Thursday, February 11, 1999
Oversight of Livestock Industry Fails Farmers, Environment
BENZONIA — A three-month investigation of a state Agriculture Department program to prevent pollution from large livestock operations reveals a clear pattern of water contamination, harm to natural resources and official neglect. The investigation by the Michigan Land Use Institute found the Department of Agriculture allows pollution problems to persist, fecal contamination to spread, and puts farmers unnecessarily at risk of fines and lawsuits for environmental damage.
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Saturday, February 06, 1999
Part I: Oversight of Livestock Industry Fails Farmers, Environment
Michigan has one of the largest and most diverse agriculture economies in the country, producing $4 billion in products that generate $40 billion worth of economic activity. The Michigan Department of Agriculture is responsible for promoting agriculture industries, helping producers improve their practices and natural resources, and preventing any pollution that might result from food production.
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Saturday, February 06, 1999
Part I: Oversight of Livestock Industry Fails Farmers, Environment
In 1997, for example, a 3,000-cow dairy with sites in Kentand Barry counties was responsible for five spills intocoldwater trout streams. The spills came after at least six years of MDA closing complaints when the producershowed superficial compliance with the voluntaryguidelines, or took some action to "abate" a specificcomplaint but none to solve the basic problem.
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Saturday, February 06, 1999
Case-by-Case Review: Michigan Department of Agriculture’s Right-to-Farm Complaint Response Program
The Michigan Land Use Institute reviewed 40 cases related to the Michigan Department of Agriculture’s Right-to-Farm Complaint Response Program.
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Saturday, February 06, 1999
Case-By-Case Review: Michigan Department of Agriculture's Right-to-Farm Response Program
Since 1992, MDA and then-MDNR advise producer to make certain changes but never follow through.
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Saturday, February 06, 1999
Case-by-Case Review: Michigan Department of Agriculture's Right-to-Farm Complaint Response System
letter on 11/13/95 to MDA indicate concerns for water quality: "...There appears to be very little land area available to irrigate the manure. I am deeply concerned about the potential of both groundwater and surface water degradation...."
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