| Commentary by Jeff Harris (D-23), Minority Floor Leader
Today I filed legislation to give rural communities greater power to limit the development of concentrated animal feeding operations near their property. This is my latest effort to give Missouri's rural communities a voice in the expansion of corporate farming.
It currently is up to folks in Jefferson City to decide whether a CAFO will be allowed to move in next door your home. This legislation will give the people forced to live with the smell, pollution and waste caused by a nearby CAFO a powerful voice in the licensing process.
The bill would allow local residents to use the initiative petition process to put approval of a proposed CAFO to a public vote. Current law only requires notification of those living within 4,500 feet of the proposed site and doesn't require the Department of Natural Resources to take local opposition into account when reviewing a permit application.
CAFOs can lead to increased illness in those who live nearby, especially children. Additionally, CAFOs ruin the property values of those who find themselves living next to one. Missouri must give local residents some of the power to decide where these corporate livestock factories are going to be allowed.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a moderate size CAFO can produce as much solid waste as 16,000 people. This waste is collected in lagoons near the facilities and sometimes sprayed over acres of crops. Pollution becomes a problem when these lagoons leak into water sources or when dispersed waste runs off of fields into neighboring property. Of the 105,000 farms in Missouri, 99.5 percent don't fall under CAFO regulations. The current CAFO licensing process fails to protect Missouri's rural residents. At present, a CAFO with 17,499 hogs is allowed within 3,000 feet of a neighboring family's home.
Others agree with the need for passage of the bill.
"This legislation is a good step toward ensuring local control and democracy for our communities," was the comment of Rhonda Perry, a livestock and grain farmer from Howard County and program director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. "It only makes sense to provide family farmers and rural property owners a course of action by which to defend their property rights and the health of their families and communities."
Last year I sponsored HB 909, which would have prohibited CAFOs near state parks and historic sites. DNR has since approved a CAFO near the Arrow Rock State Historic Site despite intense opposition from local residents. Go Back | 
